“Exotic matter. First step, complete.” Jack tossed the light up, and then mimicked hitting it with a bat. It shot out like a home run, highlighting a veil behind him.
Mother waved to a couple of men by the paddle wheel and gestured for them to pull in the loading dock. No one could get on or off the boat without it, even though we were still tethered to shore, which meant I was on my own.
“You have what you wanted,” she said. “I’m sure it’s all you hoped for.”
My stomach roiled with the consequences. We’d known the Infinityglass could possibly transfer powers between people with time-related abilities, but we’d focused on dealing with the rips.
“It’s all we hoped for,” Jack said.
I started a slow crab walk backward. Jack was beside me in seconds, hauling me up by the arm. “You aren’t going anywhere.”
“Don’t make me do that again.” I felt like crying, but I didn’t want to show Jack an ounce of weakness. “I won’t.”
“You will, because that’s your purpose.” He steered me to a bench by the ship’s railing. “I have records. Years of information about people with time-related abilities. You’re just one of the tools I need to possess them all.”
“One of the tools
“What are the others?” I asked.
She pointed to my neck. I reached up to find the pendant I’d noticed her wearing in Audubon Park.
“There’s nothing standing in the way now. We have everything we need,” Jack said, beaming at my mother.
My mother smiled in return. Jack didn’t know her well enough to understand what a smile like that meant, but I did.
“Not everything. You’ve forgotten something very important, Jack.”
“I didn’t forget—” He faltered, sensing something amiss in her expression. “But … I helped you find the pendant.”
“You participated, but you didn’t discover what activates an Infinityglass, and if you remember, that was part of our deal.”
“I can still find out. We have endless resources now, and a way to use them, thanks to you.” As he tried to wheedle his way into her good graces, I wondered how long she’d had him whipped.
“Maybe I already know.” Her words slipped over me like cold silk. “But if you ever do, you’ll have a weapon to use against me. One I can’t block.”
She waited. Let it sink in. Everything about his demeanor proved he hadn’t anticipated the double cross. Then she made her move.
The amount of energy Mom pulled from him was double what I’d experienced when Jack had used me to drain Cat. I was now transferring two abilities, his and Cat’s, to my mother’s body. The current ran through me again, and the same pain seared my skin under the pendant. In addition to the burst of electricity, flashes of memory crowded my brain: a crying girl, with auburn hair and brown eyes; Poe, with a knife to his throat; a little boy, running into the path of a car.
Grief, anger, terror, and then it was done. I slumped back onto the bench as Mother gave Jack a hard shove. He pitched over the railing into the river.
Dead before he hit the water.
Jack Landers left no legacy other than a wake of destruction. Teague brushed his touch off her coat and forgot he ever existed in the same breath. The Hourglass’s biggest perceived threat had been nothing but a pawn.
Hallie pointed to something around her neck. I slid closer to her and Teague, keeping my back to the main cabin, grateful the crew was busy making preparations to launch.
“You were wearing this the other day. What does it do?” Hallie asked her mother.
“It’s duronium. If your skin is exposed to the pendant for an extended period of time, it reacts with your body chemistry and serves as a conductor. Creates the connection between those who have time abilities. Whoever you touch first receives the ability.”
“Or whoever touches me first.” Hallie dropped the pendant. “You had on a turtleneck at the park, which means you were afraid to let it out of your sight, but smart enough not to let it touch your skin. It’s not like I don’t have access to duronium. Poe’s knife. Weren’t you afraid I’d conduct too soon?”
“Maybe an Infinityglass requires this particular piece.” Teague shrugged. “Or maybe I assumed any prolonged exposure to Poe’s knife would result in your death. But only on my orders.”
“I don’t take your orders. I’m not a killer.” In one swift movement, Hallie grabbed the pendant and jerked down, but the chain didn’t break free. A red line marked her neck, and blood welled below it.
“I didn’t ask you to be. I’ll leave the killing to Poe,” Teague said. “You’re nothing but a weapon now.”
As long as Hallie wore that pendant, she was untouchable, just another way for her mother to isolate her.
My mind raced to find an answer. Poe’s exotic matter had been necessary to get Teague in a veil, but thanks to Cat, Teague had her own. Poe’s duronium knife had factored in, too, but Hallie had duronium hanging around her neck. And what had Teague meant about leaving the killing to Poe?
I scanned the river. A veil shimmered a few hundred yards downstream.
I measured the pull of the tethers against the dock. Studied the flow of the current. Considered the trajectory of the vessel when it launched.
I had one tiny, miniscule chance to turn things around.
But I’d need the river’s help.
Two people just died at my hand. My own mother made me an accessory to murder.
“Greed makes people blind and dumb.” I offered. “Or maybe he didn’t know you well enough to understand that your go- to is betrayal.”
“I’ve never betrayed you, Hallie.”
“You betrayed me before I was ever born.”
“I created you for a unique purpose. Picked every single trait.”
“I’m another version of you, Mother dear. Created to resemble the creator. You even gave me a calling. Sound familiar?”
She was so busy buying her own propaganda that she didn’t even hear me. “I always wanted to dance as a child, but we didn’t live close enough to a studio for me to walk to classes. I picked that for you.”
“Did you cause my accident, too?” It was sarcasm, not an accusation.
But she blinked.
My knees grew weak and threatened to give. “Did you have something to do with Benny’s death?”
Mother stared over my head. “The guard wasn’t supposed to follow you. You wouldn’t have been hurt if he hadn’t tackled you.”
“Benny was my best friend.”
“He was an attachment you didn’t need.”
“He was my friend and I loved him.” Long-buried grief surged in my heart. “That’s the way humans are supposed to work. I tried to love you.”
