“I can’t lose them, too.” Emerson took one more step back, and then rushed the heavy oak front doors, pushing them open and throwing herself inside.
“Emerson!” Michael followed.
“No!” Lily grabbed my arm, digging in her heels when I tried to take off after Michael. “You won’t help if you go in there now.”
Terror bled under the doors of the Phone Company. “I can’t …”
“If we make the rip go away, we can end this.” She yelled over the sound of the fire, which grew more ardent every second. Her desperation was barely under control. It matched mine. “Please. Think.”
I stepped back to gauge the path of the flames. Half the roof was already gone. Ending the rip would be the fastest way to get us all out of danger. “We have to find a person, and I haven’t seen one since we landed here. Unless …”
If Jack and Cat started this inferno, they’d stick around to watch it burn. Just like they had the night they killed my father.
I shouted instructions to Lily. “We have to find the origin of the fire. Let’s try the midpoint.”
Lily nodded instead of screaming back.
Everything in me fought to run toward Em and Michael instead of away from them, but I knew Lily was right and that we had to make the rip go away. The heat coming off the buildings made my eyes water, and the closer we got to the center of the fire, the thicker the smoke became.
But there was nothing was left to burn.
I wanted a second to shut everything out, to quiet my hectic mind. But I could sense Em and Michael, which meant they were still alive, and I didn’t want to lose the connection. My focus on maintaining it almost made me miss seeing him.
Jack. Ashes, falling like snow, covered his shoulders.
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
T
he 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
E
ven 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 t
iny 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.”
Her fingers felt every inch of the map twice. Her mouth turned down at the corners. “I don’t feel this one.”
“That’s because it isn’t a map of France.”
She growled at me.
“Okay, try the Leaning Tower of Pisa—”
“There.” She opened her eyes. “I think I’ve got it.”
Her cheeks were flushed, and the excitement in her voice was contagious. I took her face in my hands and kissed her hard on the lips. “You can do it.”
“We can.” She pointed at the Skroll. “Let’s start with North America.”
Two hours and seven continents later, we had nothing.
“I don’t know what I’m doing wrong.” Lily stretched her neck from side to side and rolled her shoulders. “We haven’t even gotten a hint.”
“Take a break,” I told her, touching her cheek. “Maybe we’re pushing too hard.”
“What if it doesn’t exist, Kaleb?” She leaned against the couch, dropping her head back and closing her eyes. Hopelessness.
“My dad thinks it does.” I had to hold on to his belief. I might not have seen the evidence, but he’d seen enough to make finding the Infinityglass one of his life goals. I knew how much he loved my mother, how pure it was. He’d never risk their relationship on something that couldn’t be real. He wouldn’t.
I navigated back to the main page of the Skroll and spun through every icon, hoping we’d overlooked something. One file didn’t have a title at all. I tapped twice to open it.
The hologram displayed familiar writing.
I used the stylus to quickly advance the pages. “No way.”
Lily sat up and opened her eyes, focusing on the image hovering between us. “What’s wrong?”
“These are my dad’s files, the ones that Jack and Cat stole. They’ve been scanned in. They list everyone he’s come across in his research who could have a time-related ability.” So many names. I sped through faster and faster. “It doesn’t make sense. Unless …”
“What?”
“Dad expected Jack to use the files as a bargaining chip with Chronos. How did they end up on the Skroll?”
I advanced to the letter C and saw Emerson’s name. It felt wrong to read it now.
“Will you …” Lily sounded strange, as if she was trying to stop herself from asking the question. “Will you go to the Gs next?”
“Why?”
“I want you to look for me.”
I advanced the pages. “Nothing.”
She exhaled. “Try Diaz.”
“Diaz?” I went backward from the Gs. “There are three on the list. Jorge, Eduardo, and Pillar.”
Lily gasped.
“Do you know these people?” I asked.
“Pilli was what my father called me, a pet name. That’s why my abuela chose Lily once we got to America, because it sounded similar and was less confusing for me. My real name is Pillar Diaz.” She stared down at the Skroll. “Does it say what I can do?”
“Not you. It just says your grandfather and father had seeker abilities. There’s a question mark by Pillar’s … by your name.”
“You know what this means.”
“I do.”
“Jack couldn’t get to my father or grandfather, so he brought Abi and me here. He found us, just like he found Emerson. And just like he wanted to use Emerson to change his past, he wants to use me to find things.” Her voice was steel, but her heart was broken. “He had to get me to this time, and this place, so I could find the Infinityglass.”
The door opening behind me caught me off guard. Lily’s scream tipped the balance.
The blow to my skull did the rest.
I opened my eyes, but I still couldn’t see.
Blindfolded. I couldn’t move my arms or legs, and I was gagged. My left wrist felt like someone had taken a hammer to it.
