Timepiece: An Hourglass Novel (17 page)

Chapter 35

W

e strolled.

I’d never really taken a leisurely trip around downtown Ivy Springs, and definitely not with a girl. Lily’s spikes of emotion told me that she was processing all the things her grandmother had told her. I knew that when she was ready to talk, I’d be the one to listen. She trusted me.

That pleased me in ways I couldn’t explain.

A pumpkin carving contest took up most of the town square. People were everywhere, spilling out from cafés and sitting on benches. I didn’t want to be in a crowd and neither did Lily, so we ended up at Sugar High, a candy shop decorated like a high school hallway. Pep rally and prom ticket posters decorated the wall, there was even the occasional announcement over the loudspeaker. The locker doors were clear and showcased row after row of any candy imaginable. I was currently making my way through a half pound of Atomic Fireballs. Lily watched, drinking mint hot chocolate.

“She loves you,” I finally said.

“Of course she does. She sacrificed her life, her family, her homeland, just to bring me here. To keep me safe.”

I gathered up the empty wrappers on the table and leaned my chair back to drop them into the closest trash can. “There’s not an ounce of regret in her, Tiger. She’d do it a hundred times over.”

“I know that, too.” She stared off into space, twisting the Styrofoam cup of hot chocolate around in her hands. I jumped when she slammed it down so hard on the table the contents sloshed over the sides. “But she’s still forbidding me to use my ability. This whole thing
blows.
”

A mom shot Lily a mean look and covered her son’s ears before scuttling him to the other side of the store.

“Abi’s not being reasonable,” she said a few seconds later, wiping the spilled hot chocolate up and shoving the dirty napkin in her cup. “She knows how important it is to me, or I wouldn’t have asked. She knows how much I care about Em, and I told her how I feel about you—”

“Me?”

“I … I mean, about how I felt … like finding Jack was the right thing to—”

“No.” I grinned. I couldn’t help it. “You told your grandmother how you feel about me. How do you feel about me?”

“We’ve already established that I don’t like you.” Her voice was haughty, but her heart wasn’t in it. She sighed. “You’re exactly the kind of boy my grandmother has always warned me to avoid.”

“‘Boy?’” I sat up straighter, sticking out my chest. “What kind of
man
would I be, exactly?”

“A temptation.” She threw her cup at the trash can, sinking an impressive three pointer.

“Like the snake in the Garden of Eden?”

“No. More like the apple.”

“The apple?” I asked.

“Yeah. I’m pretty sure Eve never considered taking a bite out of the snake.”

When I realized my mouth was hanging wide open, I shut it. “Okay.”

“Back on task.” She banged her fist on the table, like a judge calling a courtroom to attention. “Why haven’t you asked me to break Abi’s rule?”

I tried to refocus. “Your level of respect for her, and how much she adores you. I think because of the life she gave up, you feel you owe her. You only owe her your well-being.”

Lily stood up, dissecting the statement as we walked outside to continue our stroll. “How do I owe her for my well-being?”

“Parents, grandparents, whoever—they do what they can to keep us safe. Sometimes that involves secrets.” My dad kept the Infinityglass from me because my mom had forbidden it. He’d left Memphis to protect us, as well as his interests. He served as a guardian to every person he’d researched. By letting Jack Landers get away with Dad’s personal files, I’d failed to protect the very same people. “Abi thought she was doing the right thing by keeping the truth from you, she honestly did, and you know I know.”

“You sound very mature.”

I shrugged. “What she said about your dad and the people he works for made me realize how bad things could be if you went back to Cuba. She’s not just scared that could happen, she’s bone-deep terrified.”

So was I.

“And you don’t feel the same way about what could happen to you? To your dad?”

“We still have some time. We’ll find another way.” I didn’t even want to think about putting Lily in danger. It twisted my stomach into knots. “So. I’m an apple, huh? The apple of your eye?”

“Kaleb.” She stopped walking and her cheeks turned bright pink. “I’m uncomfortably aware that you know how I feel right now.”

“I do?”

Hope. Anticipation. Uncertainty.

“Yeah, I do,” I admitted. My heart sped up in my chest. “But I try not to rely on my … ability in situations where a misread could be fatal.”

“Fatal?”

I was losing cool points so fast I was running into negative numbers. “What if I read you wrong?”

“Pretty sure that won’t happen.” Her expression was as direct as her words. “I was thinking about something last night right before I fell asleep. When people feel emotions, you feel them, too. So it’s a … mutual experience kind of thing?”

Her perceptiveness was unnerving. Almost as unnerving as the fact that she thought about me while falling asleep. In her bed.

