Belamie stepped away, shaking her head. “You aren’t protecting me. You’re protecting you. I did leave you, didn’t I? And you couldn’t handle that. You could never handle anyone leaving you behind. You could never come in second. So you got the Aeternum and you . . . you changed everything.”
“Bonbon—”
“Stop calling me that,” she snapped. “I’ve always hated that name.”
Captain Vincent set his jaw. His eyes darkened. “You mustn’t believe their lies, Belamie. Don’t let them win.”
“You’re the liar!” Corey shouted.
Belamie shook her head. “No, Vince. This isn’t right. I’m done. I don’t want this.” She turned away from Vincent, toward Matthew Hudson and her future children.
Vincent’s face twisted into a venomous rage. He drew his sword.
“Mom, watch out!” Corey shouted.
In a flash, Belamie drew her sword and whipped around, slashing Vincent across his neck. The skin parted, exposing flesh and bone, but no blood appeared, and then the skin knit itself back together and smoothed over. Not even a mark remained. Belamie backed away, staring in horror at Vincent’s throat.
Captain Vincent grinned. “Don’t you wish you’d found the Aeternum first, Bonbon? If you hadn’t left for that imbecile, you might have.” He whisked away as though on a wind and then suddenly he was right in front of Belamie, less than a foot apart. He leaned in, as though he was going to kiss her, and then he grabbed Belamie by the neck. He wrenched out her time tapestry with such violence, her entire body arched back. She dropped her sword and froze.
“No!” Mr. Hudson shouted. He ran toward Captain Vincent. Brocco cocked his guns and aimed. At the same time Ruby lifted her sword and slashed down on Brocco’s hand, slicing through his fingers. The guns fired but missed their target.
Brocco dropped his guns and hopped around, pressing his hand into his jacket. “Oh! My beautiful fingers!”
Mr. Hudson rushed at Captain Vincent, who whisked himself away again, holding on to Belamie’s tapestry. He reappeared right in front of Mr. Hudson, punched a fist inside his stomach, and yanked out his time tapestry. Both Belamie and Matthew were paralyzed.
Then everything happened at once. Ruby raced at Captain Vincent with her sword. “Let them go!” she shouted. She stabbed her sword at him, aiming for the heart.
At the same time Corey picked up one of Brocco’s guns. “Get away from my parents!” he shouted, and pulled the trigger. The bullet hit the captain square in the chest at the same time Ruby’s sword pierced his heart, or where his heart should have been. Neither the gun nor sword had any effect. The captain whirled like a tornado, taking Matthew and Belamie with him, spinning into both Ruby and Corey. He yanked both of their time tapestries out of their heads so they hung like dolls from his hands.
Captain Vincent didn’t stop. He was on a rolling rage. He tore through the rest, ripping out time tapestries right and left. He yanked Uncle Chuck’s from his beard. He took Jia’s from her back, and Gaga’s and Haha’s. He even took Albert’s and Brocco’s and Wiley’s. He took them all, yanked and pulled and twisted them all together.
Matt watched all this in a trance. He couldn’t seem to move. He stared at his parents, his brother and sister, Jia, Uncle Chuck, Gaga, and Haha, who was frozen with the dagger still in his ribs, the blood now soaking most of his shirt. All their time tapestries flowed out of them, ghostly shadows and images floating inside the shimmering fabric. It looked so fragile, so tenuous, and all Matt could think was how could anyone expect to hold on to anything in this world when it was so easily broken, when everything you loved could just be ripped away from you in an instant?
Captain Vincent turned to Matt, his hands full of the time tapestries. Before Matt could so much as blink, the captain whirled right to him.
“Don’t worry, Marius,” the captain said. “It will all work out in the end.” He plunged his hand between Matt’s ribs and tore out his time tapestry.
It felt like he was ripping Matt’s lungs right out of his chest. All the air was knocked out of him. His life literally flashed before his eyes, every moment, every joy and pain, all the way to the very end. Because this was the end. He could feel it.
The captain wrenched all the time tapestries. He twisted them together and wrapped them around a pile of dynamite.
“Goodbye, Hudsons,” Captain Vincent said as he struck a match and lowered the flame to the wick of the dynamite. It sputtered and caught.
Just then Marta came running with a wriggling mass of white fur in her hands. “Råtta!” she said excitedly.
It was Santiago. That was the other time tapestry Matt had pulled through with him. The captain must have gotten rid of him for some reason. Or he tried to. Santiago squirmed in Marta’s grasp until he noticed Captain Vincent, and then he stilled. He focused his glowing red eyes on the captain and hissed. He leaped from Marta’s grasp and flew at the captain, startling him just enough so his hold on Matt’s time tapestry slipped. It spun back into him. He took a huge gasping breath, filling his lungs, just as the flame reached the end of the wick.
Matt only had a split second to dissolve himself.
Boom!
Searing heat rushed at Matt. His cells scattered and whirled in currents of energy. He felt everything unraveling, disintegrating, including himself. It was all falling apart. His family, himself, the world.
He tried to pull himself together, but he couldn’t. He was too weak. All his strength, the energy of every cell, was sapped.
He was fading. He was starting to lose consciousness, and he knew once he did, it would be over.
Don’t let go!
But what did he have to hold on to? He felt those
