Chapter 20 The Sacrifice

Cole Mason - POV

Emma's finger trembles over the dimensional control, and through our psychic bond I feel her agony like shards of glass grinding against my soul. She's going to choose one of us. We all know it. And we all know it should be me.

I step forward, each movement deliberate despite the electricity crackling around her energy sphere. "Don't."

Her eyes—those terrible swirling depths that hold every possibility—lock onto mine. "Cole, I have to. The network needs an anchor or—"

"Choose me." The words come out flat, final. No room for argument.

Ryan moves closer to his monitoring station, medical readings making his jaw clench. "Cole, you don't understand what multiversal awareness would do to someone with your... condition."

My condition. My blackouts. The times I wake up with blood under my fingernails and problems solved in ways I never remember solving them.

"I understand perfectly." I press my palm against the energy barrier, feeling it burn through skin I can't really feel. "Emma said I'd experience every act of violence across infinite realities. That I'd lose whatever gentleness I have left."

Blake's psychological training kicks in, reading the subtext I'm not saying. "You think you deserve it."

Not think. Know.

"I've already killed people," I say simply. "Can't remember their faces, can't remember their names, but I know they're dead because of me. At least this way, the violence serves a purpose."

Emma shakes her head, tears cutting tracks down her cheeks. "Your gentleness is real, Cole. It's what makes you—"

"What makes me what? A monster who pretends to be human?" The words scrape my throat raw. "You've seen what I become in the blackouts. We all have."

Through our bond, I feel her accessing memories I wish she couldn't see. My hands around a rival society member's throat. My body moving with practiced efficiency while my conscious mind slept. The cleanup afterward, the way the others look at me when they think I'm not paying attention.

"That's not who you are," she whispers.

But instead of reaching for the controls, she pulls her hand back. The monitors scream warnings as her neural pathways approach complete overload.

"I won't sacrifice any of you," she announces with devastating finality. "I'll bear the omniscience. Find a way to handle it without breaking."

The medical readings spike into dangerous territory. Ryan's face goes white. "Emma, your brain can't sustain this level of multiversal input. The neural damage is already irreversible in some areas."

"Better than destroying you." Her voice cracks with the weight of infinite knowledge pressing against her skull.

That's when I understand. Emma isn't just refusing to choose—she's choosing to die rather than hurt any of us. The same self-sacrificial instinct that made her agree to the binding ritual, the same drive that made her fight Kane instead of running.

And I can't let her.

I slam my fist against the energy barrier.

The electricity tears through my nervous system, but pain has never worked right in my body. What I feel instead is the psychic feedback—Emma's consciousness suddenly accessible, her omniscience bleeding into my mind like acid through paper.

"Cole, stop!" she screams.

But I'm already forcing my way deeper into the connection, using every ounce of will to create a bridge between our minds. If she won't choose, I'll make the choice for her.

The multiversal awareness hits me like a sledgehammer made of pure possibility.

I see myself across infinite realities. Versions where the blackouts never stop, where I become nothing but efficient brutality. Realities where I never learned to care about anything except eliminating threats. Dimensions where my protective instincts twisted into possessive hunger that devours everything I touch.

But I also see the other possibilities. Realities where Emma lives because someone was willing to bear the weight of impossible choices. Versions where she stays human because someone else became the monster.

"You can't force this," Emma says, but I feel her wavering through our enhanced connection.

I push deeper into the psychic bridge, accepting more of the omniscience flowing between us. Every act of violence across unlimited dimensions crashes into my consciousness—fists and blades and bullets and worse things, infinite ways to hurt and break and kill.

But something's wrong.

Instead of transferring from Emma to me, the multiversal awareness expands. Connects us both to the infinite web of possibility in ways that defy every rule we thought we understood.

The monitoring equipment explodes in showers of sparks as the dimensional network tries to accommodate two anchored consciousness existing simultaneously.

Through our enhanced bond, I feel Emma's horror at what I've done. Not just to myself—to both of us.

"Cole," she whispers, and her voice carries the weight of every possible future pressing against our shared awareness. "Why?"

"Because you were going to die rather than choose." My voice sounds steady despite the cosmic agony burning through my skull. "And I couldn't watch that happen."

But as the psychic bridge stabilizes and the full impact of shared omniscience settles over us both, I realize what I've actually accomplished.

I haven't saved Emma from the burden of infinite knowledge.

I've trapped us both inside it.

Together.

Forever.