Timepiece: An Hourglass Novel (3 page)

Chapter 4

B

“No!” The scream came from my very center, tensing all my muscles, making me shake. I attacked the veil with a vengeance, pounding my fists against it so hard I could feel the blood vessels bursting. “Emerson!
Emerson!
”

Poe didn’t watch me, he observed me, as if I were an animal in a cage. His expressionless calm was as unnatural as a walking corpse. Then he dropped her to the ground and carelessly dusted off his hands.

Grief and rage scrambled for purchase in my chest. Neither won. I tried to scream Emerson’s name again, but it caught in my throat, choking me. I kicked the veil repeatedly, over and over, until I hit the ground on my knees.

She lay unmoving at Poe’s feet, blood pouring from her throat. Her eyes were open, but empty.

Tiny. Helpless.

Gone.

“You need to deliver a message to your father.” Poe’s expression was blank. He reminded me of a robot, programmed for a specific task and nothing else. “Find Jack Landers.”

“Come out here. Come out here and bring her with you.” I held my fists down by my sides, speaking through my teeth but still trying to sound calm. I thought about his knife, and how I would get it away from him. Then gut him. I wanted to see his blood spilled, along with everything inside him. I wanted to grind his heart into the floor with my heel.

“If Jack is found, there’s a chance that everything that’s happened can be repaired. Then the Hourglass can choose the time line on which it would like to continue. If the request is refused, or not met, time will be rewound.”

In. Out. In. Out. I had to breathe. I had to make Poe think I wasn’t a threat so he’d come out of that veil. He had to come out of the veil so I could destroy him. “I don’t understand.”

“Time will be rewound, and your time line will be chosen for you.” Poe looked at me as if I were dense before he continued, speaking slowly. “There’s only one way to clean up the mess the Hourglass has made without consequences.”

“There are already consequences.” The flow of blood from Em’s neck was starting to slow. It just touched the edge of Poe’s shoe. He’d track her blood out of this restaurant and down the streets of Ivy Springs if he walked away.

But he wouldn’t be walking away.

“There’s a great possibility the continuum can be repaired without consequences to your personal time lines, and there are several time lines from which you can choose. The one where your father is a pile of ash or the one where he’s restored. Same goes for Michael. And Emerson could be in a mental hospital, or she could be part of the Hourglass.” It was as if he were ticking off something as unimportant as a grocery list. “You choose, or we will.”

“Why bother mentioning Em’s time line as a threat? She’s dead.” And you’re next.

“Is she?”

Poe extended his arms, still holding the blade.

The blood went from dark and dry to shiny and wet.

Em rose from the ground in backward motion, returning to Poe’s arms. The stain on her sweater faded from the bottom up, the pool of blood in her collarbone disappeared, but the life was still absent from her eyes.

Poe stopped then, staring at me. “You’ll pass on my message?”

“Yes.” My voice was a pleading whisper. “Please, yes.”

Slowly, so slowly, the knife made a return path across Emerson’s neck. The blood disappeared completely, and her hands once again pulled at Poe’s arm.

I froze, afraid to move. Afraid Poe would kill her again.

“You have till October thirty-first. Midnight.”

Poe lowered Em to her feet and smiled.

I shook with the desire to jump him and peel his face off. When they stepped out of the veil, I snatched her away and pulled her to my side. Her skin felt cold.

“Oh, and one more thing. Anything taken can be returned. Anything given can be destroyed,” Poe said, still smiling, walking backward to the exit. “Teague said your dad would understand.”

With that, he turned on his heel and left the Phone Company.

Em shook her head, looking confused. “What just …”

I grabbed her and squeezed her so tightly that now I was the one cutting off her air supply. She smacked at my arms, and I loosened my hold.

“Kaleb?” Her voice was muffled, her breath warm through the thin cotton of my pirate costume.

The shirt had seen entirely too much action, and not the good kind. When I got home, I was going to burn it.

“You’re okay?” A flood of relief replaced the anger in my blood as I released her, looking her over from head to toe. “You feel okay?”

“I don’t remember what happened, exactly. I thought … I thought Poe was going to stab you, so I jumped in front of you—”

I wanted to hand in my man card and cry. “Which was insanely stupid.”

“Protective instinct?”

“You, protecting me.” I cupped her face in my hands, knowing she wasn’t mine to touch, but unable to stop. “Insanely stupid.”

