He uttered a low oath. “It’s soldered closed.”
The development changed the plan, but gave us leverage. As long as I had the pendant around my neck and one hand on Dune, my mother wouldn’t touch me. Too big of a risk for her to lose her powers and her life. But I didn’t think anything would stop the rips. Their number only grew larger.
I faced her. “I see you’ve stopped in your tracks.”
“I see you’ve forgotten about this.” She held up the gun. “You can stand in front of him from here to Key West, but you can’t stop a bullet.”
I knew the words weren’t empty.
“I’ll go with you,” I bargained. “We’ll get on the speedboat and head to open waters and leave him here. You don’t have to shoot him.”
“You think he’ll stop looking?”
“None of them will.” From the look on Mom’s face, she agreed.
He couldn’t die. Not here. Not like this. Thanks to Jack Landers, there was another out.
“Don’t kill him,” I was reduced to whispering. “Erase him. Make him forget. He won’t be a threat to you anymore.”
She crooked a finger at the cabin. Someone had been inside the whole time. Listening. Watching.
Poe. Smiling at my mother.
I wanted to rip out Poe’s heart and throw it and him to the bottom of the Mississippi. I hoped my face showed just how much. He was grinning, his posture relaxed.
A sharp whistle sounded on the other side of the deck. The moorings were stowed, and the riverboat pulled away from the dock. Poe’s eyes stopped for one second on the veil that hung downriver as he walked toward Teague.
Hallie tensed in my arms as he passed, and I held her tighter.
“Well?” Poe stopped in front of Teague and crossed his arms over his chest. “You called your dog; he came.”
“There are four members of the Hourglass in New Orleans. Hallie believes they’ll look until they find her. You need to make sure that doesn’t happen.”
“Now?” Poe asked. “Or can I eat first?”
“How can you do this? Joke about it?” Hallie’s voice broke. “Less than twenty-four hours ago, you were trying to—”
“Trying to what? Get in your pants? Oh no, wait. You’re always the one trying to get in mine.”
“Shut up.” The growl came from deep in my chest, and my fists ached for Poe’s face. “You apologize. Right now, you son of a—”
“It’s okay.” Hallie put her hand on my arm.
“No, it isn’t,” I argued, but I dialed down the testosterone.
“What the hell is wrong with you?” Hallie asked Poe. She had to raise her voice to be heard over the now churning paddle wheels. “You’re supposed to be my best friend.”
“Sweetheart, I’m your only friend. And what a sorry pair we are. Or were,” he said, giving me the once- over. “As the case may be. Seems you’ve gone tropical.”
I just smiled. He could insult me all he wanted, but if he breathed too close to Hallie, I was going to take him out.
“There’s nothing wrong with me, Hallie. I survive. Good or bad, right or wrong, your mother is my best chance. It’s not as bad as all that, is it? At least we’ll be together.” Turning to Teague, he said, “You want me to take out four, yeah?” He leaned over and slid his knife out of his boot.
Hallie shuddered.
Teague smiled. “All four.”
“Who’s here?”
“Kaleb, Lily, Michael, and Emerson.”
“If I’d known I had to do Emerson again I’d have left her dead the first time I killed her.” He turned away from Teague and walked toward the cabin, saluting us with his knife. “Not like I’ve ever been a hero to anyone, anyway. Least of all to you, Hallie.”
And then he winked.
Hallie squeezed my forearm, but her expression didn’t change. Poe hadn’t switched sides. He was still on ours.
I looked downriver. We were still in line with the veil, the current following my subconscious bidding.
“You’ve taken care of the Hourglass,” Hallie said. “What are you going to do about those?”
Teague looked toward the ever-growing population of rips. “Lots of room for history on a riverboat. Especially one this old.”
Everything from Mark Twain types in white suits to tipsy senior citizens took up residence on the deck. I begged the heavens for a repeat of the rip in the park—that Hallie and Teague together would confuse the possession process.
My prayers were answered. The rips switched focus between Hallie and Teague. The riverboat chugged toward the veil. I wanted to boost the river flow, but I didn’t know where Poe was, or how he planned on getting Teague where she needed to be. I would have to wait.
The rips didn’t want to.
“Look at them.” Hallie began to tremble. “They know who they want.”
The rips moved in one accord, approaching Hallie at the same rate the riverboat approached the veil. I put my body between them, as if I could hide her from fate, but this time we couldn’t run.
I wanted to call out for Poe, but I didn’t want to tip Teague off about his allegiance, especially if something happened to me and Hallie was left on the boat with him. I looked over my shoulder. Too much was happening at once.
“Stay as close to me as you can,” I said over my shoulder to Hallie.
Her breathing sped up. “If I go to them, she can’t use me. She won’t have any reason to hurt you or anyone else.”
The rips were ten feet away.
The veil was fifteen.
“Hal, don’t be reckless.” Where was Poe?
“It’s true, isn’t it, Mother? You don’t want to lose the Infinityglass, but you’re afraid of the rips. What did you see when you were with them last? How did you manage to get away?”
Teague tore her gaze from the rips, which were now two feet away from Hallie.
The veil was right behind them.
I couldn’t hold back the current any longer.
“Poe!” I tried to rein in the power of the water.
He burst out of the cabin with the knife in his hand.
“Throw it!” I roared. “Now!”
It left his hand in less than a second, tumbling end over end.
I set the current free.
The veil floated a few tantalizing feet away from my mother, but even though she had her own exotic matter, she didn’t have duronium. Going with them was our only out. I’d just have to have faith that I’d come out
