Infinityglass

Chapter 19

Hallie

Dune sat at my desk, scrolling and clicking.

We’d sent the Hourglass contingent out to sightsee. I’d spent the day staring at my TV and tried to lose myself in a Supernatural marathon, but I was too stressed out to enjoy the eye candy. Finally, I clicked the remote and stood.

“Off.” I closed the lid of his laptop, barely missing his fingers, and sending empty Jolly Rancher candy wrappers skittering to the floor. “All you’ve done is stare at that damn computer all day.”

He raised a brow. “Just trying to find answers.”

I dropped onto the bed. “Sit with me.”

He didn’t touch me when he did. I took it metaphorically.

“We aren’t going to do this, Dune.” I gestured to the empty space. “You’re removing yourself from the situation, and removing yourself from me.”

“This isn’t about distance. It’s about giving you room to breathe. Giving me time to research.”

“I want us in the same airspace right now, okay? I need it.”

Dune’s arms were around me in a second. “I need it, too.”

Relief eased my tension before his mouth on mine ratcheted it up again—gentle, insistent—not enough.

I wrapped my arms around his waist and pressed my body to his. Closing my eyes, I teased his mouth open to deepen the kiss. He tasted like candy. “Forgiven.”

“I’m still sorry. I didn’t think circling the same thing over and over again in conversation would be good for us, and I didn’t have any new answers.”

“I understand, but I don’t want to lose time with you now. What if I can’t get it back later?”

His thumb smoothed over my forehead and down my temple. “We’re going to figure out how to stop the rips from taking over.”

This was the capable Dune, the one everyone looked to for ideas and support. Totally solid, completely dependable. He thought he was nothing more than the strength behind the scenes. “As much as I’ve tried to avoid being trapped in one place my whole life, now I don’t want to move from this spot. I keep thinking, Can they find me here? Am I safe here?”

“You’re as safe as I can make you.”

“I know.” Even though I hadn’t shed a tear, I felt like I’d been crying for days. Raw, achy, and emotionally spent.

“I want to make you happy,” he murmured into my hair. “Tell me how.”

I whispered in his ear.

Dune pulled away so he could look into my eyes.

“I could disappear,” I said. “Not exist, except as a full-time playground for dead people. I know the timing sucks, but right now is all we have.”

“No, it’s not, Hal. I’ll make sure of it.”

“You’ll try. But you can’t guarantee it, and I don’t want to lose one more second. Do you?”

Instead of answering, he shut the bedroom door.

He hadn’t fallen asleep until dawn, and even then he’d only slept in snatches. This time, I was the one who watched him take every breath. When my phone rang, I picked it up to silence it, figuring it was Dad checking in.

My heart stopped cold when I saw the name on the caller ID.

I shook Dune awake and answered.

“Hello, Mother.”

She sounded cool and well rested. Wherever she’d been for the past few weeks, the living hadn’t been hard.

“Where have you been?” I asked, keeping my tone as bored as I could manage. “We thought you were dead.”

“Don’t you mean hoped?”

“What do you think?”

Dune sat up beside me. The word backup had never meant so much. My mother’s lack of response gave me a petty amount of pleasure. Today, I’d take pleasure wherever I could get it.

“Why are you calling?” I leaned back into Dune’s chest. “I know you want something. You always do.”

“That’s no way to talk to your mother, Little Miss.”

It was her childhood nickname for me, a passive-aggressive insult. Her specialty. “Whatever.”

“I’m your mother. That’s why I’m calling.” She took a deep sigh for dramatic effect. “I want to help you. I want to lift the burden of the Infinityglass from you. I can make that happen. I can help.”

I tensed, saying nothing. Waiting for the bomb to drop.

“I’m in New Orleans, and I need to see you.”

“Could she be telling the truth?” Dune asked. “What if she does have a way to help?”

“Everyone should try something new once in a while. Maybe truth is her latest hobby.”

Dune had insisted on neutral ground, and Audubon Park fit the bill. We took Dad’s town car down Saint Charles. It dropped us off across from Tulane’s Gibson Hall.

We didn’t go in too deep, staying far away from the Fly, the side of the park next to the river. Even so, I could still smell the Mississippi. I knew Dune could, too. A keen edge of panic sneaked out from underneath his mask of cool every time the wind blew.

“Are you okay?” I asked, “with the water?”

“You’re beautiful.”

“Subject changer.” I turned to face him. We hadn’t recapped the events of the night before, but I couldn’t stop thinking about his skin, his mouth, his hands.

“I am not. I just wanted to say what was on my mind.” He pulled me down to sit beside him on a bench.

“I hope you’re having the same thought I am,” I said.

“Which is?”

“More.”

He caught the back of my head in his hand and brought me in for a kiss. “Don’t give up yet.”

I nodded, and then a shadow blocked the sun. The afterglow disappeared in a flash.