She shivered, and when she spoke, her voice shook a little. “I’d call you a sexist pig, but I’m feeling off my game.”

“I thought I’d lost you.”

“But you didn’t.” Reaching up to entwine our fingers, she pulled our hands away from her face. “Anyway, he pulled me into the veil, and then things got …”

“Em? Are you okay?”

She grabbed the hem of her sweater and pulled it out in front of her, her eyes searching for something that was no longer there. Then her hands flew to her neck. “He cut me … he slit my throat.”

“To make a point.”

She sank into a chair. “Which was?”

“We have to find Jack.”

Her mouth dropped open and the waves of her confusion and outrage swept over me. Before she could say anything else, the front doors slammed open.

Concern, then a split second later, fear so fierce it made my teeth ache. Michael
.

“Are you two all right? Someone said a guy with a knife just walked out the back … what’s wrong?” Michael crossed the room in two heartbeats before landing on his knees in front of Em, gathering her hands into his. “What happened?”

Em looked up at me, and then at my dad, who’d followed Michael in. “I think … you’ll have to get the details from Kaleb. I was kind of busy. Being dead.”

Chapter 5

“D

For my own safety, I waited for my vision to return before I walked any farther. The office had definitely become messier since Dad returned from the dead. Without my mother to clear them away, coffee mugs littered the top of his huge desk, and a stack of newspapers in the corner grew taller by the day.

“You’re late.” Em’s voice sounded hoarse, either with tears or with sleep. She and Michael sat hip to hip on the love seat.

“Didn’t realize it was a party.” I rubbed my eyes to pull the room into focus. Dune occupied the wingback chair in the corner, while Nate sat on the floor. I noticed the fresh neon green streak in his black hair when I dropped down beside him.

“We used our time wisely.” Dad leaned his head from side to side, stretching the muscles in his neck. Tense already. “Everyone knows about Jack’s appearance last night. And Poe’s, as well as his ultimatum.”

That explained the fear and uncertainty I could feel pulsing around the room. There was no anger from Michael or Em for having to wait until this morning to get details. That was all me. But something was off with Em.

“Poe mentioned someone named Teague last night. Who is that?” I asked. Might as well get things started.

“Teague,” Dad said, and was quiet for a minute, as if he were shuffling through mental files for information. “She used to be the head of the parapsychology department at Bennett University before it was dismantled,” Dad explained. “Her unconventional ideas stripped the credibility of some very sound research and led to a major loss of funding for the department. Once the money was gone, so was she, along with several staff members who chose to leave.”

Everything from melancholy to fear jumbled up inside him. The past mixed with the present, too tangled for me to sort out.

“Wait a second.” Nate switched positions on the floor beside me so fast it made my head hurt, and his mind moved as quickly as his body did. “You said that the staff
chose
to leave. If staying at the school was one choice, what was the other?”

“Joining Teague.” Dad’s lips pressed together in a grim line.

“Where? What makes her powerful enough to send an assassin and demand—” I stopped. I already knew the answer.

So did Em.

“She’s part of the consequence Cat warned me about before I went back to save Michael.” Em slumped back hard on the sofa. Dust flew two feet in the air. “Teague must be part of the Powers That Be.”

“The Powers That Be.” Dad nodded. “Chronos.”

Dune placed his elbows on his knees, and one of his dark brown dreads escaped the leather tie, swinging into his eyes. He ignored it. “I thought Chronos was a myth.”

“That’s what they want you to think.” Dad’s voice was grim and layered in what felt like years of frustration.

Dune’s focus drifted toward Dad’s bookcase and his hourglass collection. They were the only things on the shelves that weren’t dusty.

“I didn’t follow Teague,” Dad explained, his expression resigned. “I’d begun researching the time gene, and I was ready to start the Hourglass. Cameron College offered me a position, and Cat and Jack followed me to Ivy Springs. It was past time to get out. She wasn’t completely certain how it worked, but Teague knew about my ability and Cat’s, as well as Grace’s.”

My stomach took a dive at the sound of my mother’s name.

“Why does Teague want Jack now? How can he repair the damage he …
we
did to the continuum?” Em focused on a spot on the floor.
Pain. Sadness.
But not one hint of regret. Michael took her hand.

“Poe didn’t say that Jack could repair the continuum.” I nudged Em’s knee with my elbow. “He said if we found Jack, there was a possibility the continuum could be repaired. You were kind of … out of pocket for that part.”

