Elena POV
"It's coming apart," Tiffany said, disbelief cutting through her exhaustion. "You're actually doing it."
"I'm not doing anything," I said. "I'm just not stopping it anymore."
Each voice that separated from the mass hung in the air for a moment before it dissolved quietly. Not destroyed, more like finally exhaling after holding its breath for twenty-five years.
Maria, one whispered, fading. My name was Maria.
Tell someone I was here, another said. That's all I wanted. For someone to know I was here.
"I hear you," I said, to all of them, to none of them specifically. "I hear you."
Quinn had gone very still, watching his life's work unmake itself one fragment at a time. "You're not destroying it."
"No."
"You're just letting it leave."
"Yes." I turned to look at him. "That's the part you never understood. You thought control was the only alternative to chaos. It isn't. There's a third option. You just have to be willing to lose the thing you built to get it."