“Mutual. Yes. I mean … it … it’s complicated.”

Intrigue
. “So how would you feel right now … if … we touched?”

“I guess it would depend on how you felt about me. There are a lot of triggers with touching. Intensity, circumstances.” I lost track of what I was saying when she smoothed her hand across my chest and halfway down my stomach. Her touch made my toes want to curl all the way through the soles of my shoes, and not for purely physical reasons. “I don’t … I’m not sure.”

Smiling, she pulled her hand away and started walking again. No one had ever caught on to this part of my ability before. Except my mom. And that was a whole different thing. We shared happiness when we made cookies together.

Lily was
not
referencing cookies.

I realized she was ten feet away and I caught up.

“It would depend on how I felt,” she said. “If I felt good, you would, too?”

“Yup.”

“If I felt good physically, or emotionally?”

“Yup. Either. Both.”

“Am I making you uncomfortable?”

“Yup.” I didn’t know why, exactly. It’s not like I was shy. Or innocent.

“Knowing that things rebound back to you has to be addictive.” When we reached Murphy’s Law, she stopped at the stairs leading up to her apartment. “I’d be spending a lot of time making people feel good.”

“The appeal of making a lot of people feel good isn’t what it used to be. I think maybe I’d just like to focus on one.”

“You sure about that?”

“Yup.”

And it shocked the hell out of me.

A faint hint of a smile touched her lips.

“Are you going to be all right?” I asked. “Do you need me to go in with you?”

“No. Abi and I have a lot to talk about.”

She stood up on her tiptoes to kiss my cheek.

I watched her until she stepped inside, and I knew she was safe.

Chapter 36

T

he next morning when I woke up I went straight to the pool house. I had to tell Michael that we’d lost our direct connection to Jack, and that using Lily was no longer an option.

I had Jack’s watch in my jacket pocket. The morning air was crisp, and steam rose from the pool in a fog. Leaving the heater on and paying the service was such a waste. I didn’t know if I’d ever swim in it again. I knocked lightly, but no one answered. Probably still in bed.

After debating whether or not I should wake Mike up, I decided it was too urgent to wait. I turned the knob, and then froze when I heard his voice.

“… last time I saw you, you were pointing a gun at me. I have no reason at all to trust you.”
So much rage
. Not a common feeling from Michael.

“He used me.”
Nothing.

“He’s still using you, Cat, and you’re letting him. He’s traveling, and the continuum is getting worse.”

Cat.

She’d been like a sister to me before she turned on my family and actively participated in my dad’s death.

My rage blew Michael’s out of the stratosphere. I slammed the door open so hard it bounced off the wall. “Why haven’t you broken her neck yet? She’s a waste. There’s no way you’re going to get the truth from her.”

Cat’s arrival must have surprised Michael. His hair was still wet from the shower and he didn’t have on a shirt. He stood on one side of the couch and she stood on the other, next to the open sliding glass doors and the snack bar. Her mahogany skin looked ashen, her brown eyes dull. Her short hair had started to grow out, sticking up in awkward angles from her head. She hadn’t been taking care of herself. Jack hadn’t been taking care of her, either.

“I’m here to ask forgiveness,” Cat said, her eyes widening as she looked up at me. An act, just like our entire relationship.

“Don’t.” I held up my hand. “Don’t even open your mouth. If I didn’t know Mike would stop me, I’d choke you to death with my bare hands right now.”

“Go ahead,” Michael said. “My superhero cape is at the cleaners.”

“Just listen,” she pleaded, holding up her hand, edging closer. “I have information. I can help you.”

“Does he know you’re here?” I asked. “Does he know you’re about to sell him out?”

Sudden movement behind Cat caught my attention.

“I know everything.”

Jack, looking pampered and perfectly healthy.

We locked eyes for two seconds before he lunged and grabbed Cat. I rushed him, with Michael right behind me. Propelling myself forward, I reached for Jack’s shirtsleeve, my fingers just missing it as he kicked the stools from the snack bar into our path. I smashed into them, Michael ran into me, and we both went down.

By the time we were up, they were gone.

I growled in frustration and slammed my fist into the wall. “Damn it!”

Michael jerked the bar stools to an upright position. “He’s not gone forever. Lily can track him through the pocket watch.”

I pulled the pocket watch out and swung it by the chain in front of Michael’s face. “No. She can’t.”

“If you have the pocket watch, how did Jack get in and out of here so fast? He needs duronium to travel.” Michael sat down on the edge of the couch, his elbows on his knees and his head in his hands.