“Hello, Mother.”

“Hallie.” She looked down her nose at Dune. “Who is this?”

“We’ve never officially met.” He stood to shake her hand, which she did, with disdain. It didn’t faze him. “I’m Dune Ta’ala.”

He put his arm around me when he sat back down, keeping his body forward, as close in front of me as he could be. His eyes had gone from sweet to wary, and the scar through his eyebrow became menacing instead of intriguing.

It was the first time I’d seen him use his physicality to intimidate, like a peacock fluffing up his plumes. It was ridiculously hot, and from the visible tension in my mother’s body, it worked.

“Does your father know about this?” Mother slid her sunglasses off and put them in her purse.

“Yes,” I answered, keeping my eyes on Dune.

“And what does he think about it?”

I shrugged. Let her wonder. If she’d been on the run, it had been somewhere that provided French manicures and root touch-ups. “You look good, but you always do. I see you’ve been shopping for jewelry, too. Why didn’t you call me? We could’ve made a day of it.”

She brushed her fingers just above the long, antique pendant that lay against her turtleneck sweater. “You’re almost eighteen, yet you show no signs of maturity.”

“You’re way past forty. Neither do you.”

“Nothing ever changes.” She sat down on the bench across from ours.

“No, it doesn’t. Probably never will. Why are you here?”

“To help my daughter.”

“Please. There are a million ulterior motives in everything you do.” I rubbed my temples. Oh, how this woman exhausted me.

“I’m here because of who you are.” She paused for effect. “What you are. How you got that way. Wouldn’t you like to know?”

“I don’t need you for answers. I don’t need you for anything.” Her expression would have frozen a hot spring solid. In July. After a moment, all the chill melted away, and she smiled.

“Really?”

Cold dread swirled in the pit of my stomach. I knew that smile. She had something on me, something big. She didn’t seem eager to make me work for the information, which meant she could barely contain it.

That was scarier than a hundred rips coming for me at once.

“I’ve been with Chronos for years, ever since my own parents worked for them,” she said. “I’ve seen raw talent that you can’t even fathom.” The smile faded and was replaced by calculation. “I was a scientist before I was a mother, so I had time to think about the kind of child I wanted. One just like me.”

An uneasy fear crept up my spine.

“I wanted to make sure I did everything perfectly,” she said, “so there was research. So much tedious research. I needed to verify the genetic sequence, so I located specimens.”

“Specimens?”

Her smile made a brief reappearance. “Once everything was confirmed and reconfirmed, I began experimenting. Of course, mistakes were made.”

Adrenaline numbed my face and clutched at my vocal cords. She couldn’t mean what I thought she meant.

“No one gets everything right the first time. Experiments can create monsters.”

“What kind of monsters?”

“The versions of you that I didn’t get right the first time.”

My mouth went dry. “You made multiple versions of me. Are they still out there?”

“I don’t allow mistakes.”

I stared at her, hoping for a shred of humanity. Searching for anything that wasn’t cold and self-serving. I didn’t find any of it.

“I count as a success, then?” I asked.

“You’re as close as I could get.”

“Did you ever love me?” I asked. God, it hurt, because I knew the answer. “Or was I just a means to an end?”

“People define love in their own ways,” Mother said. “Some people say love is about duty. Or loyalty. You owe me your very life. The way our relationship has progressed is completely your choice.”

“No, you made all my choices for me.” Either through manipulation or emotional blackmail.

“Have you considered I have motives?”

The pull of the power she had over me was the only thing keeping me in my seat. I decided then and there, no matter how many hours or minutes I had left on earth, that she wasn’t going to dictate one more second.

“Your motives are the least of it. I don’t know one true thing about you, and I don’t want to.”

Dune

“You’re wrong about that,” Teague said to Hallie. “I think there’s plenty you want to know about me. About you.”

Seconds ago, sadness had hung off Hallie’s frame like an empty husk. Now it disappeared and was replaced by determination.

“No, there isn’t.” Hallie squeezed my hand. “I’m done talking. As of right now.”

She leaned back in her seat and imitated zipping her lips and throwing away the key. It was fiendishly immature, and just the right choice to piss Teague off.

Teague stood and turned her back on Hallie.

I had tried to check out emotionally and play the part of the cool observer, but right now I wanted to get ugly. Anger would’ve satisfied me on a primal level, but I chose a more balanced playing field. My weapon would be intelligence rather than emotion. I spoke up. “Tell me your motives.”

When Teague turned around, I realized how much she and her daughter resembled each other. Remarkably so. I knew how beautiful Hallie would be twenty years from now. My job was to figure out how to get her there.

“I don’t think so. You aren’t part of this,” Teague demurred. “I know your weaknesses, Dune. I know you can smell the water from here, and that it calls to you. I even know what it says.”

