Semele stepped inside and let her eyes adjust to the darkness. The boarded-up windows allowed in little light. She moved through a hallway filled with cobwebs and dust. Cracks riddled the walls like veins.
“Apropos. Don’t you think?” Viktor’s voice rang out from a room up ahead. “Nettie’s sanctuary for years. The place where she tried to forget. The place where you must remember.”
Semele walked toward the voice, leaving Theo to follow behind.
She found Viktor Salko in what could only have been the library, though its bookshelves were now empty. He sat on the far side of the room in a high-back chair, like a king at court waiting for an audience. An oxygen tank stood next to him and a mask covered his mouth. He had thinning hair, and a pained expression dulled the hawkish lines of his face; he wore an ivory suit with a matching shirt and tie, as though he were dressed for a wedding … or a funeral.
Her eyes landed on her mother.
Helen was gagged and strapped to a chair twenty feet away. Wires had been hooked up all over her body and led to a strange contraption at the center of her chest. Semele had no idea what she was looking at.
Her mother’s eyes watered when she saw her, and she tried to call out through the gag. The sound brought Semele out of her stupor and she took a step forward.
“That is close enough,” Viktor ordered in a sharp voice. He had taken off his oxygen mask. “Stand still and let me look at you.”
Semele glared at him, her body emanating cold hatred.
“I’m quite impressed you made it in time. It seems my experiment worked.” He laughed in relief. “I really wasn’t sure it would.”
“Why are you doing this?” she demanded, her voice unsteady.
He answered her question with a question. “What battles intuition? The haze of doubt, the fog of the mind. You have been in a fog all your life. Now it is time to step out of it if you want to live.”
Semele’s body quivered. Every atom within her vibrated with fear and anger.
“Your grandmother hid you away, and your intuition was buried with the help of a workaholic father and an alcoholic mother. I’ve been attempting to liberate you. It’s been very difficult.”
“We know who you are.” Theo spoke up, his voice strong.
“Do you really?” Viktor gave him a condescending smile. “My father was a brilliant man. But he was also cold, with no understanding of life or the human heart. I understood why Nettie and Liliya ran away. My father spent years trying to find them.”
He turned to Semele. “For him, Nettie was the key to unlocking a future world. He never stopped looking for her. I used to dream that I too would meet her someday. I so wanted to.”
Viktor drew from his oxygen. “You see, you belong to that rarest group of observers—the truest of seers—who can take the full measure of life, filled with all its infinite probabilities, and see the future that has been set forth. Just look at Ionna’s manuscript. She didn’t write to Nettie. She wrote to you—she singled you out because you are next in line. Her heir. Your sight, your ability has even greater potential than your grandmother’s.”
Semele shook her head in denial.
Viktor’s gaze shifted to Theo. “Tell me, did you inherit Liliya’s gift?”
Theo didn’t answer, but his eyes hardened.
Semele looked to Theo in surprise. She had never considered that he might possess Liliya’s ability.
Viktor chuckled. “It is no matter to me if you can see through walls.” His eyes searched Semele’s again. “Nothing in the world is more powerful than time. It is the only thing that controls us, until we can grasp how to break free.” His next words made her freeze in terror. “There is a device strapped to your mother, and the countdown has begun. I will leave it up to you to free her. Me, I am happy to watch. My greatest triumph would be to see you become your ultimate self or to die trying.”
“You’re crazy,” she whispered.
“Am I?” Viktor shrugged. “I’ve gotten you this far, dear girl, when no one else could.” He held up Ionna’s cards and the manuscript. “Are you really going to let her down?”
Semele instinctively took a step toward him.
“For the first time since Elisa died so tragically in Gundeshapur, the cards, the manuscript, and the heir are all united. It has taken a long time for this day to come. If it wasn’t for me, Ionna’s legacy would have been kept hidden by both of your fathers, and you would continue to forget who you are.”
Semele found her voice and hated how weepy she sounded. “Why are you doing this? What do you want from me?”
“Your best self.” He motioned to her mother. “You have the power to save her.”
