Corey rolled his eyes. “You know, I think you don’t want to admit that you were wrong about Quine, that he’s been against us all along, because then you have to own everything that happened in Asilah and everything that’s happening now and will happen, whatever that is.”
Matt flinched. “I’ll admit I’ve made mistakes, but I’m not wrong about Quine.”
“How can you think that?” Corey spat. “Everything points to him being in league with Vincent. He handed Vincent the Aeternum! They have the same name, for crying out loud!”
“You don’t know why he did that,” Matt said. “And even if they do have the same name, so what? We have the same name. Doesn’t mean we’re always on the same side, does it?”
Matt regretted the words as soon as they left his mouth. Even in the shadows, he could see Corey’s and Ruby’s expressions. They looked as though he’d just slapped them across their faces.
“No,” Corey said coldly, “I guess it doesn’t.”
Matt held Corey’s gaze until the shame boiled over and he looked away. He wished he could take those words back. He should say he was sorry, but somehow the words wouldn’t come out.
“Let’s not fight,” Ruby said. “It doesn’t help anything. Let’s just focus on what we can do. We can’t go back in time and change anything. We know that doesn’t work, so we have to look ahead.”
“You mean travel to the future?” Matt asked, his voice squeaking a little. He’d only traveled to the future once, and it was on accident. And up to this point, nobody had been able to travel past June 1, 2019, because that was when Matt had invented the compass.
Ruby shook her head. “I don’t think traveling to the future will help us any either. I’ve been thinking . . . you guys, we’ve been so focused on time travel, on the past or the future, we’ve forgotten the most important thing. Our present.”
“How do you mean?” Matt said.
“The present is the only time we have real control over. Right now, this very moment, everything we do or say we’re choosing. Don’t you see?”
Matt didn’t, but he didn’t want to admit it. Corey wasn’t afraid though.
“No, I don’t see,” Corey said. “I mean, I agree that right now we’re choosing to be here having this conversation, but there are, like, a thousand things that brought us to this moment that we didn’t have any control over, you know? I mean, if Vincent were to show up right here and now and blast us all, there wouldn’t be much that we could do. And what if he goes to our past and changes things? Then what?”
“Our past selves would fight,” Ruby said. “We’d fight to stay together, and our present selves should too. And our future selves. Whenever or wherever Vincent goes to pull us apart or make us disappear or whatever, we can’t let him.”
“But that’s just it,” Matt said. “It’s not about us letting him or not. With the Aeternum, Vincent can tear us apart. He can change things and we won’t have any control over it. He controls everything.”
Ruby shook her head. “No, I don’t think so. Oh, how do I explain this? I don’t even fully understand, but I can feel it! I think we’re missing something really important, guys. Something about us, our family. Vincent wants to tear us apart, but so far he hasn’t been able to, and we can’t let him. We have to keep fighting, refuse to let go. We have to stick together.”
Corey and Matt just stared at her. Matt thought Ruby was vastly oversimplifying things. Sweet as her sentiment was, he did not think they could fight Vincent simply by “sticking together.” Corey seemed to feel the same.
“Okay, so what should we do?” Corey said. “Superglue ourselves together or something?”
Ruby rolled her eyes. “You’re not getting what I’m saying.”
“No, I’m not,” Corey said. “I don’t get any of this. Do you, Matt?”
Matt just shrugged. “I guess I sort of do? But not really.”
Corey snorted, shaking his head. “I’m going back to bed. I’m sorry I woke you two up. This is going nowhere.” He grabbed the handkerchief and stuffed it back in his pocket, then started to stand.
“Wait!” Ruby said. She held out her fist into the beam of her flashlight. “For luck.”
Matt glanced at Corey, who raised an eyebrow at him. Matt put his fist next to Ruby’s, and Corey finally stuck his in, completing their three-way family fist bump. But it felt weird. Like some tether between them had come unraveled.
Matt went back to bed, but any thoughts of sleep were long gone. The initials from the handkerchief swirled in his brain. VQ . . . It couldn’t be. There had to be some mistake. Or it was a coincidence. Or something. Matt could not, would not accept that he was on Vincent’s side, that they couldn’t be related in any way. They didn’t even look alike. (As an adopted child he knew that disproved nothing, but still.)
But then he remembered how Vincent had told him he’d visited him before he came on board the Vermillion. Matt had given him his Mets hat, which had contained a message leading him to the Mona Lisa and the key that ultimately led him to the Aeternum. All signs that he was trying to help Vincent. But why? They couldn’t be on the same side. Marius Quine had said they weren’t. Hadn’t he? Matt tried to recall their conversation from Asilah. Quine said he didn’t care for Vincent. But he gave no other details or clues as to their relationship or what would happen in his future. He only said it would be difficult. That more sacrifices would have to be made. And he wouldn’t tell him when or why he changed his name to Marius Quine. Or was that supposed
