“I never leave my house, remember? Movies—good movies—are my friends.” She took jelly out of the fridge and honey from the cupboard, put the jars on the table, and leaned against the edge. “I have to apologize. We’re out of bacon.”
“You don’t have to make me breakfast,” I said.
“Sure I do. My humanity stole your quest potential. I feel like I owe you.”
“The quest just looks different than I thought it would.” A lot different. “It’s more complicated than I expected it to be.”
“It sure is.” She stared at me for a long time.
I stared back.
The toast popped up and we both jumped.
“I’m sorry I’ve put it off for so long. So you’ll understand my head space: loyalty is an issue.” Hallie buttered the toast before offering me two pieces.
I took the bread. “I don’t blame you, and I’d feel the same in your situation. But if we approach this logically, you have to tell me what you do know, or I can’t help you discover the things you don’t know.”
“And vice versa.” Hallie sat down with her toast and got busy tearing off the crusts, focusing on them instead of me. “Let’s start with basics. Do you know what Chronos does?”
“What the world thinks it does, or what it really does?” I asked.
“The world doesn’t know about Chronos.”
“Mine does.”
“The Hourglass?”
I nodded. “For a long time, we just referred to Chronos as The Powers That Be. We thought you were like … an absentee-landlord governing body. According to Liam, that’s what Chronos used to be. Protectors of time. He left when your mom took over, and I guess things changed a lot after that.”
“They changed even more when Dad got involved. He didn’t think she was making the most of her resources. I can promise governing was the last thing on his mind. Even less so now.”
“What is?” I flipped open the top of the honey to pour some on my toast and waited for her to continue.
“Industry. He locates artifacts, artwork, jewelry, etc., and we go get them. Most often, they’re related to time, but not always.”
I snapped my fingers. “That’s how he knew what horology was.”
“Dad belongs to at least three different horological societies. Anonymously, of course. Where do you thinks he gets his tips on what to steal?”
“The things he sends you to steal. How does that work?”
“First, I gather intel on the jobs. I learn work schedules, security systems, weakest links, things like that. I do it all by changing my appearance.”
“You case joints. Like a burglar.” A stray drop of honey landed on the edge of my plate. I slicked my finger over it and licked it off. “And now I’m imagining you in spandex, scaling the side of a building.”
Hallie didn’t respond. I thought I’d offended her, somehow, but when I looked up, she was staring at my hand. “Hallie?”
“What?” she asked, startled. “Sorry. What did you just say?”
“Um … nothing.” I put down my toast and wiped my finger on a napkin. “The jobs. Chronos. I thought your dad didn’t like for you to leave the house.”
“That’s where the time gene comes in. I have … there’s a guy who can teleport. We do jobs together, or we used to. Dad trusted him to make sure I stayed in line. Turns out, trusting him was a stupid choice for both of us.”
I tamped down the desire to tell her about Poe. “How?”
“He sided with my mother. She and my dad are still married, even though it’s a really weird arrangement. I’ve seen pictures from their wedding and from when I was a baby. I remember how things used to be. They were either really good actors or they were happy at one point. Sometimes, I think I was nothing more than a phase to her.”
“You and your mom aren’t close?” I asked.
“Not even in the same galaxy.”
Sadness or anger drew down the corners of her mouth. Then I realized it was grief.
“She called me a couple of weeks ago, dropping a bunch of hints, and that’s one reason why your revelation at Lafitte’s didn’t surprise me. I’d heard of the Infinityglass before. I used to get bedtime stories, too.”
Another thing we had in common.
“At first, I thought she was just looking for something that Chronos had retrieved. But she used one of the few soft spots I have for her against me, reminding me of the stories, and told me I was the Infinityglass. I wanted to call her a liar, but … things have changed for me. Recently. Another reason you didn’t surprise me.”
“You have symptoms beyond the ripple sightings?” I asked. “Besides the possession?”
She nodded but didn’t elaborate. “Any answers I get from her now will have to be bargained for, and it’s not worth it.”
“She knows what you are, and she won’t help you? How could a mother do that?”
“Because she wants something from me.” Hallie picked up her toast. “She always does. I don’t know what it is this time, and I don’t really want to find out. It won’t be good. It won’t be loving, or in my best interest. Nothing she does ever is.”
“Then don’t get answers from her. Get them from me.” It was the boldest I’d been about the Infinityglass since the night at Lafitte’s.
She exhaled. “I’m ready when you are.”
“Then let’s take it upstairs.”
I put my plate in the sink and exited the kitchen, leaving her with a curious expression and a mouth full of toast.
I set up my laptop, an external drive, and notebook on Hallie’s vanity.
It was the first time I’d actually been in her room. A confection of pastels, it was huge and relentlessly neat, with toe shoes hanging from pegs on the wall. I didn’t understand why she needed so many different pairs. There were also wigs and tutus.
She had every game system known to man, including a couple of throwbacks, like an Atari console and a Sega Genesis. A tall wooden shelf held hundreds of movies in various forms, Blu-rays, DVDs, even some VHS tapes. I tapped one and raised an eyebrow.
“Not everything has been released in the most modern formats. If you think that’s a lot, my digital collection would blow your mind.”
“I collect music the way you collect movies.” I opened the minimized window on my laptop screen and showed her.
“Seven thousand songs?”
“My physical collection would blow your mind. It’s a sickness. But I like to read, too.”
“So do I. Real books. When I was younger, my dad used to take me to the bookstore on Saturdays. Garden District Book Shop at first, but then Octavia Books.” Melancholy sneaked into her voice. “I could spend hours in that place; it was so open and full of light. They even had a pet dog that lived in the store. Those were the good old days.”
Now when she wanted to leave her house, she had to climb down the side of it.
“Maybe you could take me there sometime.”
“Maybe.” She shook off the sadness and leaned over my shoulder, her hair swinging forward, so close it brushed against my cheek. “All right, wise one. Enlighten me.”
I had two thoughts. One, if I turned my head a fraction of an inch, my lips would line up directly with hers, and two, she knew it.
I scooted the stool closer to the vanity to get myself out of the reach of her lips before clearing my throat.
“Here we go.”
Hallie
Dune was easy to tease. The good kind of easy, though. He felt safe and right. I saw how a pattern could form, the push and the pull between us. Not where my brain should be.