Timepiece
Reaching out for Lily, I tagged her shoulder and pointed at Jack. I held my finger up in front of my lips. We both stopped short, and I moved in front of her.
More terrifying than the sight of him was what I could feel.
I could read him.
I now knew for certain that he’d been blocking me for years, maybe as long as I’d known him. Peeling back layers of emotion was part of the necessary process to read someone deeply. Jack’s outer layer was black, the same kind of blackness I’d felt from Ava so many times. Peeling away his emotions like an onion, I half expected to find some kind of redeeming quality, but it never came.
He was rotten to the core.
It felt like the read had taken hours, falling through the darkness of Jack’s soul, but it had only been a few seconds. I’d never experienced that kind of decay. Utter corruption. Greed and deceit. Desolation and desperation. The teeming need for control and power. The need to destroy.
If I could get out of this rip, I’d kill him. I’d find him, and I’d kill him for all the things he’d done to me and to the people I loved.
My rage flowed out of me through my fingertips, uncontrollable. I wanted revenge, and I wanted it now.
I charged him. He turned around and his mouth formed an O of surprise. Then his fear came.
As I crouched to spring, Lily grabbed my wrist, and I pulled her with me as I tackled Jack.
He dissolved.
Lily and I both landed on our knees on the sidewalk in “our” Ivy Springs. The flames were gone.
So were Emerson and Michael.
Chapter 47
The town stood unscathed.
The air smelled like rain, spicy mums, and the decomposing jack-o’-lanterns that lined the street, their decaying faces sinister and secretive.
“Where are they?” Lily’s voice shook as she scanned the sidewalk. “I don’t see them.”
I got to my feet, dusting off, and pulled her up with me. “Are you okay?”
Her jeans had ripped, and the open flap of denim exposed a bloody knee. She didn’t seem to notice. “Did they make it out? Or are they still in the rip?”
“Lily? Are you okay?” I repeated, taking her shoulders and looking into her eyes.
“We have to check the Phone Company. That’s where they were, maybe that’s where they landed.”
We ran down the street to the restaurant, reaching it just as Thomas stepped outside the door and began counting the number of people waiting in line to get in. “Hey, you two,” he said when he saw us. “Why are you covered in ashes?”
“Long story,” I said, trying to catch my breath. “Can you get Em and Michael for us?”
He looked at me strangely. “They’re at your house. I’d asked Em to fill in as hostess tonight because Dru is having a hard time with morning sickness. Em said she couldn’t because something was up with your dad.”
“Are you sure you haven’t seen them?” Lily asked. “Could you just stick your head inside and check again?”
“Okay.” Thomas pulled open the door and leaned back, calling to someone inside. “Clint? Have you seen my sister anywhere?”
Lily took my hand. I felt her hope while we waited, and her desolation when Thomas turned back to us. “No, they aren’t here. Is everything okay?”
“It’s fine. Must be a misunderstanding. Looks busy,” I said, gesturing to the crowd. “We’ll catch you later.”
Lily’s tears started to fall the second we turned away.
“Hold on. Let’s just get out of here and get back to your apartment.” I squeezed her hand. “We’ll come up with a plan.”
“We have to get back inside the rip. How do we do it?” She bit her bottom lip, staring at me and waiting for an answer. “Kaleb?”
“I don’t know.” I looked at the ground, avoiding her eyes. “I’ve never seen the same rip twice. The Jack that I grabbed was a rip. I … wasn’t thinking. Thank God you were holding on to my arm, or I would have left you behind, too.”
“Don’t tell me we can’t save them. We have to. We can’t just … we have to.” Her voice shook. “There has to be a way.”
“I can think of one.” I didn’t want to say it, but it was our only alternative. “There’s one thing that can repair the continuum without personal consequence.”
“The Infinityglass.”
I nodded. “We don’t have a choice, Lily. We have to find it. You have to find it.”
Chapter 48
Even though most of Ava’s belongings were still in the gate-house, it had an empty, abandoned feeling. The air was stale and cold. I flipped on a small lamp in the living room and cranked up the heat. It was the most remote place I could think of, a place where no one would look.
I made sure the blinds and curtains were drawn before I clicked on another lamp. I immediately turned it off. The darker the better for now.
“Ready?” I asked her.
Half of Lily’s face was cast in shadows. I didn’t have to see her to feel her sorrow.
“I am so sorry it’s come to this,” I said.
“I was willing to help before I was forced into a corner. We’ll make this right. Together.”
We sat down on the couch and put the Skroll between us. Stealing it from Dune’s room had been easy enough; he slept like a rock.
Trying to remember how he’d opened it was a little harder.
“Dune said that everything he’d seen in the Skroll related to either the Infinityglass or Chronos. We’re just going to cross our fingers and hope there’s something specific, some clue that points us in the right direction. To the right map.”
“I’ve never looked for anything I haven’t seen before.” Lily’s legs bounced as she waited. “What if I can’t find the Infinityglass? What if I find it and it’s in Africa? What will we do then?”
“If Jack or Teague thought the Infinityglass was in Africa, they’d be in Africa.”
“But—”
“Listen to me.” I put my hand on her leg. “It has to be close. All the key players are here. This isn’t a coincidence.”
“I hope not.”
“Here we go.” The holographic screen appeared between us, bright in the dim room. Lily reached over to turn off the tiny lamp and then faced me again.
I tapped the map icon on the screen with the stylus. Maps rotated in a circle as they projected from the screen.
“Any you feel good about?” I asked.
Lily watched them spin. “Let’s start big and work our way in. There’s a modern world map.”
I touched the corresponding map on the screen, using the stylus, and it projected into the air. I did it again, and the map spread out across the screen.
“Okay, close your eyes. We’ll practice.” I took her hands and put them on the screen. “Now try to find the Lincoln Memorial.”
She tapped her fingers across the map; once she hit DC, she stopped. “Here.”
“You got it.” I changed the dimensions and size, as well as turning the map sideways. “The Space Needle.”
She found it immediately.
“Don’t open your eyes. The Arc de Triomphe.”