She traces her finger across the first line and then begins entering the information into her chaser, confirming that these are indeed jump coordinates.
“I’ll never let you stop me,” I tell her.
She looks at me, confused. “I’m sorry?”
“I won’t let you stop me from making the change.” When she arrives at the Three Swans Tavern, she’ll find four of me, and I know two of them will quickly understand what’s going on and stop her. At least, that’s what I’m hoping.
But her expected grin confuses me. “That’s adorable, and I appreciate your concern. I’ll admit, there was a time when I first got here that righting your error is exactly what I had planned to do. In my rage, I wanted nothing more than to bring the empire back. But I eventually cooled down and asked myself, why? There was nothing waiting for me in the empire. And there’s no way that I wanted to spend the rest of my life behind the walls of the institute. I realized that there’s only one thing that interests me. Do you want to know what it is?”
She locks eyes with me, and I stare back, impassive.
“You, Denny,” she says. “All I care about is you and destroying everything that you know or have known.” She finishes inputting her jump coordinates and then looks at me again. “Have you heard of the Hindu goddess Kali?”
India was part of the empire I grew up in. I have read history books that touch on the Hindu deities and I have heard the name Kali, but I don’t recall anything specific about her. As before, however, my lips remain sealed.
“She’s the goddess of time and destruction. Don’t you see? I’m Kali, and I’m going to fulfill my destiny by taking everything from you.”
I’ve always known that a wide river of evil flows through Lidia, but now I think it’s more than just that. She’s insane. Temporary or permanent, I don’t know, nor does it matter, but something has snapped inside her.
She is right about one thing, however. Being both crazy and in possession of a time traveling device does make her Kali.
After putting the book in my satchel, she picks up the slaved chaser, stands, and says, “Leonard, it’s time.”
As I suspected, she’s taking the giant with her.
He rises from his chair, but instead of leaving me there unguarded, he pulls me to my feet and shoves me against the wall.
“Don’t move,” he says calmly.
He watches me for a moment to make sure I’m doing as told before he grabs Iffy and guides her around the counter into the main part of the kitchen. There, he tells her the same thing he’s just told me and then returns to the eating area.
“Vincent, please make sure she doesn’t move,” Lidia says.
Kane gets up, but he remains on our side of the counter. “What’s going to happen to me?”
“I told you, when I’m done, I’ll come back for you.”
“She’s lying,” I say. “You’ll be erased, just like—”
I see Leonard’s punch coming, but am unable to jerk completely out of the way. His fist grazes off my arm with enough force that I’m sure it’ll leave a large bruise. I tense, knowing I won’t be able to duck from a second swing, but Leonard grabs me by the front of my shirt, straightens me back up, and then gives me what I’m sure he thinks is a gentle tap on the face.
“Behave,” he says.
“Is he right?” Kane asks his grandmother. “Am I going to be erased?”
“I’m changing his past, not yours,” she says. “I told you before, I’m the one who understands this stuff, remember?”
He looks unconvinced.
“I’m your grandmother. Why would I lie to you?” The words would sound funny coming out of her twenty-two-year-old mouth if not for the fact that several of us are about to cease to exist.
He looks at Iffy and me. While I can tell he’s having a hard time believing her, there’s resignation in his eyes, like he knows what’s really going to happen but is still hoping the grandmother he knows, the one who would never do anything to harm him, is inside Lidia somewhere.
“Okay,” he whispers.
“I’ll be back before you know it,” she tells him.
She hands the other chaser to the giant.
“You can’t do this,” I say, desperately grasping for anything that will delay her. “You can’t leave us here.”
“Oh, Denny. Why would I leave you here? That would defeat the purpose, don’t you think? You need to see what I’m going to do. That’s how this works.”
As horrifying as this sounds, it means that maybe all is not yet lost. If she takes me with her, I’ll still have a chance to stop her.
She gives the giant a nod, and turns to the table to retrieve her chaser. Leonard reaches out for me with his massive free arm to pull me to his side so that I can be his passenger on the trip.
As he does this, he turns his back to Kane. Lidia’s grandson, whom I’m sure Leonard no longer even gave a second thought about, suddenly does something none of us are expecting.
With a quick step to the side, he rips the slaved device out of Leonard’s hands and shoves the unsuspecting giant into the wall. I slip out from under the man’s arm, but the move causes me to stagger several feet away.
No! I think. I need to get in contact with Kane now that he has the chaser before Lidia hits go, or it’s all over. But she’s already pulled my satchel over her shoulder and is reaching for her device.
“Here!” Kane shouts. For a second time, he does the unexpected and throws the slaved chaser toward me.
In the blink of an eye, I see Lidia pick up the other device. I see Leonard pushing from the wall in an attempt to intercept the chaser heading my way. And I see Kane, already in motion, slam into the giant to keep this from happening.
What I know, though, is that there’s no way the slaved chaser is going to reach me before Lidia is gone, meaning it will disappear in midair and take no one with it.
I do the only thing I can and leap for it, my arms outstretched.
I think I hear Iffy call my name. I want to look back at her. I want to tell her everything will be all right. But there’s no time.
Just as my fingers wrap around the box, Lidia activates the jump.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
I’m surrounded by black, and for a split second believe that I have indeed been erased. But the fact that I can even think this means I’m still alive.
That’s when I become aware of the gray mist and know that I’m within a time jump.
I made it. Dear God, I actually made it.
It’s Kane who deserves the credit, though. He sacrificed himself to give me a chance to stop his grandmother. No, that’s wrong. The Lidia I’m currently bound to is not Kane’s grandmother. Which is exactly what I think he realized at the end.
The relief I feel for making the jump dissolves in an instant as I remember that Iffy has been left behind. My heart seems to stop, and my throat feels as if it has constricted to the width of a hair.
I tell myself that in the grand scheme, it doesn’t matter. Once I deal with Lidia and clean up whatever mess she creates, my final act will be to return to San Diego in 2015 and change the time line so that Kane never steals the chaser. As far as Iffy will be concerned, everything that has happened after that point will not have occurred. But as many times as I tell myself all this, I can’t get rid of the thought that there’s a real possibility I’ve lost Iffy forever.