Page 57 of Once a Villain
This world was falling apart.
Eighteen
Joan stared up. She’d been thinking of this timeline as wrong, and now she knew why. This world was a worm-eaten apple. As she looked up, the tears seemed to emanate an air of corruption, of an almost sweet rot.
“You said the damage was getting worse?” Nick said to Tom.
“There are tears all over the city too. I’ve heard whispers of Ali seals being placed in the dead of night. More and more frequently in recent months.”
“Good lord,” Aaron said shakily.
Jamie closed his eyes, so pale that Joan reached for him, scared that he’d fall.
“Here—” Tom sounded concerned. He slipped onto the deck and steadied Jamie, helping him down and sitting him on a bench. “Head between your knees,” he murmured.
Joan wet her dry lips. Her skin was crawling. “Why are there so many of those holes? What’s wrong with this timeline?” And why was the damage getting worse?
She remembered the tear she’d found at the café in Covent Garden, the one in the library at Holland House. She was almost sure thatshe’dtorn those holes; that something had gone wrong with her Grave power of unmaking. Not for the first time, she wondered... had the Kingerased the Graves becausethey’d posed a danger to the timeline? Because they might have destroyed it?
Jamie took a deep breath and lifted his head with some effort. “I have a theory.” Joan focused on him. Was he thinking along the same lines as her? But Jamie said, “I think Eleanor pushed this timeline too far.”
Tom had been unlashing the boat from the pontoon. Now he paused, running a hand over his sandpapery chin. “Too far?”
“Does your timeline know of thezhenshí de lìshi?” Jamie asked him. At Tom’s puzzled look, he bit his lip.Zhenshí de lìshiwas a Liu-coined term, apparently. “The true and original timeline,” he clarified. “Thevera historia.”
Tom glanced behind himself—even though they were all alone on this boat and no one was on the bridge above. “Let’s get out of here,” he said. He finished with the rope and helped Jamie up. The rest of them jumped down from the roof, and Tom ushered them all back into the cabin.
With a whistle, Tom started the engine, and the boat began to head east. “You should be careful where you use that phrase,” he told Jamie. “True timeline.If the wrong person heard you saying that, you’d be arrested.”
“Some things don’t change,” Aaron said wryly, and Tom’s eyebrows went up.
Jamie spread his hands. “Well... according to scholars, the timeline always tries to return to its true shape—the shape of the original timeline.”
Tom leaned back against the door. He might have objected to the termtrue timeline, but from his expression he knew the theory. “Go on.”
“What if Eleanor created a timeline too far from the original?” Jamie said. “What if this timeline keeps trying to repair itself, and it can’t? What if that’s tearing it apart?”
Eleanor twisted the timeline beyond recognition, Gran had said.She created a world that was never supposed to exist.
On the other hand, Joan only knew two people who’d torn the timeline—her and Eleanor. “Or,” she said hesitantly, “what if it’smyfamily doing this? What if it’s the Graves? I’ve torn the timeline before with my power. And now my family’s back....” Eleanor had brought them back.
“You’re a Grave?” Tom said slowly. “With the Grave power?”
Joan’s heart sank. She’d forgotten for a second that this wasn’ttheirTom. “It’s a long story. I was raised a Hunt, but—”
“Can you time-travel?”
Joan was thrown by the question. “Well... yes.” What did it matter?
“Then why are you wearing that pendant?”
Joan blinked. She’d forgotten she was wearing it. “I’m half-human,” she explained. “The Olivers could tell.”
“Half-human?” Tom looked mildly shocked.
“Is that a problem?” Ruth said, an aggressive note starting.
“Not for me,” Tom said. There was a slight emphasis onme.