Worst of all was that I couldn’t feel Lily’s emotions, no matter how far I stretched.
But the stale air of the gatehouse was familiar.
I rocked side to side. Once I had momentum, I pitched my chair over, pulling outward with my legs. I landed on my right shoulder, and pieces of chair went flying the second I hit the ground.
I pulled off the blindfold and removed the gag. My wrist was blue, and possibly broken.
Lily’s jacket was still on the floor, but she and the Skroll were nowhere to be found.
I got loose from the remaining pieces of chair, somehow managing to cut a five-inch slice on the inside of my right arm with an exposed screw.
Then I ran like hell for the main house.
Chapter 49
“I
can’t feel her.” Ava and I sat in a corner of the emergency room, which was blessedly empty. She’d insisted on taking me to the hospital.
“That doesn’t have to mean the worst.”
“I put her in this situation. Nothing can happen.” My voice broke, and I stared at a framed print of Monet’s water lilies on the wall until I regained control. Lilies. “It’s been three hours. The sun is coming up, her grandmother is home, and she’ll know Lily’s missing.”
“Are you sure you’ve told us everything?” Ava asked. “It’s going to be easier to find her if we know every detail, especially if you have to wait for X-rays and a cast and we have to go looking by ourselves.”
Ava looked toward the sliding double doors of the emergency entrance. Dune and Nate walked in, holding four cups of coffee.
“Fracture?” Nate asked, looking at my arm.
“Don’t know yet.”
I doubted Dune would ever forgive me for breaking into his room and stealing the Skroll. Even so, he asked, “Are you okay?”
“I can’t feel Lily. Has anyone heard from Emerson or Michael?”
Nate stared up at the red exit sign, blinking as if he was holding back tears. The fact that he was serious scared me as much as anything could.
“No,” Dune said. “Thomas has the cops on it. He freaked when Em didn’t come home last night.”
Almost everyone I loved was in danger, and I was in a hospital waiting for stitches and an X-ray.
“I don’t know who has Lily.” The possibility that it was Poe sent ice down my spine. Jack wasn’t any better. He’d keep her alive long enough to use her ability to find the one thing he wanted, and then he’d discard her. “I need to get out of here. My arm can wait.”
“Ballard?” A young, smiling nurse with pink scrubs, red hair, and white shoes called my name. She had a clipboard in her hands and a pen stuck in her bun.
“No,” Ava argued. “Your arm is all bendy. You can’t leave without seeing a doctor.”
“I’ll be fine. Let’s just go.” I stood up.
“Dude,” Nate said. “You’ll be useless if you don’t get that arm fixed. Trust us to look for Lily. We want her found, too.”
He waited for me to read him. Loyalty, fear, conviction. The same feelings came from Dune and Ava.
“Ballard?” The nurse had removed the pen from her hair and was now tapping it on her clipboard, looking at us pointedly, but still smiling.
>
“Thank you.” I could only whisper.
“Go,” Ava said. “You’ll know you the second we find anything.”
The nurse, Mary Ellen, forced me to put on a hospital gown, and then she started an IV.
“Seriously? At worst, I need an ACE bandage, not an IV. Why do I need a hospital gown?” It wasn’t wide enough for my shoulders, so no matter what I did, it wouldn’t close in the back. The nurse kept averting her eyes. “Can’t you just slap on a Band-Aid and send me on my way?”
“Don’t be so grumpy. Let us take care of you. The IV will keep you hydrated.” Mary Ellen slid the needle under my skin quickly and almost painlessly. “No eating or drinking. We need to keep your stomach clear, in case that’s a break, specifically a compound fracture, and requires surgery.”
“Surgery? I can’t have surgery. I don’t have time. I have to …” In that second, everything in the room softened around the edges. I forgot what I was mad about. “What did you just do?”
“I gave you a little something for the pain, and to calm you down. You’re rather … agitated.” She frowned and took a step back before leaving the room completely.
“Agitated? You haven’t seen agitated.” Panic couldn’t eclipse the meds rushing through my system. Drugs that strong could have the same numbing effect as alcohol. I wouldn’t be able to feel anyone’s emotions, not even my own.
Not Lily’s.
I struggled to sit up, to keep my eyes open, but the nurse must have given me enough of the painkiller to take down a horse.
I don’t know how, but that’s when the wall between Lily and me tumbled down.
I’d known we were connected, but the pain I felt now was so sharp I could’ve been in her skin. Every emotion was amplified. She was pissed off and scared and worried. The pissed-off part made me hopeful for one brief second, and then my muscles spasmed as if I’d been running for days. My stomach twisted in knots.
She wasn’t okay.
Fear. Desperation. Fear. Desperation.
I fought against both as I fell into a deep sleep.
Timepiece: An Hourglass Novel Page 21
