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“So you could change things?” The question was leading.
Save Michael. She was talking about saving Michael. I sat up on my knees. “Yes. Oh yes, please—”
“Wait.” She held up one finger. “It’s not that simple. Once the powers that be show up, you could be stripped of the choice to ever use your ability again.”
“I don’t care.” There was no rule I wouldn’t break or consequence I wouldn’t accept if I could bring Michael back. I scooted to the edge of the bed. Hope rose like the sun in my chest, warm, full of possibility. “When can I go?”
She checked her watch as she stood up. “Give me thirty minutes. I have a feeling Liam and everyone else will be going to your place to see if they can find any sign of Landers. I’ll tell them you want to stay here, and that I’m going to stay with you. And Emerson?”
“Yes?”
“You can’t tell anyone. Liam never breaks the rules. I’m actually shocked he came back with you. What we’re about to do is dangerous and very, very wrong.” Her mouth was set in a harsh line. “Do you understand?”
o;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.
“He told me he wanted to protect me. Protect my innocence. I almost bought it.” Recoiling at the memory of the way he’d looked at me that day, I closed my eyes and tried to block out the image of his face. “I wonder if Ava did.”
“He’s a persuasive man,” Liam said.
“He was stalking me. Now he and Ava are missing, and Michael is dead.”
They wouldn’t get away with it. I would do whatever it took to stop them. I’d let revenge keep me alive, and once that revenge was exacted … well, I’d reassess. My tenuous hold on sanity was slipping, and I doubted even Kaleb could help me once it did. I had to be alone, to think.
I left them all outside and climbed the stairs to Michael’s room. A few seconds later, Cat stuck her head around the doorframe.
“Emerson, I—”
I held up one trembling finger, motioning for her to be quiet.
“Don’t do this.” She frowned, deep creases forming on her forehead. “You can’t cut yourself off—it’s not healthy.”
“You have no idea.” I laughed bitterly.
