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“About what?” I asked.
“Jack’s full of secrets. Where he comes from, where he’s been. He’s taken so many risks to cover it all up. Ruined so many lives. Kaleb, I think it’s about time you met your uncle Jack.”
“Uncle?” The word was a solid kick in the gut.
“Jack’s a bastard,” Teague said. “Conceived by his mother in an extramarital affair, one your grandfather Ballard was loath to admit but for which he was honor bound to take responsibility. You spent every other weekend with your ‘extended family’ growing up, right, Jack?”
Jack growled under his breath and his face became an ugly mask of bitterness and rage.
“You had another uncle, too, Kaleb, but he died when he was just a toddler. Jack’s the only one who remembers exactly how.” Now Teague looked at me. “You have his name.”
“My father never … told me.” I didn’t understand.
“He couldn’t. His memories aren’t clear because they aren’t true. Jack manipulated them to serve himself. That’s why Jack wants Emerson. He wants to change the past and make himself a hero to his—”
She broke off when she noticed Lily. Or rather, what Lily held in her hand. The Skroll.
“Where did that come from?” Teague’s voice turned cold, with an edge like a razor blade. “How did you find it?”
“Him.” Lily pointed toward Jack without a moment of hesitation, lying so smoothly I almost believed her. She was playing to the most likely ally.
“You little bitch,” Jack spat at her. “I stole it from you.”
Lily shrugged.
Jack turned to Teague. “The girl knows how to find things. She has the gene. Her real name is Pillar Diaz and her information is in the files I sold you.”
“Did you find it?” Teague asked Lily. “The Infinityglass?”
“Say I did,” Lily mused, tapping one finger against her lips. “I wouldn’t be willing to tell Jack what I know, but I would be willing to tell you.”
“Why?”
“I want something in exchange.” Lily met Teague’s eyes and spoke clearly. “When I’m done giving you the information, Kaleb and I walk away. And while you and I are talking, Kaleb gets five minutes alone with Jack.”
Teague looked from Lily to me and back again as a slow smile spread along her face.
“Deal.”
Chapter 53
The second Teague and Lily turned away, I rushed Jack.
He wrestled with me, digging his fingernails into my arms, kicking at my shins. I grabbed his face with my good hand, ready to let my ability open up wide. He anticipated my plans.
And opened up a world of pain instead.
Every ocean in the world roared in my ears as he pushed memories on me. Mom, when she heard about Dad, wrapped in grief, curled up on the floor. My face when she told me what happened. Dad, his fear the minute before Jack erased five years of his life.
Showing me Dad’s memories was Jack’s first mistake.
Those five years were so fresh I could see them perfectly. Taking back the emotion that went with them was like siphoning the foam off a cold beer. Pulling the love away brought memories, all of them. I held them inside me, and then I was riding a wave through Jack’s brain space.
Now I knew what to look for, and finding my mom’s memories was easy. They flowed like water, slipping away from Jack and into me, making me stronger. My dad, movie sets, shared kisses in her trailer, their wedding on a beach in Bali. My birth, me as a toddler learning to walk. Laughing, with peas smeared all over my face. From a preschooler to a teenager in fast forward, with my dad aging the same way. More images: cooking together, watching me swim. Then ones I didn’t understand … a white house on a hill … swamps … an older couple … a much younger Teague?
I slowed down the flow to try to examine that image. It gave Jack enough equilibrium to push back.
His defense involved showing me things I didn’t want to see. Emerson broken and burned. Michael and my dad confiding in each other, Dad clamping his hand on Michael’s shoulder. The word son.
