Eternity's Wheel (InterWorld 3)

“Yes. Fully operational. TimeWatch found me and cleaned out the virus.”

“You’re welcome,” Avery said snidely. I fought the urge to throw a punch, Joeb’s hand against my chest providing a comforting measure of stability. “If that’s settled, I suggest you figure out what to do with her.” He gestured over my shoulder, and I bristled.

“She’s one of us, and not your concern.”

“Not her,” he said, not even sparing a glance past me to where Josephine lay. “The Agent of HEX.”

“What are you talking about?” Joeb asked, still trying to keep the peace.

“You didn’t think it odd that she allowed your escape so easily?”

“That was easy?”

“Compared to what one of her power is capable of, yes. Did she not take out several of your number before I came to your rescue?”

We glared at each other, my anger struggling with what little common sense I was holding on to. One thought made itself known amid the fury I was fighting to keep under control.

“You knew that was going to happen,” I said.

“Of course I did,” he responded, and I very nearly went for him again.

“Why didn’t you stop it?” I yelled, pressing against Joeb’s hand on my shoulder.

“I’m a Time Agent, Joseph Harker, I have bigger problems. It’s not my job to police the Altiverse. It’s yours, and it’s a job you’re not going to be able to do at all if you don’t stop being an idiot and listen,” he snapped. “You think you know best? You think you made a clean getaway, even though I told you to leave her?”

“Joe,” came a whisper from behind me, and I forgot all about Avery Jones and TimeWatch as I went immediately to kneel by Josephine’s side. “He’s right,” she breathed, a mere hint of a sound, so faint I had to put my ear right down to her lips. “She’s with me. I can hear her singing in my head. . . .”

“We’ll fix it,” I assured her, but she made a small sound of negation.

“Can’t. I know what she did . . . what happened to the others. I know what she knows. I know she’s coming here.”

“She can’t come through time—no one but the Time Agents and Hue can!” I looked back to Avery for confirmation, but he was shaking his head.

“Weren’t you listening to a thing she said? She knows how to sense you, and how to drain you. That’s how she killed the others.” Avery gestured behind him, to the J’r’ohoho and the other Walkers lying too still on the cool metal floor. “She stole away their lives, and that’s—”

“What she’s doing to me,” Josephine whispered. “I can feel it. I can feel the others. . . .”

I stared at her, at a loss. All I could think of was that house I hadn’t grown up in, the one with the portrait of the redheaded, freckle-faced girl and the woman with the prosthetic arm whose daughter would never come home. Avery was saying something else, but I only tuned back in on one specific part.

“. . . is how she’ll track her through time. She’s created a soul link, and that means she can follow it anywhere, even here.” Something tugged at my memory, but Josephine twitched beside me, her hand tightening in mine.

“Avery’s right,” she said, and out of the corner of my eye I saw him turn toward us. “You can’t let her, Joe. He’s right. She’s coming here. You have to fly. Fly away.”

“We can’t fly yet, Josephine,” I whispered. “You know that. We don’t have power.”

She looked past me. A smile tilted up the corners of her mouth, barely. “I have power,” she said.

I felt another jolt of adrenaline break out a cold sweat all over my body. “No,” I said, putting as much force as I could into it without growling at her.

“You told me . . . You said they use us to power their ships.”

I pulled back from her, feeling like I’d been punched. “No way,” I managed. I felt sick. “I am not . . . I won’t . . . !” I faltered, unable to even find the words I needed. She wanted me to use her to power the ship, like HEX and Binary used us? She didn’t understand what she was asking me. She hadn’t seen what I’d seen.

She was my first ever recruit. I couldn’t lose her.

“I want to,” she insisted, her voice stronger than it had been a moment ago. “I want to see InterWorld fly.”

“The idea has merit,” Avery said from behind me, and even Joeb looked like he might be considering letting me hit Avery.