Timepiece (Hourglass 2)

I made sure the blinds and curtains were drawn before I clicked on another lamp. I immediately turned it off. The darker the better for now.

“Ready?” I asked her.

Half of Lily’s face was cast in shadows. I didn’t have to see her to feel her sorrow.

“I am so sorry it’s come to this,” I said.

“I was willing to help before I was forced into a corner. We’ll make this right. Together.”

We sat down on the couch and put the Skroll between us. Stealing it from Dune’s room had been easy enough; he slept like a rock.

Trying to remember how he’d opened it was a little harder.

“Dune said that everything he’d seen in the Skroll related to either the Infinityglass or Chronos. We’re just going to cross our fingers and hope there’s something specific, some clue that points us in the right direction. To the right map.”

“I’ve never looked for anything I haven’t seen before.” Lily’s legs bounced as she waited. “What if I can’t find the Infinityglass? What if I find it and it’s in Africa? What will we do then?”

“If Jack or Teague thought the Infinityglass was in Africa, they’d be in Africa.”

“But—”

“Listen to me.” I put my hand on her leg. “It has to be close. All the key players are here. This isn’t a coincidence.”

“I hope not.”

“Here we go.” The holographic screen appeared between us, bright in the dim room. Lily reached over to turn off the tiny lamp and then faced me again.

I tapped the map icon on the screen with the stylus. Maps rotated in a circle as they projected from the screen.

“Any you feel good about?” I asked.

Lily watched them spin. “Let’s start big and work our way in. There’s a modern world map.”

I touched the corresponding map on the screen, using the stylus, and it projected into the air. I did it again, and the map spread out across the screen.

“Okay, close your eyes. We’ll practice.” I took her hands and put them on the screen. “Now try to find the Lincoln Memorial.”

She tapped her fingers across the map; once she hit DC, she stopped. “Here.”

“You got it.” I changed the dimensions and size, as well as turning the map sideways. “The Space Needle.”

She found it immediately.

“Don’t open your eyes. The Arc de Triomphe.”

ing out for Lily, I tagged her shoulder and pointed at Jack. I held my finger up in front of my lips. We both stopped short, and I moved in front of her.

More terrifying than the sight of him was what I could feel.

I could read him.

I now knew for certain that he’d been blocking me for years, maybe as long as I’d known him. Peeling back layers of emotion was part of the necessary process to read someone deeply. Jack’s outer layer was black, the same kind of blackness I’d felt from Ava so many times. Peeling away his emotions like an onion, I half expected to find some kind of redeeming quality, but it never came.

He was rotten to the core.

It felt like the read had taken hours, falling through the darkness of Jack’s soul, but it had only been a few seconds. I’d never experienced that kind of decay. Utter corruption. Greed and deceit. Desolation and desperation. The teeming need for control and power. The need to destroy.

If I could get out of this rip, I’d kill him. I’d find him, and I’d kill him for all the things he’d done to me and to the people I loved.