“Oh yeah. I was on the ground bleeding to death.” Em laughed halfheartedly.

No one else did.

“
Can
Jack fix the continuum?” I asked.

Dad put his hands in his pockets and leaned against the bookcase. He was hiding so much. I could feel it, but I couldn’t explain any of it. “I don’t think that’s why Teague wants him.”

“Why, then?” Em asked.

“That’s not for you kids to worry about.” He was protecting us. He was also terrified. After pausing for a moment, he seemed to make a decision. “I’ve already said too much. The message from Teague was for me, not all of you.”

“What? That can’t be it. We still have questions.” I pulled myself to my feet, angry. “You have to let us help you.”

“No, I don’t.” Dad shrugged with an air of finality, and then stepped forward to shuffle papers on his desk.

“Yes, you do.” I spoke firmly, enunciating, letting Dad know that I didn’t plan on backing down. “Everyone in this room was part of the plan to bring you back. If that doesn’t give us full rights as Hourglass members, then something is way wrong.”

“I have the help I need.” Dad’s words didn’t give the answer away, but Michael’s emotions did. I spun around to face him.

I shook my head in disgust. “Why doesn’t somebody just make you a freaking superhero cape?”

Michael’s expression didn’t change.

“Son. Michael’s an adult, and he’s capable of making his own decisions.”

“He’s nineteen.”

“I refuse to put anyone else in jeopardy, especially if they’re underage. What happened last year almost ruined us.”

“Oh, what, you mean how enrollment at school dropped after you blew up in your lab?” I laughed bitterly. “Or when it dropped after you came back from the dead? I can see why you’d jump to Michael for help, considering what an ‘adult’ handle he had on that situation.”

“All of this falls squarely on me,” Em spoke up. “Jack compromised the continuum because he wanted my ability to travel to the past. It’s not right for me to sit safely and act like I’m not responsible.”

“Jack didn’t kill me because of you, Emerson,” Dad assured her. “He wanted the Hourglass, and after that was his, he got greedy. He tried to use you as a tool for some grander scheme to change something in his past.”

“Please, Liam.” Em scooted to the edge of the couch and leaned forward, staring until Dad met her eyes. “I want to be a tool for the right reasons. Let me help.”

“Michael and I can handle it,” Dad insisted, his eyes shuttering any emotion. “I only wanted to catch you all up to speed. Oh, but I do need one thing. Someone to tell Ava that Jack is back.”

Everyone looked at me.

Chapter 6

I

“We have to talk,” I said, when Ava answered.

She tried to slam the door in my face.

I stuck out my foot to block it, glad I was wearing boots. It bounced off and swung open. “I’m serious.”

“I’m serious, too. I don’t want to deal with you today.” Ignoring me, she went to the couch and picked up the television remote. When she pressed a button, a scene from nineteenth-century England disappeared from the TV screen. “Besides, there’s nothing we need to discuss.”

She wore a tank top, and I could see every detail of her shoulders and collarbones beneath the tiny straps. Too skinny to begin with, she was starting to resemble those runway models who ate cotton instead of real food because it was chewy and calorie free.

“Actually, there’s a lot to discuss.”

“Go home, Kaleb,” she said, with barely concealed disgust.

A couple of weeks ago, Ava and I had run into each other after school. Physically ran into each other. I’d tapped into her emotions against my will. She’d been wound so tight I went against my better judgment and asked her if she was okay. One word of kindness, and she’d spilled her guts. We’d ended up huddled together on the floor while she cried until all her tears were gone.

Jack Landers did terrible things to her that no one deserved. Things she couldn’t remember, but could still feel.

Until that day, I’d had no idea. We weren’t exactly friends now, but we weren’t enemies, either. I didn’t call her The Shining anymore, but things were at least twelve shades of awkward between us.

I pulled at the roots of my hair, glad I’d started growing it out so I had some to grab in frustration. I tried again. “I know you don’t like me—”

“And I’m your favorite person?”

I stood my ground.

“Fine,” she said. “Why are you here? Have you added sadomasochism to your list of extracurriculars?”

“No. It’s about Jack—”

She raised a long, skinny arm and pointed at the door. “Get out.”

“Stop cutting me off,” I yelled, instantly sorry when she flinched. I tried again in a lower voice. “You have to hear this. We called a truce, remember? All I’m asking for is a few minutes.”

Her face remained blank. “I’ll give you three.”

