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The King collapsed to his knees, forehead dropping to the ground in a strange parody of the cowering bows he’d received when he’d arrived here. He might have seemed like a god at times, but apparently he was man enough to bleed; man enough to fall.
Joan shifted, and only realised that her foot had moved when she heard her heel scrape against the wooden walkway. She looked down at her foot and then back at the King.
Slumped over, he seemed smaller and more ordinary suddenly. The bright emanation of light had left him, and the oscillating effect was gone too. He wore a black suit—maybe twenty-first century in style. Blood pooled around him, dripping through the gaps in the wooden walkway.
Joan took a testing step. Her foot lifted clear of the walkway. She wasn’t pinned anymore. And her freedom could only mean one thing.
The King was dead.
Nick had killed him.
Joan turned to Nick, and his eyes locked on hers, hard and dark. Joan stared. He’d thrown that knife without hesitation, as if he would never have made any other choice. She couldn’t take it in. It went against everything she knew of him.
She opened her mouth—to say what, she didn’t know. But before she could speak, a blinding light flared, making her wince. She flung up a hand to shield her eyes.
A glaring golden ribbon streamed from the King’s body. It paused in midair; Joan had the impression that it wanted to fly free, but instead it rushed toward Eleanor like lightning to a rod. Like Eleanor was the most powerful person here, and it was helplessly drawn to her.
It twined around Eleanor, over her arms, over her torso. Eleanor’s face contorted in pain for a moment, and then she began to blaze as brightly as the King had.
Joan struggled to look at her. Had Eleanor just taken the King’s power? Because if she had … The full implication hit Joan in a wave of horror. With power like that, Eleanor could mould the timeline to her will. She could create the hellish timeline they’d seen.
Every human Joan loved was in danger. Dad, the rest of her family, her friends, her neighbours, everyone at school. Everyone. They could all be dead in the new timeline. Even if they survived, they’d all be under monster rule.
‘You can’t do this!’ Joan blurted to Eleanor. ‘Please! Don’t bring them back like this! Don’t make humans suffer!’
‘You can’t stop me,’ Eleanor told her, her voice filled with relief and triumph. ‘You were already too late when you first arrived in 1923. You saw the hole in the timeline forming then. It was emanating from here. From this—’ Eleanor dragged her hands apart in a tearing motion.
‘No!’ The word burst from Joan. She looked up and shuddered. The sky had split open. Like an echo of the Thames below, there was a slash of blue. The sky of another timeline.
The earth trembled, and the buildings of 1923 creaked and swayed, the sounds rattling and guttural. On the river, the steamship rocked precariously from side to side. In the distance, people screamed.
Joan struggled to keep her feet. She threw herself at the Ali barrier separating them from Eleanor. She poured her power into it, and was distantly aware of Nick punching at it; of Ruth trying to use the Hunt power on it.
Just behind Eleanor, Mariam Ali stood with her arms raised. Maybe she would listen.
‘Did she offer you power in the new world?’ Joan asked Mariam, already breathless with effort. ‘Is that why you’re helping her?’
‘Power?’ Mariam looked insulted. ‘No.’ She had thick dark hair curled in a bun, and now that Joan was closer to her, she could see that Mariam was older than she’d realised—maybe forty. ‘My father was a Liu,’ Mariam said. ‘I had the Liu power as a child. I remember the Graves.’ Her gaze hollowed. ‘What happened to them was an atrocity! I’m doing this for them! For you, because you can’t remember them yourself!’ She nodded at the rest of Eleanor’s people. ‘We all have a connection to your family!’
‘Look at St Paul’s!’ Aaron blurted.
Joan searched for it—in 1923, the cathedral’s dome was the tallest point on the skyline. As she watched, it narrowed and soared even higher, becoming a towering spike before shrinking back again.
‘The timeline’s changing!’ Tom said. He was straining against the invisible wall with all his strength. Trying to get to Eleanor.
Joan concentrated her power on the barrier, trying to break it open. They had to stop Eleanor before it was too late.
‘Stop fighting me!’ Eleanor snapped at her. ‘When I’m done, our family will be back! You don’t remember them now, but you will!’
Joan looked up at Eleanor, blazing now with the King’s power. ‘But then I’ll forget what you did to bring them back!’ Joan told her. ‘I’ll forget that there was once a better world than the one you’re making!’
‘This is not a better world!’ Eleanor said.
‘Jamie!’ Tom shouted suddenly, voice thick with terror.
Joan spun around. To her horror, Jamie flickered out like a snuffed candle. ‘Jamie!’
And then Jamie was back. Tom grabbed his hands, tight enough for Jamie to gasp.
