Hourglass (Hourglass 1)

“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.”

“I don’t think he’s there anymore. He told me good-bye.” I looked from Kaleb to his father. “Liam, you told Cat the lab exploded. One second it was there, the next second it was gone. Did you see who I saw, standing there watching it burn?”

Liam nodded. “I’d hoped to protect the identity of one of those people.”

“One of those people?” Kaleb interrupted. “Landers had an accomplice?”

“I don’t believe she knew what she was doing,” Liam said quietly. “I believe she was used.”

“She who?” Kaleb asked in a strained voice. No one spoke, letting him work it out for himself by process of elimination. He let out a string of curse words one didn’t usually hear in everyday conversation, ending with a particularly venomous, “Bitch.”

“Son—”

“Ava came here to hide her ability,” Kaleb argued with his father. “That was shady enough. But you’re actually going to defend her when she used it to blow you up?”

“She’s a fire starter?” I asked, a picture of a tiny Drew Barrymore in my mind. Somehow the young blonde with the endearing lisp didn’t mesh with Ava and her glamorous beauty. Kaleb had referenced the wrong Stephen King story for her nickname.

“Ava’s gift is layered,” Liam answered. “We think she can move things, push objects through time.”

“You think? You mean you don’t know?” I asked.

“Like Kaleb said, Ava came to the Hourglass to make her ability disappear. I never argued, only tried to make her life easier than it was at home. It seems Landers had a different idea. And a stronger influence.”

“Where do we think Ava is now?” I asked.

Another shower of leaves fell from the tree as Kaleb made a sound of frustration and pain.

Landers had an accomplice, money, and a list of people with abilities.