by Jen Greyson
I won’t let him boil what we do down to an equation. “But there is beauty in a sunrise too, and math may explain it, but it doesn’t make it happen. My ancestors may have started as a science experiment, but you’ve never been able to explain me.”
“True. Which is also why Nikola was so enamored with you. You and your abilities were outside his predictions. I believe, perhaps, that’s why machines fascinated him much more than work with live subjects—too many inconsistencies.”
“Ones Penya figured out how to exploit.” I am surprised I didn’t see the connection between Nikola and the lightning riders. If he made a comment should have been a clue, I’d overlooked it. I’m disappointed he didn’t trust me with the truth, but then, Tesla did have a one-track mind when it came to wireless energy. He would have had no time or spare thoughts for time travel. He’d already given all the work over to Ilif, so why bother wasting words on it? I guess what Ilif’s saying makes sense, but I’m still bummed he wasn’t more clear I was a product of his science.
Try again to see Tesla.
He’s dead. Funeral? Makes her relive his death.
Cant’ make an arc.
CHAPTER 31
BACK TO HITLER.
WAIT WAIT WAIT!!!!
Everything leading up to Nikola’s death swims up.
I never sorted through the memories when I met Camaria, too busy trying to keep her from pulling the alarm and believing me.
I gasp for air and step away.
Fuck. Think.
What were the memories? (Shadow Boxer Arcs) — she’s already had some of them. Camaria’s and one from Nikola.
All the Hitler stuff is over.
He got caught.
When Hitler fell apart, Penya’s shit fell apart.
Ilif has some explaining to do.
Arms dealer—trying to make $$ to support riding Back then, I Was really glad Penya handled all the details. Clearly I should have kept an eye on her. As should you.
Int’l connections—furthering science
Putting Hitler in touch with geneticist — oops. Didn’t see what a crazy fuck Hitler was. He said as much to evy in the very beginning. (Solved) I TOLD YOU THAT. I told you the very first time we met that I’d helped a rider with an alteration concerning Hitler. Tesla was telling the truth, a truth I’d already admitted.
Still no idea who to trust.
What do I know to be true:
Penya was in my house.
JP Morgan sent people after Nikola’s patents.
JP knows I have them.
JP is dead.
I have an ENTIRE warehouse full of Tesla’s patents and goodies.
JP may very well have the coordinates, if that jackass from the basement of the hotel can be believed… he’s just using them wrong. I have to assume he has them.
AND if the FBI bugged her house, they have them too. (Is there a way to wrap this up so readers know why we’ve NEVER heard of this before and that a warehouse doesn’t in fact exist — find a conspiracy that would match this off long island. What about that billion dollar ship wreck. Why did the guy go down with the ship??????? (Or something)
CHAPTER 32
ENDS UP BACK with C. C consoles her.
Who’s alive that can help you?
Steinaman.
CHAPTER 33
TRIES TO GO see George. Ends up at Constantine. She trusts it. I must need him for this. He’s my bookmark in time.
Remembers the prophecy. One to protect her. To watch over her.
Trust.
Dammit. That’s so fucking hard for me. And asking for help is the same as admitting that I can’t do this on my own. (Make her tell him this. Revealing it to him is HUGE for her (me ;)
All right. Tell me what you know.
Touch base with papi/Ilif
Update from penya pov and Tiana. Up the stakes.
Okay now what?
Make a plan. (Oppostie of what’s about to happen)
Shit goes wrong.
Tesla sends George.
“Tesla thought you might need some help.”
Hugs George. I have so much to ask him. I forgot that I never found out if he was still with Nikola at the end. None of that matters now.”
“I’ve needed him.” Defeat drags at me. “I tried to go see him, but it didn’t work. I need answers about the lightning riding—” I wave my hand. “Uh, time travel.”
“Yes. I’m well aware of the difference.” George steps to me and curls his fingers around my arm, tugging me around to face him. “You’re forgetting the most basic rule, Evy.”
I frown, confused. “Tell me,” I beg. “Please.”
“Lightning riding requires an arc. You’ve already completed Tesla’s arc.”
“I don’t understand. Does that mean I’ll never be able to see him?”
He smiles and pats my cheek. “Anyone can time travel. Go see him. This time, don’t try to arc to him.”
“I’m not sure I know the difference.”
He laughs. “I need to go, but we’ll see each other again.” He glances at Constantine and gives him a nod. “I trust that between the two of you, you’ll figure it out.”
CHAPTER 34
CONSTANTINE PATS ME down and
I have no eyes for him. My gaze is riveted past his shoulder, on a man so consumed by his work that he hasn’t noticed our arrival, a man who trusted me with his life’s work, a dead man I couldn’t save.
Except that he’s alive. My eyes flood, blurring the image of Nikola’s spindly form bent over a worktable, scribbling with one hand while manipulating objects with the other. I whimper as my chest contracts tightly, overwhelmed with emotions too numerous to label.
