Page 35 of Never a Hero

Nick returned to Joan’s side. ‘Shall we?’ He inclined his head toward the door.

Joan nodded. Her heart was beating so fast it hurt. Still, she tried to match his casual tone as they walked out. ‘Didn’t want a cigar?’ she said.

‘Can’t stand the smell,’ Nick said blandly. And then they were out of the room.

Joan could feel Nick’s questions, but there was no time to talk. The River Room three doors up, the man had said.

Joan found the room and looked around frantically. It was at the corner of the building. The view outside showed the dock on one side and the river on the other. Around the room, people sat by the windows, eating tiered trays of sandwiches and scones.

There. Joan’s heart lifted as she spotted Gran sitting on the riverside. She was wearing her familiar green felt hat—the one that made her look like a 1920s flapper. The tightness in Joan’s chest eased for the first time in what felt like weeks.

And then Gran glanced around the room idly.

Joan froze. For a long moment, she couldn’t move. She could only stare.

Dorothy Hunt has arrived, the staff member had said. And he was right—Dorothy Hunt was here. But this wasn’t Joan’s gran. This woman was the wrong age. Under the brim of her hat, her skin was milky and smooth; her eyes were so green that Joan could see the colour from across the room.

No, Joan thought.

Gran loved Joan. In the other timeline, she’d died for Joan. But her younger self hadn’t cared about Joan at all—she hadn’t known her yet. Joan had gone to the younger Dorothy for help, and Dorothy had informed on Joan to the Monster Court.

Now, to Joan’s horror, the younger Dorothy’s gaze started to turn toward her. Joan stumbled out of the room, pulling Nick with her.

‘What’s wrong?’ Nick said as Joan withdrew into the safety of the market. ‘Wasn’t she there?’

Joan shook her head. ‘My gran’s not coming. She can’t help us.’ Joan had assumed that Gran would fix everything—that she’d be able to protect Joan and Nick both. But that wasn’t going to happen now. As long as the younger Dorothy was here, Joan’s gran was inaccessible. The timeline didn’t allow a person to occupy the same time at different ages.

Joan and Nick were on their own.

eleven

‘That’s not my gran in there,’ Joan said thickly. She’d needed Gran’s help. She’d been attacked in her own hometown; Margie had been murdered. Joan had needed one of Gran’s rare hugs; to hear Gran’s no-nonsense voice. Now she felt adrift.

‘She won’t help?’ Nick said.

‘She’s … she’s too young,’ Joan tried to explain. ‘She doesn’t know me yet.’

‘She’s still your grandmother, isn’t she?’

She sold me out. She turned me over to the Court last time. Joan couldn’t bring herself to say it. ‘She doesn’t care about me yet,’ she managed. ‘We can’t let her see us. We can’t even go back to that suite. We can’t trust her at all at this age.’ It hurt to say it.

Nick’s head turned toward the River Room. Joan caught the edge of some emotion, a tightening jaw. ‘Hey, come on, then,’ he said. ‘Let’s get out of here.’

Joan took a deep breath. If Gran wasn’t here, then she and Nick were truly on their own. She had to think practically. ‘We need to exchange some money.’ They’d spent all their contemporary cash on the train tickets. Would it be safe to connect their phones? Probably not. New burner phones, then. And they needed a safe place to lie low.

As Joan reached for Corvin’s wallet, though, she registered a change in the atmosphere of the market. Nearby, a man leaned in to murmur something to his friend. Hissing whispers spread through the room, and the pitch of the market lifted to alarmed.

‘What’s happening?’ Nick murmured.

Joan had seen the market at the Serpentine Inn turn like this, its mood shifting from cheerfulness to fear. Joan didn’t need to hear the whispered words to know what was coming. She could feel it in the pit of her stomach; in the hairs rising at the back of her neck. ‘Court Guards,’ she whispered to Nick. Around them, people were mouthing the same thing. Guards. Court Guards are here.

Joan’s mind raced. She’d just manifested a forbidden power, and there was evidence of it in the gambling room. Had someone seen it? Had someone called in the guards? Or was this just a routine raid? Court Guards had come to the Serpentine to confiscate illegal technologies on sale there. Joan hadn’t seen anything illegal in this market, though—not by monster standards.

Raised voices sounded, and heavy footsteps. ‘They’re in the foyer,’ Joan whispered. That meant the front entrance was cut off. There had to be another way out, though. This building must have a fire escape.

A click of heels sounded on the wooden floor. Edith Nowak, the staff member, strode toward them. ‘You need to go!’ she said to Joan.

Joan stood her ground and shook her head. She wasn’t about to walk downstairs, all docile, to guards who’d kill her and Nick both.

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