“I don’t … I can’t.…”
“Yes, you can!” he erupted. “Do you know there are premonition bureaus around the world where people send letters filled with visions of the future?” He waved his arms like a conductor. “Do you know how many letters arrived before the Titanic? Before Kennedy was assassinated? Human consciousness knows. The mind can travel time. You have no idea how many others with the sight are out there. But you have the power to write more than a mere letter.” He took a long breath from his oxygen tank and gestured to her, indicating that she could approach her mother. “Now prove me right.”
Semele couldn’t move. She shook her head, unable to understand what she was supposed to do.
“Go on,” he said, his voice muffled behind the mask. “The bomb will explode soon. At least say your good-byes.”
His words galvanized her. Semele rushed to her mother and knelt at her feet. The contraption looked even more alarming up close. “There are too many wires!”
“And not many minutes to spare,” Viktor taunted. “Get to it.”
The timer strapped to Helen’s chest ticked as the seconds moved forward in a relentless march. They had less than fifteen minutes.
Tears ran down Helen’s face as she whimpered behind the gag.
“There’s a pair of wire cutters under the chair,” Viktor called out. “Cutting one of them will disarm it, or so I’ve been assured by the Russian gentleman I paid an exorbitant sum to assemble it.”
Semele found the wire cutters beneath her mother’s legs. “This is insane! I have no idea what to do!”
“Because you’re still trying to live in the moment instead of looking beyond it. Effect can precede cause. So the question is, do you survive this test or not? Do you live or not? The answer is quite simple. Don’t think! Use your ability.”
Semele’s pulse skyrocketed. Her heart hammered in her chest so hard she thought it might give out. She was sure she was going to hyperventilate. She watched the counter tick down.…
13:46 … 13:45 … 13:44 …
“Oh my God, oh my God…” Free-falling into panic, she surrendered completely to its grip. All rational thought abandoned her.
She was about to die.
“Semele!” Theo’s voice sounded dim, far away, and beyond her reach.
“I can’t.” She could barely hold the wire cutters, her hands were shaking so hard.
The timer continued: 12:59 … 12:58 … 12:57 …
“Yes, you can. I know you can,” he said with utter conviction.
She stared at the tangle of colored wires. There were at least thirty.
With an anguished yelp, she cut the white one.
The device beeped, stopped, and then continued its countdown.
12:00 … 11:59 … 11:58 …
Viktor let out a strange, childlike giggle. “Oh my, that was a misstep. Please don’t do that again.”
The minutes belonged to him.
He’s not afraid because he’s already dying.
10:40 … 10:39 … 10:38 … 10:37 …
The first thought came to her swiftly, followed by the answers. Viktor had lured her to Kairos years ago to keep her under his watchful eye. But then he had found out he had terminal cancer last year. Detected long after the jaundice set in, it had already spread from his pancreas. His impending death made him accelerate his plans. He sent Raina to New York to have a tighter grip on Mikhail. Then he put his final experiment into play. He even— She stopped.
“My God,” she whispered. “You killed Marcel too.” Theo’s breath caught. She closed her eyes, and as if her mind was a camera, a shutter clicked and opened up the past. Images of Viktor’s life flowed through her like an electric current.
“How fascinating.” Viktor leaned forward, understanding written on his face. “You can see the past as well? Well, well, this is a surprise.”
Semele could only stare at him, her mind convulsing with what she now knew. “You’re Nettie’s…” She couldn’t say the words, couldn’t vocalize what she had seen.
“Her son?” His voice rang out in the room. “Yes. Very good.” Viktor clapped. “Very good! Brava! This is so much more than what I had hoped for. You have retrocognition as well.”
Semele didn’t understand what that meant. She only knew what she saw.
“You are correct,” he said. “Nettie was my mother. A part of my father’s great experiment. He impregnated her in the hope that his child would inherit her abilities.”
Semele closed her eyes, revolted, unable to look at him.
