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“This is the real thing.”
I didn’t know what to say to that or whether to address it at all, so I changed the subject. “What did Michael want to talk to Dune about?”
Em’s smugness disappeared. “He found something on the Skroll. He wouldn’t tell me what.”
“That means it’s serious,” I said.
“Probably.”
“Then I say it’s time we crash the party.”
Dune
Hallie and Em had just come downstairs when Kaleb and Lily entered through the kitchen. They all found seats and looked at me.
“What’s going on?” Hallie asked as she looked around. “Must be pretty big if we’re about to have a group conversation.”
“It’s a group problem.” I didn’t waste any time. “It’s about the rip situation, and the fact that every time you’re possessed, you’re cycling through an enormous number of cells.”
“Supernatural exfoliation. It’s really great for the complexion,” Hallie deadpanned. She went pale when no one even cracked a smile. “Okay. Why does this nugget of information require a powwow?”
“All the energy from the cells you create is the same thing that allows you to close the rifts in time. That energy could transfer to the space time continuum. We think you can heal it.”
“I’m all in. What do I have to do?” Hallie asked.
I wished I could let the hope shining on her face last for more than thirty seconds. “It’s not that simple. So far, you’ve managed to close the rips while you were outside them.”
Anxiety clouded her expression again in the shape of a frown. “I have to go inside a rip to close it.”
“We don’t know anything for certain,” I explained. “We don’t even know if it will work.”
“But it could.” She sat on the edge of the coffee table. “If I had the power to undo all the damage that’s been done, the rip worlds would go away.”
Michael nodded. “That’s what we think.”
Footsteps thundered down the stairs. Poe swung into the living room holding a notebook, stopping in front of Hallie, his face haggard. “It’s my fault. I’m the one who activated you.”
“What are you talking about?” She stood and reached for Poe’s arm. “Sit down. You look terrible.”
“I finally found the answer on the Skroll.” He shook her off and kept talking. “At first, I thought something we stole kicked you off. Something you’d touched on a job or even someplace we’d been. But it was me. I did it. The night I pulled you into the veil and teleported you.”
“You teleported Hallie?” I asked.
“No one is supposed to go in veils but time travelers and teleporters.” Kaleb was talking to Poe without meeting his eyes. No love lost between those two.
“It was a do-or-die situation.” Poe didn’t look at him either. He didn’t look at anyone but Hallie. “And my fault.”
“Stop,” Hallie said.
Kaleb wasn’t going to let it go. “You never told us what your exotic matter source is. You have to have it to open veils. How are you teleporting yourself or anyone else?”
“I create my own exotic matter.”
“Can other people use it, too?” Emerson asked. “Like, say, time travelers?”
Dead quiet descended on the room. Cat Rooks, Hourglass’s source of exotic matter, had betrayed us. No one with the time travel skill had been able to use it since she walked out.
“I think they can.” Poe’s attention shifted from Hallie to Emerson, and then to Michael.
