Page 121 of Once a Villain
Nick looked like he wanted to be sick. “That ring has my family’slifein it?”
“I believe so,” Mum said, still gently.
Joan thought of the original Nick she’d known.I travel in a different way, he’d said. Joan had had no idea he was traveling on his own family’s time. That his ability to travel would have been limited by his family’s lifespans.
He’d come back to see her at the end, she remembered. He’d used decades from that ring to come and see her. “Nick... ,” she breathed, and his expression, when he looked at her, was so raw that she wished he wasn’t having to process all this out in the open, in front of everyone.
“But why would our counterparts have wanted it?” Nick said. “If it’s just a travel token?”
“Human-made travel tokens aren’t like monster ones,” Mum said. “They’re more responsive to the user—as if the blood knows it’s being used by a loved one. If I’m right, and I think I am, you could use this ring to travel back fifty years—to when the Court gate last opened.Even though that period can’t usually be accessed.”
“Maybe that’s what our counterparts planned all along,” Aaron said.
Nick shook his head slightly. Not denying it, but as if the thought was so sickening to him that it was impossible to accept the premise.
Joan brushed her hand with his, and he took a deep breath.
“How do I even use it?” he said with some effort. “I mean... we don’t even know how much time is left in it.”
“There’s a number etched onto it—three hundred and seventeen,” Joan said.
“We need to go back fifty years,” Aaron said. He turned to Jamie. “What’s three hundred and seventeen divided by fifty?”
“Uh... I’m actually not great with numbers,” Jamie said. “Unless it’s rote stuff. I just do memory.”
“It’s about six point three,” Tom said.
“There are seven of us here,” Aaron said. “That means only six of us can go to the gate.”
Joan looked at Mum, who was already shaking her head. She’d guessed what Joan was about to say. “It can’t be you,” Joan said to her. It came out in a shudder like her body already knew that meant goodbye.
“It can’t beyou,” Mum said hoarsely back, staring at Joan. Her eyes were the green of trees at night—darker than they’d seemed in the photos Joan had grown up with.
“You won’t be able to kill her,” Joan said. It was a terrible thing to have to say to her mother about her own daughter. “And if it comes down to it, wewillneed to kill her.”
Mum swallowed visibly. Joan could see she desperately wanted to lie and deny it. To be there to control the outcome. But there was no way to control what would happen tonight, andthe stakes were too high for hesitation at a crucial moment. The whole world was at risk.
Impulsively, Joan threw her arms around Mum. She could feel tears burning the backs of her eyes.
Mum hugged her back, squeezing her tightly. “I’d rather go myself.”
“I know,” Joan whispered.
“I wish I could stay with you.”
Joan swallowed. She’d only just met Mum, and she was already having to leave her. She could hardly bear the thought. She breathed in Mum’s perfume. She’d remember this smell, she told herself. If she never saw her again, she’d remember how it felt to be held by her; she’d remember.
“Wait.Wait,” Mum said when Joan started, reluctantly, to pull away. “Just give me an extra moment with you.”
“This token might not even work for us,” Joan said. “Won’t we feel stupid then.” But she had a feeling, in the pit of her stomach, that itwouldwork. That this was what the other Nick and Aaron had planned all along.
Mum’s arm tightened for a moment. She thought it would work too. “When you get there... ,” she said. Joan felt a shudder go through her, as if she were in pain. “When you see her, don’t hesitate.”
“Mum—”
“No, listen.... There’s something I should have told you earlier.Ihad a daughter named Eleanor here. Before the other one came.”
It took Joan a long moment to understand what she wassaying. Eleanor had had a counterpart here too? She shifted back so that she could look at Mum’s face. “But... Eleanor created this timeline. How could she have had a counterpart?”