“He’s back.”

She stared at me, her face going paler with every passing second. “Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

“Did you see him? With your own eyes?”

I nodded.

She seemed to lose the strength to stand, and slid down the arm of the couch onto the cushion with a soft thump. “Where?”

“Last night. He showed up at the masquerade party, but he was gone before I could get to him. Popped in and out. Not before he tried to take a shot at me. With a gun.”

Across the room, a mug on a sideboard rattled and then jumped before slamming into the wall. Black coffee dripped down the patterned wallpaper.

I stared openmouthed. I’d never seen any evidence of Ava’s ability in person.

“What do you mean ‘popped in and out’?” she asked, ignoring the splattered coffee. “Why didn’t you stop him?”

“I tried.” I explained Chronos and the ultimatum, but left out the part about Em and the throat slashing. “We have until Halloween to find Jack. Or we’re at the mercy of Chronos.”

When she shivered, I handed her a sweater from the back of the couch. She pushed her arms into the sleeves and wrapped herself in it.

“Hey,” I said in what I hoped was a comforting voice, “it’s going to be okay. He won’t get to you again. We won’t let him.”

“How? Is someone going to be with me twenty-four/seven?” The remote rattled on the glass end table but stayed put. Ava closed her eyes and took a couple of deep breaths. “Not just me, what about Emerson? What about about your mom? He worked here, for years. He knows this place inside and out.”

Dread.

“You’re alone out here,” I said in sudden realization.

“Thank you, Captain Obvious.”

One of Ava’s roommates had graduated; the other two didn’t return to the Hourglass school for the year. Probably because of the whole “the school’s founder blew up in his lab and then came back from the dead and, by the way, your classmate killed him” thing. I made a snap decision. “I think you should move into our guest room.”

“What?” Ava snorted in disbelief.
Shock. A little bit of hope.
“Are you drunk?”

“Not right now.” I stared at the coffee stain on the wall. “What Jack did to you is wrong. The things he did to all of us are wrong. We’re going to have to get past it all if we’re going to find him, and you’re going to have to trust me.”

“Trust you?” She shook her head. “Me, trust you?”

“Please stop fighting with me all the time.”

Abruptly, she stood and disappeared into the tiny kitchen, staying away long enough that I wondered if I should go after her. Then she returned with a handful of paper towels and dropped to her knees to wipe furiously at the coffee-stained wall.

“Kaleb, I don’t want to fight with you. I don’t want to fight with anyone. But you just asked me to trust you. What about you trusting me? How can any of you stand to look at me?” An ocean of desolation and loneliness waved across the room. “After everything that happened, how could you ask me to move into
your house
? I killed your father.”

“The past is the past.” A world of hurt revolved inside her, so twisted I wasn’t sure how to respond. I stood, reached her in three steps, and kneeled down beside her. She stilled but didn’t meet my eyes. “What happened wasn’t your fault. It was Jack and Cat’s. They used you, forced you.”

“That’s not true. How could I have done those things—pursued Michael that way, been jealous of Emerson to the point of hating her, tried to
kill
your dad—and succeeded—unless I wanted to?” There were tears in her eyes, and her skin was blotchy. “I had to want to, right?”

“I don’t think we understand everything about Jack. We didn’t even know about his ability to steal people’s memories. Think about it. No one ever asked why he was here. Or maybe we did, and he took the memory away from us.”

Ava picked up the now empty coffee cup and placed the remaining paper towels on the sideboard. “Taking too many memories without replacing them leaves a void.”

A void like the one inside her. It was terrifying, the nasty, black, hate-filled pockets of self-loathing, the empty spaces where fear and doubt took up residence. Nothing changed her emotional landscape. Joy never managed to creep into the mix, overtake the darkness, offer hope.

If my mom ever woke up, I wondered if she’d feel the same way.

“Well, then, let’s make sure it doesn’t happen again.” I took the coffee cup out of her hand and nodded toward her room. “Just start packing.”

I’d carried the last bag to Ava’s new room in my house when my cell rang.

“It’s Em,” she said when I picked up. She hadn’t waited for a hello, and she didn’t take a breath before continuing. “After the meeting today, Michael and I had an argument—I mean, a discussion—and now we need you to come downtown.”

“I don’t do couples counseling.”

She made a raspberry sound into the phone. “Just come meet us. Have you ever heard of Murphy’s Law Coffee?”