Viktor drew on the oxygen again and coughed. “Much to my father’s disappointment, it turned out that Nettie’s gift was carried by the X chromosome. I could never have what you have. My inability infuriated him and he despised me.” He shook his head sadly. “My father died an old man with so much rage he didn’t know where to put it.”
Semele tried to process what she had seen of Viktor’s life. In the Soviet Union, when Stalin died, paranormal studies came into the mainstream once more and research institutes cropped up all over the country. Viktor worked at an institution in Leningrad, funded by the arm of the Kremlin, studying everything from mind control and electromagnetism to telepathy and ESP. Like his father, Viktor believed reality could be controlled by psi energy. Before perestroika and the dissolution of the USSR, Viktor led some of the most ambitious psychic warfare experiments ever conducted—experiments that were still ongoing. The USSR may have dissolved, but the institutions had not. Like the race to put a man on the moon, Russian scientists were working toward being the first to control psi energy, and Viktor was at the helm. He even married a Russian medium, Natalia Burinko, to try and harness her power.
“Raina,” Semele muttered, still in shock.
“My daughter. Your cousin.” Viktor nodded.
5:49 … 5:48 … 5:47 …
He gave her a smile. “She doesn’t know about you. I withheld my knowledge of your existence and the parameters for this experiment—even from my colleagues—in case I failed. My daughter only knew there was a very special manuscript I needed for one last study before I retire. She was most upset with me over your friend’s death.” He waved his hand in the air as if it was not a concern. “You can console each other when I take you to Moscow. I’m afraid there is laboratory work to be done—but first we must survive today.”
He motioned to her mother. “I’ve never risked my life for my work. But what is that silly American saying of yours? ‘Go big or go home’? Now you have five minutes to live.”
Semele looked at the timer, unable to focus. She knelt down, spreading her hands on the ground in defeat.
Theo took several steps forward, trying to reason with Viktor. “You don’t have to be like your father. Let us go.”
“You know I can’t do that, Theo.” Viktor wagged a finger at him. “We must make sense of her power. Harness and control it. Nettie was my father’s legacy never fulfilled because the war stood in his way. Semele will be mine.”
Viktor paused to draw from his oxygen.
“Through her”—he gestured to Semele—“we can learn how the sixth sense functions on the quantum level. We can decipher time, and then one day transcend it—imagine that.” He closed his eyes in exhaustion.
Theo saw his chance and hurried to kneel beside Semele, raising her up. “Semele. Look at me.” He held her face in his hands. “You can do this. Focus on my voice.”
“I’m sorry,” she whispered, blinded by tears. “Go. Don’t stay here.”
“I’m not going anywhere. Nettie believed in you. Ionna believed in you. I believe in you. Look at me, dammit!”
She raised her head and tried to focus on him.
“Now breathe with me,” he ordered her, taking deep breaths and forcing her to do the same. He was willing all his strength to her with every breath he took.
She stared into his eyes and saw within them the light of his unshakable belief. She breathed with him, feeling their bodies become in sync, their spirits join.
In a single inhale she saw the broad expanse of their lives—the years, the love, the joy. She saw their children. Those seeds were already planted in their future, already growing. A sense of wonder filled her. Like a key in a lock, the vision freed her. Her mind tunneled further until she was no longer in the room.
She entered a new dimension where the past and future stretched in every direction, a vast constellation of knowledge where every moment in time became one. Ionna had known she would break through. She had foretold it in the pages. Theo had read them, and he had drawn on Ionna’s faith to help her get there. Semele could feel Ionna with her, their minds now connected beyond space and time. Ionna had been tasked by Wadjet to be the bridge, to connect her to a deeper antiquity. Semele saw the lives of her ancestors as clearly as Ionna had. Together they formed an unbroken chain leading her to where the Oracle of Wadjet stood waiting—her first grandmother—the world’s first seer and keeper of the record. Her written words had been destroyed by time, but they still lived on in her descendents, and they always would. Wadjet’s power would be carried on forever.
Semele’s awareness returned to the room.
0:20 … 0:19 … 0:18 … 0:17 …
She took the cutters and cut the wire.
