Eureka thought back to her last game of Never-Ever, played lifetimes ago on the bayou, when Atlas had used Brooks to hurt her, and she knew what she would do.
“We never see betrayal coming from the ones we love most,” she said, and pretended not to see Ander shiver. She reached for one of the gossipwitch pipes, twirled it between her fingers. “But how do I possess him?”
Ovid pointed at Ander. “Ask him.”
“No,” Ander said. “I won’t do it.”
“You came here to help me,” Eureka said. “What does Solon mean?”
“You die in this plan. If you go into Atlas’s body, there will be no way out.”
“Don’t die, Eureka,” William whimpered, and climbed into her lap.
She rocked her brother wordlessly and glared over his head at Ander.
“There has to be another way,” Ander said. “I’ll go with you. We’ll fight Atlas and Delphine together.” He gestured at Ovid. “We’ll use their weapon against them.”
“They have eight more machines just like Ovid, filled with millions of ghosts,” Eureka said. “It wouldn’t even be a fight.”
“You underestimate me,” Ovid said, in a voice Eureka couldn’t identify.
“You already tried to kill yourself once,” Ander said. “I won’t let you quit again.”
“I don’t belong in the world I have to save,” Eureka said. “This is the only way.”
Ander shook his head. “I meant it when I said I won’t live in a world without you,” he said. “Eureka, don’t you—”
Don’t you love me? She knew that was what he wanted to say. She took his hand. “If you weren’t a sun and I weren’t a black hole, I would.”
Ander’s eyes were damp. She had never seen him cry before. When he turned away, Eureka was relieved. She was consumed by what she had to do, by the thrill of her discovery about Atlas. She thought of Delphine, more in love with her dark powers than she could ever be with another soul. Maybe they had more in common than Eureka realized.
She felt pressure in the palm of her hand. When she looked down, Ander was pressing the coral arrowhead, the tool Atlas used to enter his possessions, into her palm. It was stained with Ander’s blood.
She rested her forehead on Ander’s chest. They stayed like that for a moment. The throb of his heartbeat made Eureka’s own heart race. Her breath picked up and stabbed her broken ribs. She pulled away. She gazed into his eyes and wanted to ask what he would do after she left, so that she could carry an image of him being okay in her mind. But that was selfish, and there was no answer, because everything anyone might do after Eureka left this cave depended on whether she succeeded or failed.
“Thank you,” she said instead.
Ander shrugged. “It’s not like I wanted it as a souvenir.”
“I mean thank you, for everything.”
Ander answered by sweeping his arm around her. He was careful of her ribs as he lifted her off her feet and brought her lips to his. They were locked in a deep kiss before Eureka could pretend she didn’t want it. She drank him in—
And felt his joy. It came at her in a deep, profound rush, rejuvenating her soul the way the Crimson Devils’ pain had crippled her. She followed Ander’s lips around past moments of his brightest happiness.
Within their kiss Eureka saw herself as Ander had seen her: Through the dirty windows of her favorite diner in Lafayette, the Pancake Barn, whirling whipped cream clouds onto a short stack. Jogging along the bayou behind her house, her green cross-country sweatshirt flashing in and out of view among the trunks of oak trees. At the mall with Cat, doubled over with laughter as they tried on a store’s most hideous prom dresses. On the brink of tears on the dirt road after Ander rear-ended her. Her teardrop on his fingertip. His breath against her cheek. There now, no more tears.
This was Ander’s happiness. All of it was her. Eureka’s heart burned with the urge to stay forever, and forever run away.