Hourglass (Hourglass 1)

“Thank you,” he said.

I nodded.

Michael walked into the kitchen alone. I took my hand from Kaleb, but not before Michael saw it. I watched it register.

He didn’t like it.

“Did you get your ticket booked?” Kaleb asked with saccharine sweetness, all the cockiness back full force. “Are you traveling first class?”

I spoke up before he and Kaleb could start fighting again.

“Speaking of travel, when are we going to travel?” I asked. Meeting Kaleb had only made me more certain I was doing the right thing. There was a face attached to the problem now, making it more real somehow.

“Soon, I hope,” Michael answered. “We’ll have to fill Cat in, of course, and make sure she’s on board.”

“What are we waiting for?” I stood up. “Let’s go.”

“Hold it. Isn’t it a little soon?” Kaleb asked. “You just learned about your ability. Are you sure you’re ready for this?”

I looked at him. “The sooner we travel, the sooner you can get your dad back.”

Kaleb stared back at me. I knew he was trying to read me, probably looking for fear.

He wasn’t going to find any.

Chapter 34

I followed Michael and Kaleb in Dru’s car as we drove through the college campus and parked in front of the science department. Thomas had studied the classical architecture of the well-preserved stone and brick buildings when he’d decided which direction to take the downtown area of Ivy Springs. Like downtown, the buildings felt stoic, solid, comfortable. And old.

Old and I never meshed well.

A wide staircase led us up to the second floor. The smell of book bindings and chalk permeated the hallways. A deep monotone voice carried from a classroom into the hallway, lecturing about the properties of metals. Papers fluttered as we blew past bulletin boards advertising who knows what. I kept my eyes trained on Kaleb’s broad back.

Cat’s exclamation of surprise at our appearance broke my concentration. We’d entered some sort of laboratory with tubes and beakers and burners and a whiteboard full of equations. She ushered us in and shut the door.

“Kaleb, after last night I’m shocked to see you among the living. I was quite sure you’d be under the weather until tomorrow at least.” Her eyes held a mixture of worry and relief behind a pair of rhinestone reading glasses. I wondered if they were hers, or if she borrowed them from a much older professor, one with blue hair and wrinkles to rival a shar-pei.

“Yeah, sorry about that.” Kaleb rubbed the back of his neck as two bright spots of color appeared on his cheeks. “I’m not sure what happened.”

She gave him a tight smile that promised more discussion later and turned her attention to Michael and me. “What brings you to the hallowed halls of academia? Did you have some more questions, Emerson?”

“She didn’t.” Michael stepped in to rescue me. “I have something I need to confess. It couldn’t wait.”

Cat slid the reading glasses from her nose and leaned back against the lab table. “Confess?”

My heart sped up in anticipation. So much hinged on Cat’s acceptance of Michael’s plan. He began to explain and I mentally crossed my fingers.

“A couple of months ago, I received a voice mail from someone I didn’t recognize requesting a meeting at Riverbend Park.” He shot me a sidelong glance. “Just off the main path, in a grove of trees. It was Em. Well, the Em from ten years from now. She told me how and when to contact Thomas to offer my services, as well as what I’d need to know to convince her I was legit. She also told me to research the Novikov Principle.”

“What?” Cat breathed the word out, lifting her hands to brace herself against the table behind her. I studied Michael’s face, intrigued by his revelation.

“No travel rules were broken,” he explained hurriedly to Cat, avoiding my eyes. He said the next words deliberately. “She told me the two of us were a pair. She could help me do what no one else could.”

Cat pushed away from the table, causing it to shake violently. Glass rattled and liquid splashed, hissing as it ran into the flame of the burner. “You want to save Liam.”

Michael nodded, but didn’t speak. The seconds ticked past, and Cat’s breathing grew more labored.

“No. You know there’s no possibility. You can’t interfere with time properties that way. They’ll never let …” She stopped, shaking her head before continuing. “Slowing down and speeding up for our purposes causes enough trouble, but going back, resurrecting the dead? No.”