The Final Rule (31 page)

“You really don’t think it would make a difference?” Ellis said.

“I’d like to believe it would, but people are funny. They see what they want to see and not what’s really there. I just hope we’re not making the same mistake.”

“What do you mean?”

“We killed
The Big and Terrible
, but the world hasn’t changed. There are still bad things happening and bad people making them happen.”

Ellis wove their fingers together. “Evil is an infection.”

“So?”

“Infections take time to heal. There are symptoms, then there is the fever, after the fever things get better. Slowly sometimes, especially if you’ve been really sick.”

“And sometimes you don’t get better at all.” Jon sighed. “I hope this wasn’t for nothing.”

“It’s gone.”

“Is it? Really? That grain of evil is still there. I can feel it, Ellis. Even when I don’t want to.”

“But can it control you anymore?”

Jon’s eyebrows came together.

Ellis reached back, pulled him down, and left a kiss on his cheek. “Well?”

“No.”

“Because
The Big and Terrible
is dead and there’s nothing left to exploit that dark grain. Remember what Rudy said about how in the presence of
The Big and Terrible,
the darkness can only grow. Now people have the power not to cause harm because it won’t be here to make them.”

“What if they want to?” Jon sighed against Ellis’s temple. “What if they just want to terrible things?”

“Some will, but even they’ll have a chance to choose. Before, if it found them, they were helpless.”

“So that’s the change. That’s the big thing people died for.”

“It’s a pretty big thing.” Ellis turned so he could look Jon in the eye. “We’ve given people a chance to heal. To change. To choose to love instead of hate. We might not have saved the world, but we’ve given the world a chance to save itself.”

“You sound awfully sure.”

“I am. It’s the final rule: We choose our fate.”

“I thought Rudy was all out of rules.”

“That’s not Rudy’s rule. It’s mine, yours, and everyone else’s.”

Overhead, a seagull cried out, the sky brightened, and the sun spilled across the water. All of it beautiful but none as rare and precious as what Ellis felt for Jon.

And what Jon felt for Ellis.