I felt Hallie tense beside me, but thankfully she was stubborn enough to stay silent. I stood and stepped forward, completely disrespecting Teague’s personal space. “I don’t need a translator. Tell me, Teague, what is your goal? Power? Or is it just the idea of conquering time?”

“I don’t need to share my intentions with you.” Teague looked from me to Hallie. “I’m here to talk to my daughter.”

“She doesn’t want to talk to you. I’m the only reason she’s still sitting here, so if there’s something you want her to know, I’m the messenger.”

Teague’s eyes were a deeper hazel, but she and her daughter shared the same slender build and tall frame. Their dark hair shone like silk in the sunlight, and they had perfect bee-stung lips. But where Hallie’s face was still soft, Teague’s was nothing but hard angles. Less in her appearance, more in her countenance. Other than that, they were alike.

Exactly alike.

The truth sneaked in and blindsided me. I took a step back, staring at Teague. “Do you have the transmutation gene?”

Teague offered a bemused smile in response. “You and Hallie haven’t discussed my ability?”

“She told me you’re a human clock. You always know what time it is, down to the second without looking. Half metronome, half party trick.” Hallie had also told me Teague didn’t use it very much. “If you were around someone like that every day, it would get old pretty fast. It might be amusing to a child, but eventually the novelty would wear off. They’d stop asking for demonstrations. You could stop faking it.”

The deep lines around her mouth told me I was on the right track.

“Instead of digging up specimens with the Infinityglass gene,” I asked, “why didn’t you just use your own?”

“Use my own? That’s a ridiculous assumption.” Teague crossed her arms over her chest. “I—”

“You couldn’t take the chance that having a child naturally would create someone like you. You had to make sure the specific gene was isolated. You needed exact proof.”

She leaned down to pick up her purse. “When my daughter is ready to talk to me, let me know.”

I stepped in front of her. “How long did it take before you considered cloning?”

“Cloning?” Hallie stood, too, giving up her vow of silence.

I got out of the way and let Hallie take over.

“Is he right?”

“Not cloning. You’re genetically engineered.” Teague sounded bored. “It’s not a quick explanation.”

Hallie took a step back. “You’re an Infinityglass, too.”

“I’m not.” Teague tilted her chin defiantly.

“She’s telling the truth,” I confirmed, staring Teague down. “Because she never activated, either because she didn’t want to or she didn’t know how. Or both.”

Hallie’s eyes burned with the truth. “How much of Dad’s ‘protection’ was really you? Did you feed his paranoia to make it easier to keep me under your thumb? How much did he know?”

Teague didn’t answer. She wasn’t even looking at us. She was staring at a rip.

It spread across the park like an extended movie screen, the edges undulating in the breeze.

Except the air around us was still.

It expanded into a rip world bustling with industry. Buildings under construction. Workmen busy at their tasks. Shiny metal signs hung everywhere, displaying the words WORLD COTTON CENTENNIAL, 1884.

“It’s the world’s fair,” Teague murmured.

“It’s a rip world. Your first one?” Hallie asked. Her mom didn’t acknowledge the question. “They get better. See the people in the present disappearing? It’s because the past takes over.”

Teague watched as the rip expanded again, and another building came into view. Electric lights hung everywhere, the name Edison prominent on all the accompanying equipment.

My chest felt like a semi had parked on it. Hallie and I’d talked about the next rip she’d encounter, and what the last one had done to her. What would this one do?

Hallie stood, her back to the rip. “You know how I feel about Jackson Square after what happened. I won’t go there on a good day. There’s no way in hell I’d go past the place where Benny bled to death now.”

Teague’s head jerked up and she focused on Hallie’s face. “Why?”

“The rips come from the past, and they possess me. I troll around in their memories, and they live inside my skin. That’s what being the Infinityglass means. Thank you so very much.”

The rip world grew wider, taking over another section of land. A building made of glass appeared in the distance.

Hallie’s focus shifted to something behind us, her eyes following it in a circle. Horses on a track. “You can blame yourself for this, Mother.”

“I didn’t start it,” Teague said. “Jack Landers is the one who broke the rules.”

“You perpetuated it. You threw in with him,” Hallie argued. “You let him look for the Infinityglass, and the whole time you knew it was me.”

“I kept that information from him,” Teague argued back.

The rip grew wider, going around us instead of flowing over us. I put my hand on the small of Hallie’s back. I needed to get her out.

“I tried to protect you, Hallie.” Teague’s voice trembled.

“Really?” Hallie laughed without mirth. “Don’t pretend like you have feelings for me. You’ve never cared for me the way a mother should care for her own child, because you didn’t give birth to me; you bred me.”

“I created you.”

The smell of manure blended with the sounds of livestock, all of it too close.

“Hal, we’ve gotta go. It’s growing too fast to—”

The rip world moved like lightning, swallowing Hallie, and then Teague.

I did the only thing I could.

I followed.