Startled, he looks up.
And smiles. “Evy! Come.” He waves me over. “Bring your friend.”
I gather my wits and rush him, wrapping him in a tight hug. He stiffens and keeps his arms to his sides. I don’t care for his personal space issues, he’ll get over it. I squeeze him until his woodenness finally makes me feel the tiniest bit bad. I breath in the scent of him; pomade and lye soap, wood chips and pencil lead. My fingers linger on his shoulders and I drink in the sight of him until it overlays the last. I want to be rid of the sight of his lifeless, pale body forever.
“I’d prefer you not do that,” he says haltingly.
I laugh, giddy at hearing him, touching him, having another chance to simply be with him. “I know. I couldn’t help it.” I let go and step out of his comfort zone. “Last time I saw you, you were…” My throat constricts and I blink away the flash flood of tears.
“Oh!” He understands immediately which is no surprise, then sets his pencil down and opens his arms to me, only cringe slightly. “All right, then.”
I smile. That he would willingly endure a hug makes me all emotional again. “God, I’ve missed you.”
“And I you, Evy. And I, you.” He picks up his pencil and jots a note. “If we’re done with the sentiment, there’s much work to do. I assume you came with a request.” He glances hastily at Constantine, then furtively back to his paper, the lead scratching out equations and notes.
I’d hug him again, longer this time, but I don’t make him and introduce him to Constantine. “There’s someone I want you to meet.”
“This one seems less obnoxious than the last.”
“The last?” Constantine asks, fighting surprise and maybe a little jealousy.
I place a hand on his arm. “Ilif. He’s talking about Ilif. They met.”
Tesla sniffs. “Indeed.” He finishes putting his thought to paper and turns, hands neatly folded in front of him and give Constantine a subtle bow. “I am Nikola Tesla, but I suppose our girl Evy has relayed that to you. Pleasure to make your acquaintance.”
Constantine nods. “My name is irrelevant. I’ve come to protect her.” He takes a step back and turns so he can survey the entire room at a glance, then crosses his arms and leans against the wall.
“Well, then.” Tesl
a turns to me, unperturbed and almost pleased that Constantine didn’t waste a second of his time. “What can I do for you?”
CHAPTER 35
ADD A TIANA scene
Vic scene?
Take ada Lovelace out of it???
“You like math, no?”
“I do! I love it. I adore everything about it. The simplicity and complexity working in tandem. Math formulas are perfection."
“Good, good good.” Penya rubbed her palms together like they were about to get down to business. “Your first alteration affects a brilliant mathematician and scientist.”
“Really? Awesome. Who?”
“Her name is Augusta Ada Byron. She is unknown to most.”
“Yeah, IDTk I’ve heard of her.” Tiana hadn't paid much attention to the actual people who'd come up with her favorite equations, but didn't mean she hadn't already been introduced to this Augusta's stuff.
Penya held up her hand to remind Tiana she’d been talking and Tiana had interrupted and should probably keep her trap shut. “Sorry.” Tiana pressed her lips together, but it was so hard to not be super excited about time travel and math all smushed together.
“Your enthusiasm is spectacular and will serve you well as we begin the alterations. But yes, if you could hold your comments, would be helpful.”
She crossed her arms and tried not to fidget, paying close attention to what Penya wanted to teach her.
“Ada was born to Lord Byron and Lady Anne Isabella Milbanke Byron. Her mother wanted Ada to have the best education and saw no reason why being a female should hinder worthy goal.” Penya scrutinized Tiana, who withered beneath Penya’s sharp gaze. “A point I quite agree on. She hired brilliant tutors and Ada led an educated life. There’s a man who’s largely been avoiding Ada and her requests to assist him. You must bring them together so Ada can showcase her brilliance and revolutionize the way computers are coded.”
Tiana’s belly jumped in a combination of excitement and total nervousness. She’d been apprehensive since Evy first told her about traveling, but how amazeballs would it be to change history—to give a genius girl the chance to really show her stuff. “Let’s do it. When do I start? Where do I need to go?”
CHAPTER 36
“CAN WE SIT?” I point toward the office. “I have questions and this might take a while.”
He looks longingly at the work I’ve interrupted.
“I’ll keep it as short as possible.”
He arranges the items on the table and sets the pencil exactly one inch from the paper, then turns and motions toward the door. “No hurry.” He smiles and it the warmth feels genuine. “I never know when you’ll arrive or if I’ll see you again.” He chuckles. “Though apparently we have at least one more meeting.” He drags his finger across his throat. “One I’ll hope is far from today.”
A shiver licks my spine. “Yes. I’d like to have several more between this one and that.”
Camaria is using Nikola’s patents to advance
Ilif, Renaee, and Penya had come up with an earth shattering bunch of genius science. The girls stole it. Then Ilif became a mentor for lighting riders… but he let Penya come work for him again. (Or did he?) he was surprised she was in Spain. She never worked with him in lab… only the early one.
