Page 58 of Once a Villain
Joan folded her arms around herself. It seemed that people who were mixed weren’t approved of in this timeline. She’d supposed she’d already guessed that, but still... Something more to thank Eleanor for.
“I don’t believe it’s the Graves,” Jamie said to Joan firmly. “There was something about that message from Nick...” He recited it again, his intonation identical to Nick’s:
“The damage is worsening, and we’re running out of time to stop her. We’ve done what we can to prevent her from locking things down, but she’ll have plans of her own, and she might still outwit us. I wish I could help you, but you’re alone in this now. You can get to her. You have what you need. Godspeed....”
“Good memory,” Tom said to him.
“It’s a family trait,” Jamie said. He was distracted, though. “Locking things down... ,” he murmured. “Why is that familiar?”
He’d said that earlier. A nagging thought coalesced in Joan’s mind. “Since when doyouhave memory problems?”
Jamie’s eyes widened; his recall was perfect except when it came to memories of previous timelines.
In one of his past lives, he’d been locked in a windowless cell—forced to hold the Court’s secrets as the Royal Archive. He’d held all the knowledge of the world. “That phrase... ,” he said. “Locking things down...” He closed his eyes, trying to recall what he’d once known. “When I was the Archive, the King was researching something aboutlocking things down.”
The Liu power was a strange thing. The ordinary Liu power was perfect memory, but thestrongLiu power gave them something in addition—fragments of previous timelines. Perfectmemory here, and fragments there. Did Jamie ever find that maddening?
Jamie put a hand over his mouth. “Ohhh.” The sound stretched. He looked as sick as he had when he’d gazed up at that pocked sky. “Eleanor will want to do it anyway,” he mumbled to himself, “but the tears in the timeline will be forcing her hand.Howsoon will she need to act, though? How long do we have?”
“Jamie?” Joan said, alarmed.
Jamie stared at her, eyes unfocused. “This timeline is damaged,” he said. “Eleanor has to know that she pushed things too far, and now it’s tearing itself apart. She’ll need to fix the damage—by locking down the timeline.”
“Meaning?” Nick asked.
“There’s a way to make the timeline forget its previous incarnations,” Jamie said. “If Eleanor can do that, she’ll lock this timeline into place. The holes will close up, and the timeline will stop trying to return to its original shape.”
“That doesn’t sound so bad,” Ruth said. “Closing up the holes...”
Jamie’s gaze sharpened. “You don’t understand. If Eleanor succeeds, it won’t be possible to change the timeline ever again. Not for Eleanor, and not for us. This timeline will be thelasttimeline.”
The hairs rose on the back of Joan’s neck. “The last timeline...” Behind Jamie, the window showed the north bank. Eleanor’s London was as gloomy as a storm. Clouds had dulled the skyline, painting the glass towers the same gray shades as the stone buildings around them. “We won’t be able to fix what she’s done.”
Jamie nodded. “There’ll be no way to make a new timeline. We’ll be stuck here forever.”
Joan shuddered. Of all the possible horrors she’d imagined, this hadn’t been one of them. The timeline had always seemed flexible to her.
But now it seemed that Eleanor could cement her rule forever.
Nineteen
“Semper Regina,” Aaron said. “Eleanor really will always be Queen.”
Nick stared at the cold view, square-jawed and perfect as ever. With the fake glasses removed, he was more Superman than Clark Kent again. Joan felt the familiar dual tug of love and loss. She knew—sheknew—she’d lost him. She’d known from the moment she’d seen the monster sigils on the London skyline. From the moment he’d said to her,We’re not home.
But there was losing him and losing him. At least right now he was still physically by her side. At least he was still somewhere in the world.
If Eleanor succeeded, though...
Joan imagined them all trapped here, forever, with no hope of getting home. She knew what Nick would do in that scenario—he’d fight against the Court, as his counterpart had. It was just in his nature. He’d fight for humans as long as he could. But no one could fight forever. Not even Nick could survive that forever.
Joan’s breath felt tight suddenly in her throat.No, she told herself, trying to shake off the feeling. Eleanorwasn’tgoing to succeed.
“Wehaveto stop her,” she ground out. A wave of urgency washed over her.You’re running out of time, Gran had said. Joancould feel the truth of it—the decay all around them was worsening. “You said that Eleanor would have to act soon,” she said to Jamie. “Howsoon? How long do we have?”
“The damage we saw was extensive,” Jamie said. “It sounds like Eleanor has been papering over the problem using Ali seals, but there’ll be a point where the seals fail, and then...” He shivered. “The tears will rip up the timeline, and all of us—everything—will tumble into the void. Every moment in history,every person who ever lived will be destroyed.”
The words were familiar. There was a monster myth about how the world would end. Some people believed that the void would eventually consume the timeline.
