“I love you, too.”
I do. And while I think I really was ready for this step with the other Trey, in the other timeline, we’re not there yet. I can tell he wants to be in love with me. He may even be part of the way there.
But even if he’d said it with every bit as much conviction as last time, it wouldn’t matter.
Because I’m not the same either. Maybe it’s because I know Trey is not totally in love with me, or maybe it’s because I have these niggling, little doubts where Kiernan is concerned. Either way, I’ll never be able to take this step with Trey until I sort all of those things out.
And above all else, I won’t let Trey be used as a pawn in Prudence’s games.
“I’m sorry I pulled you into all of this, Trey.”
He reaches for my hand when he sees that I’m holding the CHRONOS key, but I move away.
“Hold on, Kate. Let’s talk this—”
“No. Maybe your dad was right about you finishing school down in Peru. I’ll find you when this is over. I promise. Once we have all the keys, once I know that Saul and Prudence can’t hurt you. Can’t hurt anyone. When this is completely over, one way or the other. I will find you, I will kiss you, and I will do whatever it takes to make this up to you.”
I don’t stop to kiss him goodbye. I don’t even look at him, because I’m afraid I’ll lose my nerve. I lock in the stable point for my room and blink, seconds before the tears that would have made it impossible to focus flood my eyes.
As much as I want it to be true, I’m not an ordinary girl with an ordinary life, ordinary friends, and an ordinary relationship with an extraordinarily wonderful guy.
And unless I stop pretending, I’ll never get the chance to be one.
I indulge in a brief pity party when I get back to my room, the first stage of which consists of a ten-minute cry in the shower. The second stage is a talk with Mom, even though I have to jump back a few hours to synch things up with Italy time. If there’s a teeny, tiny silver lining to this evening, it’s that I have something I can actually talk to her about, as long as I avoid the details and stick to the basic fact that Trey and I are no longer together. And even though I can tell she’s sad for me, and maybe a little worried, I’m glad I called. I needed my mom, and I think she needed to feel needed.
There are two text messages from Trey, but I don’t read them. I can’t. Not until the 1938 jump is behind me.
No pity party is complete without ice cream, so the third and final stage is the pint of Ben & Jerry’s I saw in the freezer this morning. It’s missing when I get down to the kitchen, however, and I’m pretty sure Katherine didn’t eat it. Since I’m positive I need it more than Connor does, I jump back to earlier in the day, snag it, and pop back to the present. If he ends up with memories of both eating and not eating my Cherry Garcia, so be it.
Connor comes in when I’m down to the last few bites. He casts a brief, confused glance at the freezer, then looks up at the clock, back at the ice cream, and then at my face, which I’m pretty sure is still puffy from crying. “Do you want to talk?”
“I don’t want to talk about the me-and-Trey part. But is Katherine busy? This affects everyone.”
The house no longer feels private. Everything I told Trey about how Prudence could have placed a stable point in his room is, as far as I know, also true for this house. Who owned it before Katherine? How long was it on the market, sitting empty and waiting for someone to stroll in and set up stable points or even listening devices?
Ten minutes later, Katherine and Connor are up to speed. I edit the story a bit, because I’m not sure how they’ll react to Trey booking a hotel room. Both of them look around the room nervously at least once while I’m talking, so they’re probably thinking the same thing about the house not feeling private.
“I had the place thoroughly checked for listening devices when we moved in,” Connor says. “We have two security systems, put in by two different companies, and they both ran a magnetic scan before I started moving in our equipment. I don’t see how anyone could have planted a device since then, unless it came in with a pizza box, in which case it would have gone out again a few hours later. But there’s no way I can check for whether someone set a stable point locally on their specific key before we moved in. So, yeah, it’s possible.”
Katherine says, “If they’ve been watching us, they know we’ve collected four additional keys. Prudence would have known for a while that you weren’t keeping your side of the bargain. So why wait until now to react?”
“Maybe the keys at Athens are the only ones they need,” Connor suggests.
“Could be,” I say. “But does anyone else get the feeling we’re being played?”
∞18∞
BOGART, GEORGIA
October 8, 1905, 9:00 a.m.
I’m not surprised to see Kiernan near the table in his cabin, since he knows I’ll be arriving at nine and that’s where he usually greets me. I’m a little surprised to see that he’s had a haircut and his skin is about three shades darker than usual.
What surprises me to the point that I nearly blink myself into the cabin on accident, however, is seeing him with his arm around a woman about twenty years his senior.
A woman who can only be my aunt Prudence.
I watch for several minutes, barely breathing.
They aren’t alone. A blond woman, who is probably in her fifties, stands near Prudence. I don’t think I’ve seen her before, although she reminds me a bit of Katherine around the eyes. The guy just to Kiernan’s left is in his twenties or early thirties, and I get the feeling that I have seen him before, but it could just be that he looks a little like Simon. He’s better looking, though, thinner, maybe fifteen years older.
Both of them seem eager to leave.
Prudence is doing most of the talking, but without audio, I can’t tell what she’s saying. Apparently something she said was funny, because Kiernan laughs. Afterward, he leans in and kisses her.
It’s not a long kiss, but it’s certainly not platonic, and a flood of different emotions rushes through me. Mostly betrayal, some confusion, and a hefty dose of anger, but I’d be lying if I didn’t admit there’s a tiny bit of jealousy in the mix.
I lose the stable point and decide it might be a good idea to wait a moment before pulling it back up. I need to think.
Kiernan knew I was coming in at nine, and it didn’t look like he was trying to rush them off. It’s impossible to be late when you arrive via CHRONOS key, so he knew exactly when I’d arrive.
I toss the key on the bed and consider whether to talk this through with Katherine and Connor. That would mean a half hour, at least, of debate over whether Kiernan has been working with Prudence from the start. Connor or Katherine or both will say they suspected it all along.
And in the end, it will come down to the exact same thing. I’ll have to go in and piece this together on my own. If it turns out to be a trap and I don’t come back, neither of them will be able to do a damn thing to help me.
The only one who can help me is Kiernan. And he just freaking kissed Prudence. Not young Pru, either, but the one he claims is borderline insane.
Kiernan kissed her when he knew I’d be looking.
He wants me to know they were there, so I don’t think this is a trap.
And if Prudence does decide to show up and confront me, I’m kind of okay with that, too. We have a few things to settle.
I pick up the key, lock in 9 a.m., and watch the whole thing again.
The kiss was apparently a goodbye kiss, because Kiernan’s guests, including Prudence, blink out a moment later. At 9:04 a.m., he glances around the room for a second and then stares directly at the stable point where I always enter, the spot he knows I’ll be watching. His expression gradually grows impatient. Finally, after about three minutes, he throws up his hands and walks out of the cabin.