Page 59 of Never a Hero

‘You know how the timeline is,’ Tom said. ‘We push it, and it pushes back. But it doesn’t seem to mind the Ali family as much. I can always sense the timeline flowing differently when Laila’s nearby. Like … it’s happier. I guess the panel can sense that too.’

Joan was surprised by the mention of Tom’s sister, and curious too. She’d wondered what happened when monster siblings manifested different powers. Had Tom and his sister been split into different households as children? Were they close, or did they barely see each other?

‘That’s interesting,’ Nick said.

There was a tiny pause among the others, and then Tom said amiably, ‘I always thought so.’

As they’d walked here, the five of them had been chatting, apparently comfortably, but now Joan realised that there’d been a subtle gap between Nick and the rest of them this whole time. It didn’t matter that he was bound by the Argent power; they were all wary of him—even Ruth, who didn’t know why he’d been bound.

Ruth broke the silence. ‘Could your sister help?’ she asked Tom. ‘Does she know any powerful Alis?’

‘We’re not bringing my sister into this,’ Tom said easily, but there was a clear note of warning there too.

‘Listen …’ Jamie said to all of them. ‘This seal can only have been put here by the Court. Any Ali powerful enough to do this would have been scooped up by the Court as soon as their power manifested—voluntarily or not.’ He folded his arms, and Joan knew he was remembering being taken himself by the Court to be the Royal Archive.

Tom saw it too. He put a hand on Jamie’s back. ‘Let’s get back to the boat,’ he said. ‘We’re not going to figure out anything here.’

They should return, Joan knew. Gran had clearly come here for whatever was beyond that barrier, but there was no way to know what was in there, and no way to break the barrier. This was a dead end.

But at the same time … Joan was missing something, she was sure of it. She stared at the scratched fox mark. Then she frowned and crouched down. There were more scratches beside the fox, but they seemed cut off at a distinct line.

‘What are you doing?’ Ruth said.

Joan ran a finger down the line. On the side of her finger, she could feel the barrier: tepid compressed air. ‘Part of this mark is in there,’ she said. ‘It’s inside the seal.’

‘You mean this was sealed off after Gran came here?’ Ruth said.

That was possible. ‘Or,’ Joan said slowly, ‘Gran found a way to open it. Right here.’

Ruth’s laugh was a hard puff. ‘Gran can do a lot of things, but there’s no way she could recruit an Ali with that kind of power.’

Joan knelt up, pressing a hand to the barrier. ‘I’ve felt something like this before,’ she murmured. That was what she’d missed. It wasn’t just the space that was familiar. The seal itself was familiar too.

‘What do you mean?’ Ruth said.

An invisible barrier, slightly curved … Where had Joan encountered that? The realisation hit her. ‘There was a seal like this at the Monster Court.’ It had surrounded Jamie’s prison cell, locking him off from the world.

‘At the Court?’ Ruth looked bewildered, and so did Tom behind her. You were both there with me, Joan thought. They didn’t remember.

‘What do you know about the Monster Court?’ Ruth said. ‘Do you mean you were at the Court? No one can get to the Court!’

‘I’ll tell you,’ Joan promised. There was so much to tell Ruth. ‘I just—’ She scrambled up, looking around. She needed something like the rolled rug they’d used last time—something that could be turned into a loop. She spotted the touristy picture behind the counter and unhooked it from the wall. It was nearly as big as she was. She dragged it back to the others.

As they stared at her, Joan shoved out the glass, the print, and the cardboard backing. Then she pushed the empty frame into Ruth’s hands.

‘What are you doing?’ Ruth said.

‘Gran broke this seal with the Hunt power, and so can you—you just need this frame.’

Ruth blurted out another laugh. ‘What are you talking about?’

‘The Hunt power allows you to push an object into a moment in time, right?’

‘Well …’ Ruth said. ‘Yeah, I suppose that’s how it works, but—’

‘When you do it, there’s a short period where you hold the object in two times at once. You can do that using this frame.’

‘What are you talking about?’ Ruth said again.

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