The time in the shower gave me more clarity about what I’d seen at the Hourglass. If what I believed to be true was in fact true, there were questions that needed to be answered.
And … Michael was gone. I had to make a choice. I could either break the same way I had when I lost my parents, or I could do whatever it took to find some kind of justice for him. I knew what would be easiest. I also knew what would be right.
I didn’t know which choice would win.
I dressed and took the silver circle from the center of Michael’s bed and tucked it into the pocket of the hoodie. Descending the stairs slowly, I winced each time my knees bent. One step at a time, one foot in front of the other, every forward motion another strain on the tightrope of my emotions. I passed by the common room, refusing to look at the couch or the clock, and stopped outside the kitchen.
Just function, Emerson. You can’t drown in it yet. There are things that have to be done.
After a few deep breaths I opened the door and stuck my head in. It still smelled like popcorn.
“Hi.” Cat was alone at the kitchen table. She stood, reaching out to help me into a chair. “Kaleb said you were going to let me look you over.”
“The only thing that really hurts is my shoulder.”
And my heart. But I doubted she could help me with that.
“Which one is it?” she asked.
“The right,” I answered, counting it as a tiny victory when my lips didn’t tremble.
She carefully pulled the hoodie to the side, making a pained face when she saw the bruise. “Liam said he threw you to the ground when the building blew up. Is that when this happened?”
Something she said sounded strange, distracting me from my pain. Both physical and emotional.
“Blew up.” The building had blown up. Everything I’d read or heard indicated that there had been a fire, but never an explosion.
Cat seemed confused. “Am I wrong? Did I misunderstand Liam?”
I ignored her questions. “Where’s Ava?”
“I don’t know. No one’s seen her.”
“I saw her. In the past. She was standing with a man, watching the lab burn.” Sorrow made my chest tight, and I checked my grief so I could continue coherently. “I thought I recognized him.”
“What did he look like?”
“Tall. Broad shoulders. Light hair.”
Cat’s face remained immobile. “And you recognized him?”
“Yes.” I didn’t think she’d like it when I told her how. “I’ve met him.”
“What?”
I crossed my arms on the table and laid my head down on top of them.
Everyone might think Landers had disappeared because he’d taken off with Liam’s files. But he hadn’t really.
He’d been living in my loft.
The late-morning air was crisp. Somewhere someone burned leaves. Kaleb and Liam sat in glider chairs in the backyard underneath an ancient oak tree. The overhanging branches dropped newly turned autumn leaves like rain. As they fell, the sun touched them from the east, setting them aglow.
It should have been a beautiful day.
“Liam.” Cat approached them, her arms over her chest to brace herself against the chill in the air. Or maybe to protect herself from Liam’s reaction. “I’m sorry to interrupt. We have to talk.”
“It’s fine, Cat.” Something about his face was older than it had been yesterday. He pushed his foot against the ground, gliding back and forth in his chair. “Good morning, Emerson.”
“Morning.” I failed to see anything good about it.
Kaleb offered me his seat. I made a sound of protest, but he took me by the wrists anyway, avoiding my injured hands, and guided me into the chair.
Sparing Cat the difficulty of figuring out how to break the news, I said, “Jonathan Landers has been living in my bedroom.”
No one spoke. Liam froze midglide. Kaleb swung his head around to stare at me.
“I didn’t know it was him. He told me his name was Jack.”
“Jack is his childhood nickname,” Cat murmured.
“I made the connection last night, but it didn’t sink in until this morning. I thought he was a ripple until I tried to pop him and he didn’t disappear. He was … semisolid.”
Liam leaned forward in his chair, placing his hands on his knees. His wedding band was encircled by infinity symbols. That must have been how he got through the bridge last night.
“When did you first see him?”
“The night the restaurant opened. A couple of weeks ago.”
A lifetime ago.
“Living in your bedroom … was he there all the time? How did he appear to you?” Liam asked calmly.
“He’d be there, and then he’d be gone.” My body felt heavy, weighted down by shame and sorrow. “Now I realize that there’s probably a bridge in my room that I couldn’t see before. I think he was traveling through it. Using the veil to disappear quickly.”
“Did you ever see him when Michael was around?” Cat asked.
“No. But I did see him in Michael’s loft once when I was in there alone. Jack claimed to be watching him. Michael’s room is … was on the other side of the wall from mine.” I focused on the ground, counting acorns. I wouldn’t think about where he used to sleep. I wouldn’t think about the pull I’d felt toward him, even through the concrete wall. “The veil must be divided by the two rooms.”
Liam stroked his beard. I wondered if it was a nervous habit, the way Michael always twisted his thumb ring. The memory threatened to slice me open.
“But how?” Cat’s skin had a pale gray sheen. “He doesn’t carry the travel gene.”
Liam stood up from the chair and began to pace. “There are rumors of ways to travel if you don’t carry the specific gene, but they go against everything the Hourglass stands for—against the laws of nature and man. The cost would be dire.”
“Landers doesn’t care about any laws.” A shower of leaves fell from the tree beside us when Kaleb plunged his fist into the bark. “He only cares about himself.”
“What kind of cost?” I asked Liam. “Who would make him pay?”
He stopped pacing. “Among others, the universe itself.”
“The ripples are changing. I started out seeing one person, now I’m seeing groups, snippets of scenery. I thought Jack was part of that, or something new that I didn’t understand yet.”
“You’re seeing entire scenes?” The look of intensity on Liam’s face made my heart constrict. “Multiple people?”
“What does it mean?” I asked tightly.
“I’m not sure,” he answered. “But if ripples are growing, bleeding through the fabric of time, we have more to worry about than Jonathan Landers.”
I didn’t think I could handle worrying about more than Jonathan Landers.
Even with Liam alive and prepared to regain control at the Hourglass, Jack still had enough information to be dangerous. Information about me, my family. He had names and addresses of people with special abilities. Whether I was his intended target or not, I didn’t doubt he would attempt to exploit every single person on the list.
“We need to find him.” Kaleb kicked at the freshly fallen leaves that littered the ground. “We need to go to Em’s loft and pull him out of the bridge.”