Then he kidnapped her (book 1) and traveled via her power.
While she was at the lab, she She convinced him Renaee was behind the deceit and she could help him work with the lightning riders, thus going back in time to change things.
But she was never supposed to get involved with things in Spain, which is what shocked him. She’d double crossed him again. He had to keep her where he could see her. Locked away in the lab.
While she was there, she found out how to manipulate the alterations — giving her the ability to go back and interfere with evy while Ilif was in the middle of working with her (time travel, it’s a wibbly wobbly thing :D
Where is the paper with the coordinates?
Tiana’s were in the kitchen.
The rest were in the trunks that blew up.
Truth:
Penya was dealing in arms. Ilif tried to stop her. He only wanted to do the lightning riding. It was expensive, they had to find ways to support it. Penya came up with the idea to get involved with the government. Ilif was relieved that she was handling all of it.
But she went bad.
The secret service came to meet with Nikola. To tell him about Penya and ask for his help. They’re his patents, surely he knew about the leak inside his own lab.
BECAUSE PENYA AND ILIF ALWAYS WORKED FOR tesla
“I thought you knew that,” Nikola says absently like this is not news. “How else would I have known their whereabouts? How else would I have known what they were up to? They were another pair of workers who I had peripheral dealings with. I couldn’t be bothered to attend to their business. They were furthering my life’s work.
(In the future???? Or had they come to the past to work with him. And when? And why in the FUCK did Ilif not mention that.) But he had:
Page 190, Shadow Boxer:
“Top officials aren’t cleared for that information, let alone you.”
I glare. I want to know who he’s working with and if they’re the same people trailing and bugging Nikola. The more Constantine and I learn about my lightning, the more I realize Penya’s been right about Ilif all along; the more he can keep me down, the less I’ll learn about what I can really do. Constantine has fought the mightiest warriors out there and ranks me among them. Surely I’m not the first.
I want to know how to fight him at his own game.
He recoils and takes a step away. “I meant no disrespect, I was merely pointing out the fact that I’m working on something highly classified.”
“Like what?”
He inhales and does his normal straightening of every bit of his attire. The more of his tells I learn, the more I know I’ll never be able to trust anything he says, but that will never stop me from asking him.
“I will tell you when I can. For now, it’s imperative that you simply do as I request. There is no time for these lengthy discussions and your inquiries to my motivation. As a rider, it’s merely your job to finish the alteration, not question it.”
“So you think you’ve got it all figured out, then? Once you have Nikola’s patents you’ll be on your way?”
He steps away, creating the usual safe space between us. “I know it with every bit of my being, but my tests to recreate the pulses have failed. I’m so close.”
Too close.
Why did Ilif want tesla’s papers.
Tesla reveals that Ilif came back to see him. Once. Made him start thinking about time travel. And of course you’d been here. He said he was close to recreating the pulse that helped him to find the original lightning rider. He shrugs. “We spent an afternoon on the problem, finding a solution.”
Confusion. Sort through the details. The old convo about Ilif—close, too close. I saw Nikola throughout his life. Why didn’t he tell me any of this? I watch him, bent over his papers, already back at work, too consumed by solving his own problems to worry about mine that he’s answered; Ilif came to see him, they fixed it, next issue.
Then why is Ilif still looking for them?
“Time is a loop. Perhaps he needs them now so that he can come see me in the future.”
“How will you proceed now?”
Constantine thought she could hide her own lightning on Penya, create residue to track her with—because Penya doesn’t arc, so she doesn’t create residue and she erases Tiana’s.
Ask Nikola if it would work.
“Of course.”
But what does it break???
Shadow boxer:
I sigh and pull a burgundy cashmere sweater down from my rack and pair it with a cream linen pair of pants. Dumping my boots in a duffle along with my jeans, I lift a gold pair of heels and slip them on. I feel like a stranger.
(She took this du
ffel to her dad’s house. It’s safe there.)
CHAPTER 37
ONE SOLVE FOR things with Penya: from SB, page 211:
He stares at the fire. “You know, if you were good”—he smiles crookedly and I cuff him on the shoulder, scattering bread crumbs across the blanket—“you could hide just enough lightning on her to create residue to follow.”
“She’s not creating any residue, remember.“
He hooks a hand around the end of a bench and drags it over, wedging it against his map table and wadding the end of the blanket against it, creating a cushioned backrest. He leans against it and pats the blanket between his legs. I scoot over and nestle into his lap then lean over his thigh and pull the plate closer.
“I’m not talking about relying on her residue, but yours.”
I think about what he’s suggesting. I’ve been careful to keep my lightning sheathed when she’s been around because we originally thought it would end the transmission—like it messes with Ilif’s. “Do you really think that would work?”
