“You think she has enough power to do that?” I heard the strain in my own voice, felt the kick in my gut.
“If the rips continue to possess her and she continues to fight them, she’ll eventually burn out.” He shoved his hands in his back pockets. “The Skroll info proves the Infinityglass was never meant to bear a load like this. Healing individual rips could’ve been manageable, possibly her purpose. Crowds of them, no. Entire rip worlds, no.”
His words echoed in my head.
“I agree with your theory. They possess her because they want to live through her,” he continued. “But they want more than that. They want her to fix them.”
I stared at him as things from the Skroll shuffled into place. Information I hadn’t understood in the context of an object. “The amount of regenerated cells she produces could heal the rifts in the continuum.”
“Only if she’s inside it.” Michael’s eyes clouded with concern. “The rips are multiplying; their worlds are taking over. Time is ripping apart around us, Dune, and Hallie might be the only one who can repair it.”
She could repair it.
But could she survive it?
“You are intense.” Maybe she was overcompensating for height, like Napoleon and his complex.
“I am.”
“And you aren’t apologizing for it. I really, really admire that.” My phone buzzed an alert. I was supposed to have called Dad, but got distracted by Dune. “Crap.”
“Everything okay?” Emerson asked, and then she covered her mouth with one hand. “I mean, obviously, everything isn’t okay. I was referring to the ‘crap.’ That you said. When you said, ‘crap.’ ”
I laughed, deep and long, and realized I hadn’t in a while. “I’m kind of wondering where you’ve been all my life.”
“Um, committed. At least for part of it.” Emerson frowned. “That sounds scary, out of context.”
This girl was so authentic she probably had a trademark stamped on her ass.
“So explain it. And do you mind if I stretch? I get antsy after the possessions.” Talk about things that sounded scary out of context.
“Go for it.” She sat down on the edge of my bed, and I sat down on the floor and started with my hamstrings. I moved through two sets of stretches, but she wasn’t talking.
“I can stretch and listen at the same time.” I rested my forehead on my knees.
“Right. It’s just, wow. You are really … bendy.”
“That’s what three dance classes a week will do for you. Usually, anyway. It’s been a busy week.” I shot her a look and felt very gratified when she laughed. “On with the story.”
“My parents died in an accident. To keep it short, I’ve existed in two time lines. One involves me being burned horribly in over forty percent of my body. Skin grafts to my back. Medications. Pain. Debilitating depression to the point of institutionalization.” She cleared her throat. “And then there’s the time line where Jack Landers screwed with my life.”
“I thought Jack took memories and then ran around trying to find out how to be all-powerful by using them against people.”
I stretched my neck to the right and then to the left.
“He might sound small-time, but he’s not. Jack’s time line saved me from the accident, but it was so he could use me. For his nefarious purposes.” Forced humor distorted her voice. “Nothing like owing your life to a madman.”
I stopped stretching. “I didn’t know. I’m sorry—”
“Don’t apologize, Hallie, please. I didn’t explain for sympathy; I just like people to know where I’m coming from. Keeps things from getting complicated.”
“Do you still struggle with the depression?”
“It’s manageable,” she confessed. “But I have bad days.”
“Since we’re being honest.” I took the opportunity to lighten things up by morphing my features. First into Lily’s and then into Emerson’s, before restoring my own.
“I just saw … my face … on your face. I might … need to go throw up.”
I laughed. “I promise to never do it again. I’m just saying that I want people to know where I’m coming from, too.”
“We were all shocked when we found out you and Dune were … um, whatever it is that you are.” She took that moment to focus on a pair of Dune’s jeans on my floor.
“Uh … yeah.” I looked up at my ceiling fan.
“Right. Okay. Well. Good, then.” She cleared her throat. “I like you, and I can see why he likes you, too. He’s always been kind and smart, but, Hallie, he’s a different person around you.”
“I didn’t think good relationships were supposed to change people.” I’d never seen one make a person better. Not before I’d met the Hourglass crew.
“Who told you that? That’s their purpose. You make him strong.” She lifted her chin. “Michael does that for me.”
“What was Dune like before?” I’d been dying to ask someone, and Emerson was too honest not to dish.
“A lot like he is now, but less … in control. It’s not that he was out of control at the Hourglass—there just weren’t a lot of opportunities for him to lead. He seems older now.”
“Michael does the leading in Ivy Springs?”
“Yup.” She smiled, and I recognized pride. “He’s good at it.”
“My life has been pretty sheltered. I’ve had to learn how to be strong on my own. Dune is like … a partner. He makes it easier for me to just be.”
“How?”
I frowned.
“You don’t have to explain, unless you want to.”
I couldn’t stop my smile. “I think I do.”
“Well, then.” She dropped down onto the floor and folded her legs into a pretzel shape. “Tell me
“It was fun at first, teasing him. But he handled it, and I barely shook him. Well, maybe I did that time I almost flashed him.”
Emerson’s jaw dropped a little.
“I’d only known him for a week, so … anyway. No one’s ever been able to keep up with me. No one’s tried. Then there was Dune, and all that—
“Eyes! I know.” Emerson grinned. “But don’t tell Michael I know.”
“Our secret.” I grinned back at her. I could get used to a girlfriend. “He doesn’t make any demands on me. He listens, pays attention to what I’m actually saying, and responds to that. He’s amazing.”
She had a smug look on her face. “I knew it. I even told Michael.”
“Told him what?”
“This is the real thing.”
I didn’t know what to say to that or whether to address it at all, so I changed the subject. “What did Michael want to talk to Dune about?”
