Page 82 of Only a Monster

Joan tried again with Ruth. ‘How does the Hunt power work?’ she asked. ‘I used to think that we put objects somewhere else. But that isn’t right, is it?’

‘No,’ Ruth said slowly. ‘It’s more like we place objects somewhen else.’

‘Do you think you could?’ Joan nodded at the snowy landscape.

‘What, put something in there?’ Ruth bit her lip. ‘I don’t know, Joan. . . .’

Joan gave her the twig. ‘Can you try?’

Ruth’s dubious expression didn’t change as she turned to the snowy landscape. But she put one hand up to touch the barrier.

‘I think . . .’ Joan was still feeling out the idea. ‘I think it’ll be just like all the other times you’ve hidden an object with your power. The only difference will be that you can see where you’re putting it.’

Ruth pressed the twig against the barrier in the familiar motion of the Hunt power. She shook her head doubtfully, and was still shaking it when the twig crossed through. Her eyes widened. Joan heard Tom gasp softly.

Joan let out the breath she’d been holding. ‘Let it go,’ she whispered. Ruth did. For a moment the twig seemed to stand, suspended in the air, and then it vanished.

‘Where did it go?’ Aaron said.

‘Well . . .’ Joan tried not to feel too excited. Putting a twig in there was a long way from crossing the barrier. ‘I think the Hunts place objects into a moment in time. My aunt Ada puts mugs of hot tea into the air. When she takes them out again, they’re always still steaming.’

‘I don’t understand, though,’ Ruth said. ‘How does this help us? The Hunt power doesn’t work on living creatures. I can’t push you in there, if that’s what you’re thinking. I can’t go in there myself.’

‘I know,’ Joan said. ‘I know. But . . . what if you could create a tunnel?’

Ruth looked at her questioningly.

‘What if you had a . . . a tube of some kind?’ Joan said. ‘Could you hold the inside of the tube in this time and the outside in that time?’ She gestured at the snowy ground. ‘Do you think you could make a tunnel through to that door?’

‘An object can’t straddle two times,’ Aaron said. ‘It would be torn apart.’

‘I don’t think it would be torn apart,’ Joan said. She’d seen her family’s power her whole life. She’d seen the way objects disappeared piece by piece. ‘You just saw Ruth do it—that twig stayed intact as it crossed the barrier, half in here, half in there. Ruth held it together with the Hunt family power. The twig didn’t disappear until she stopped touching it.’ She could hear her excitement making her voice shaky. She wanted this so much.

‘We don’t have time for this,’ Aaron said.

‘Aaron,’ Joan said. For the first time since the confrontation with Edmund, Aaron met her eyes properly. ‘We’re so close,’ she said. ‘That door is right there. We could save them all. We could bring them back.’

Aaron shook his head, clearly unconvinced. But he glanced at Tom’s watch and sighed. ‘What can we use as the bridge?’

They ended up rolling up the rug from the entrance, keeping a centre loop big enough for them all to crawl through.

Ruth’s mouth was an unhappy twist as they lined it up with the door. ‘I really don’t think the Hunt power can do this.’

‘I think it can,’ Joan said. Please, she thought. Please work. The archive felt so close.

‘This is not even a proper tube,’ Ruth said. ‘We just rolled it up.’ But she was already facing the wintry moat. Frowning with concentration, she pushed the rolled rug against the barrier. Joan held her breath.

For a long moment, it looked like it wouldn’t cross. ‘I don’t think I can—’ Ruth started, but as she said it, the rug abruptly breached the barrier, scooping into the thick snow. Falling snowflakes sprinkled the wool. Tom pushed out a sharp breath, as if he’d been holding his too.

It was clearly an effort for Ruth. Her jaw clenched tight as she fed the rolled rug over the snow.

‘Hope that tiger wandered far away,’ Aaron murmured.

Joan hoped so too. She was pretty sure that cats were the same everywhere—even cats with giant sabre teeth.

And then the rug hit the end of the snowy landscape and Ruth couldn’t get it any farther.

‘Keep going,’ Tom said.

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