Page 79 of Once a Villain
But Ruth and Joan both worked on the barrier for more than an hour—Ruth using the Hunt power, and Joan the Grave one. Whoever had made this barrier had been far stronger than they were. Joan could hear Ruth starting to breathe harshly. Her own heart was pounding harder and harder—from the exertion of it, but also from fear. None of them knew how many deaths it would take before Eleanor could lock the timeline. It could be an hour away or five minutes away.
“You have to stop,” Nick interjected finally.
“No,” Joan said.
“Yes,” Nick said. His face was drawn with concern, andJoan realized he wasn’t just worried about reaching Eleanor; he was worried abouther. “You’re already depleted, and this isn’t working.”
“We have to get through!” Joan said. They all knew the stakes.
“Joan...”
Joan felt a surge of pure despair. She looked out at the carnage in the arena for the first time since the battles had started.
Blood darkened the sand. People lay dead and dying with injuries beyond anything Joan had imagined. Some were being eaten alive.... And the smell... Bile rose. She squeezed her eyes shut, but that only brought the stink of incense and blood to the forefront. For one terrible moment, all she could see was Gran bleeding out under her hands.
A warm touch on her shoulder. Joan blinked up and found Nick looking down at her.
“Look!”Jamie said.
Joan followed his pointing finger to the empty air above the arena. Only it wasn’t empty. A lone, thread-thin glimmer of silver floated in the air above the stadium. A hairline fracture in the timeline. The beginning of a new tear. It was proof that they were right about Eleanor’s plan—and that the plan was working. She was weakening the timeline right in front of them.
“We’re almost out of time,” Tom said.
Jamie frowned at the Ali barrier inside the wall. “Eleanor will have to drop that shield when she locks the timeline. You can break the wall downthen.”
“There won’t be time,” Tom said. “There’stwowalls betweenus and the chamber. It took Joan nearly an hour to get through the first one. Even with the shield gone, it’ll take the same again to get through the second wall. Eleanor will have locked the timeline by then.”
“We need to try something else,” Nick said. “Wehaveto get to her.”
Think, Joan told herself fiercely.Don’t give up. Think.How could they get to Eleanor if not from below?
She searched the crowd for her sister. Eleanor wasn’t visible now—she’d stepped back into the recess of the imperial box. Only people directly in front of her had a view of her.
“Thereisno way to get to her,” Ruth said flatly. “This timeline will be the final timeline. Eleanor’s won.”
“No,” Joan said, realizing. Therewasa way. Jamie had said that Eleanor would need to drop her shield when she locked the timeline. She’d be vulnerable to someone positioned directly in front of her.
She’d be vulnerable from the arena.
Twenty-Three
“If we go in there, we’ll die,” Ruth said. “Everything in that arena wants to kill people—animals, gladiators, the patrolling guards....”
“I can survive it,” Nick said, and Joan closed her eyes. When she’d suggested this plan, she’d pictured herself in the arena. But, of course, Nick would end up going in.
Even with their entire world—all their worlds—on the line, she suddenly wished she hadn’t spoken.
“I can go in as a gladiator,” Nick continued. “I just need clothes and weapons—anda mask.”
“No,” Joan whispered.
“I still have abilities.” Nick was trying to reassure her. “I can do this.” He anticipated what she was about to say. “Justme. I’m the only one who can kill her. The only one who can survive in there long enough to get anywhere near her.”
Joan shook her head. She knew that this had always been the plan—to use Nick’s remnant abilities in the fight against Eleanor. But he couldn’t go into the arena alone. He wasn’t a gladiator. He hadn’t been trained.
“Youcan’t—” she started, but as she spoke, patrolling footsteps sounded from the hallway running alongside the chamber.
She and the others ducked back as guards marched past.Joan held her breath. One glance in, and they’d see the huge hole Joan had made in the wall—large enough for even Tom to crawl inside. They’d see the pile of mud and rubble beneath it.