“I don’t know.”

“I’m sick of not knowing. What he’s doing, what the future holds.” He paused, on the verge of telling me something he was afraid to share.

I waited him out.

“She was with you.”

“What?”

“When I didn’t make it back. When I died saving your dad. I traveled to the future to make sure she’d be okay. On that time line, before she broke the rules to come back and get me, Em was with you.” The honesty cost him. “
With you
with you.”

“She loves you.” I sat down. “That would never happen.”

“Even if I’m dead?” Michael’s laugh didn’t match the morbidity of the statement. “There’s no way to know. Travel used to have rules, and now everything is completely out of control.”

I listened. Which was exactly what he needed.

He started to pace. “The fact is that, even if time is rewound, you’ll still exist, and Em will still exist. Maybe in a different state of being. She could be … sick. She could be the broken Em that was the sole survivor of a terrible bus accident. She could be medicated out of her mind.”

“I wouldn’t know her if that was the case,” I argued. I didn’t want to think of Em like that.

“She’s in your father’s files. Maybe you’ll go find her.” He lifted his hands. “Or maybe you’ll take over for Liam, and you’ll see someone like your mom, and you’ll want to help her.”

“What exactly did you see?”

He stopped and turned toward the window. He could hide his face, but not his emotions. Not from me.

“Michael?”

“You were holding her. On your lap, in your arms. You were on the front porch of your house, sitting in one of your mother’s rocking chairs, and you were holding her.” He sounded so resigned, like he was willing to surrender without a fight. “You keep showing up, loving her when she needs it most.”

“I do love Em. But it hasn’t progressed the way I thought it would at first.” I searched my soul for the truth. “I don’t want to take your place. I couldn’t.”

He faced me. “I hope we never have to find out if that’s true.”

“We both know the future is subjective. Just because you saw us together … doesn’t mean it’s going to happen,” I said. “And so many things would change. Like Lily.”

“She’s different for you, isn’t she? You look at her when she talks,” Michael said, watching me. “Weigh what she has to say.”

“Because what she has to say matters,” I said. “She matters.”

“Have you told her?”

“No.” But I’d thought about it all night.

He smiled. It, along with his emotions, was bittersweet. “What are you waiting for?”

“I don’t know. That’s a lie. I’m scared. That she won’t feel the same way. That she will.” I stood up and took over Michael’s pacing. “I mean, I’ve never done this.”

“One question.” He paused until I stopped and looked at him. “Is she worth it?”

I didn’t hesistate. “Yes.”

“Then tell her.”

Chapter 37

I

’d been standing downtown for an hour, trying to work up my nerve, watching mothers picking up or dropping off their daughters at the Ivy Springs School of Dance. There was an overabundance of pink, glitter, and hair twisted up in buns. The buns made me think of Lily.

But, then, everything did.

A white van pulled up in front of Murphy’s Law across the street, and I watched as a guy in khaki pants took a dolly out of the back and huffed into his hands to warm them before he rolled it inside. A cold front was moving in, the first taste of winter. Storms always followed.

A minute later, the man came out with a full load of bakery boxes. They had the Murphy’s Law logo on them, bright blue and white.

When he left, I’d go over there.

I would.

“Kaleb?” I looked away when a girl with really blue eyes and red hair stepped into my line of vision. She had a bun and tights, too. I tried to place her, but all I could remember was that her name started with an
A
. “I’m Ainsley. We met at Wild Bill’s last summer.”

I smiled, but inwardly I was cussing like a freak. I remembered her now. The night Michael had to come downtown to get me from the bar, right before I met Em. I’d had a little too much fun. How much, exactly, I didn’t know. “How are you?”

“Wondering why you never called me.” The blue eyes held a hint of disappointment.

Apparently, not calling was a trend with me.

“I thought we had a good time,” she continued, and then gave me pouty lips that I think she meant to be sexy. They weren’t.

“There’s been a lot of … stuff happening.”
My dad came back from the dead, an attempt was made on my life
,
I didn’t remember you existed.
“Sorry about that.”

“Well, it’s lucky we ran into each other now.” After digging around in her duffel bag, she fished out a permanent marker and grabbed my hand, pulling it toward her. She wrote her number on my palm, and then curled each of my fingers around it. “Don’t lose it this time.”

And then, right there in the middle of the sidewalk, she kissed me.

Just as Lily came out of Murphy’s Law.

“Oh no.” I pulled away from Ainsley.

Really?
Really?

Ava stepped out of the dance studio, raising the lapels of her peacoat together to block out the wind. She had on tights and a scuffed-up pair of pink ballet shoes, and her auburn hair was pulled into a tight bun. I hadn’t really talked to her since helping her move in.