The clock stopped.
Theo grabbed Semele and squeezed her tight. “You did it.” There were tears in his eyes as they held each other.
Viktor applauded and let out a chilling laugh. “And so they lived. What a joyous success. Truly, truly, truly!” His arms opened wide in the air with triumph, like a runner crossing the finish line.
Semele could see his eyes glistening with tears and arrogant pride. He was mad, his mind twisted like brambles.
“Now!” he clapped hands together. “Now we can move forward in the light. You made it, Semele. We did it.”
Semele didn’t acknowledge him. Instead she began untangling her mother from the wires. The bomb hadn’t been fully disarmed, and only Semele knew they had three minutes before it detonated. They needed to get out.
Theo could read the panic in her eyes and rushed to help her.
Her hands fumbled with her mother’s bindings. “Hurry,” she whispered under her breath. “It’s still going to explode.”
Viktor continued talking. “It’s amazing the things we do for our parents. I think Nettie and my father would be so proud. My only regret is that you removed pages from the manuscript.” He looked accusingly at Theo. “I must know what Ionna thought about this little ending I’d devised. Or perhaps I should say beginning. Because that’s what I’ve given you, dear girl.” He gave Semele a tired smile. “Just think, maybe in a thousand years you’ll be the myth. You’ll be remembered as a goddess like Wadjet, and our whole struggle to see through the fabric of reality will be ancient lore.”
Semele tried hard not to listen to him as she undid the last binding. Helen fell forward. Theo caught her and helped her to stand.
Semele turned toward Viktor. “Give them to me,” she commanded, motioning to the cards and manuscript.
“I’m afraid I can’t do that. These are mine. I quite earned them. Don’t you agree?” He grinned.
“Please,” she begged.
The cards were in his hands. Semele wanted to race across the room and rip them away. But she had run out of time.
“Semele!” Theo shouted.
“You can leave these walls but you can’t escape me,” Viktor said. “Our work here today is far from over, Semele.” He pointedly quoted Ionna’s words back to her. “You and I are entangled.”
Semele stared at him, transfixed. He was a monster like his father, another Evanoff playing God in a laboratory.
“No, we’re not,” she said, shaking her head with finality.
For a split moment she saw the surprise in Viktor’s eyes before she turned and ran. There would be no time for him to call Moscow, no time to reveal her identity to anyone. She had seen their futures; he had no idea his was ending.
“Run!” Semele grabbed her mother’s hand and dragged her out of the room. Theo ran behind them with his arms spread wide to shield them from the blast.
They had barely made it to the street when the building exploded. The force launched them several feet forward and they hit the pavement in a broken huddle.
Semele’s ears were ringing as she watched flames engulf the orphanage. She felt her body being pulled up and into the strength of Helen’s arms around her. “I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry” was all she could say to her mother.
“Oh, baby. Oh, my baby,” Helen cried, holding her tightly. Then she opened her arms to Theo. “Thank you,” she said between sobs.
Semele closed her eyes, feeling herself wrapped in their embrace. They had made it. Viktor was gone, taking with him a nightmare that would remain forever in the past. Now Semele knew how Nettie must have felt kneeling by the river.
Time seemed to stop and hover around her as she watched the orphanage burn. Her eyes met Theo’s, her heart breaking when she saw the resignation in his. Theo had known the cards and manuscript wouldn’t survive. Ionna must have written it in the pages. Every ancestor who had held those cards, along with the memories Ionna had recorded, were lost forever. Semele had finally found her roots, and now she was being forced to witness their destruction. If only she had touched the cards when she’d had the chance, studied them more. She had thought she had all the time in the world—and she had also been afraid.
The wind danced and blew heat on her face, making her look away from the fire.
She saw the corner of a card peeking out from her mother’s shirt pocket. Semele reached for it with shaking hands, unable to believe it.
One card had survived.
A sob caught in her throat. The physical chain between her and Ionna hadn’t been completely broken. Here was one last link. When Semele held the card in her hand, her tears flowed free.
Ionna had given her The World.