“Hi, Ainsley. I didn’t know you knew Kaleb.” Ava’s voice was sweeter than I’d ever heard it.

“I didn’t know
you
knew Kaleb.” Ainsley’s voice was ice-cold.

Ava sensed something was up, either because I’d broken out in a sweat, or because Ainsley was looking at me like I was her lunch money and Ava was about to steal me.

“I do know Kaleb.” Ava wrapped her arm around mine and winked up at me. “We go way back.”

I looked from Ainsley to Ava, trying to figure out what the hell was going on.

Lily stood fifteen feet away, a bakery box in each hand, her head tilted to the side. And she was
pissed.

“So is there something between you two?” Ainsley asked. “Do you date?”

I tried to make eye contact with Lily, give her some kind of sign that I wasn’t an active participant in what was going on.

“I think ‘something between us’ accurately describes it,” Ava answered.

Lily smiled briefly at the man as he took the bakery boxes and put them in his trunk.

“I guess that was a waste of Sharpie,” Ainsley said, gesturing toward my hand before wrinkling up her nose. “I can’t believe you’re with Ava. She’s like a walking skeleton.”

“Aw, thanks,” Ava answered. “We all have our strengths. At least I don’t misplace my panties on a regular basis like some people do. Keeping them on helps with that, by the way.”

Ainsley stalked into the studio on straight legs. I craned my neck, trying to catch another glimpse of Lily. She was gone.

“Kaleb Ballard. Please tell me you did not hook up with Ainsely.” Ava’s voice was full of disgust.

I had to explain things to Lily. A line extended all the way out the door of Murphy’s Law, and her emotions had been pretty clear, even from across the street. I could wait until the crowd thinned out.

“Did you?” Ava demanded.

I realized that she was talking to me, and I looked away from Murphy’s Law. “I don’t think so. I might have been in the process at one point.”

“That girl is crazy pants.”

I laughed. “Crazy pants?”

“Yes.” Ava waved the question away. “It’s a thing. Anyway, I’d take a swim in some turpentine before that number soaks into your skin. It might turn into a brand.”

“Thanks for coming to my rescue.” I fought against sneaking another glimpse at Murphy’s Law, hoping Lily would reappear. “Wait. Why did you? You don’t like me.”

“You had a panicked look on your face.”

“That should make you happy.”

“It’s true, not too long ago, I would’ve thrown you to the wolves. Maybe told her you couldn’t stop talking about her, that you drew her name inside hearts on all your notebooks, had her picture in your locker.”

“That’s pretty harsh,” I said. “And I don’t have a locker.”

“Wouldn’t have mattered. My hate knew no limits. But,” she said, removing her arm from around mine, “I’ve been thinking about what we talked about in the gatehouse. All the things that happened—that I did—last year.”

“What did you come up with?” I asked.

“Jack.” She stared at her feet. “I guess he figured out I’d be easier to use and abuse if I felt alienated from the rest of you.”

“Separate you from the pack.”

She nodded.

“Yeah. Predators always go for the weakest animal.”

Ava was so broken on the inside. I wished I could dissect it all, help her figure out the truths and the lies.

“You know, I don’t even really know what my ability is. I mean, it’s telekinesis, but not the garden variety. I think Jack knows, and I think he took away anything I knew. He’ll use it against me again. If he gets another chance.”

A couple of raindrops splattered against the sidewalk. “We’ll make sure he doesn’t.”

“It won’t be easy. I was valuable to him. Valuable enough to seduce. I just don’t know why, or when he’ll come back for me.”

“Ava, I’m so sorry.”

“The worst part is … I don’t even know if I … did anything. With him.” She shuddered and closed her eyes. “But the fact that I thought about it is bad enough. He made sure to leave those memories intact.”

I understood her blackness a little bit better now.

Ava opened her eyes. “Sorry. That’s too much information, I know. I just don’t really have anyone to talk to about that kind of stuff.”

“If you don’t feel too awkward, you can talk to me whenever you want.” I frowned down at Ava in dismay, shocked I’d made the offer.

Her expression must have mirrored my own. “Let’s take twenty-four hours to think about that. Then we’ll reassess.”

“Okay.”

“Okay,” she said. “But thank you. I need an ally. I feel like he’s three steps ahead of us in some crazy game, and he already knows who’s going to win.”

“We will,” I promised her. “We will.”

“I hope you’re right.” She shook her head. “Because if you aren’t, Hell’s going to come down on us like rain.”