Timepiece

Chapter 31

I’d achieved a miraculous feat.

Eight strictly platonic hours in a bedroom with a girl.

Em and Michael didn’t ask any questions the next morning. Some dismay came from Em’s direction, and I caught her giving Lily a look. Lily shook her head, and the dismay turned to curiosity.

We checked out and carried our bags to Em’s SUV. I stepped in front of the trunk before she could pop it open.

“Two things,” I said. “First of all, I saw Jack last night.”

“What?” Em fumbled her suitcase.

“Where?” Michael demanded.

“At the police station.” I recounted the events of the evening, and everything I’d learned. I left out the comparisons Jack made between us. And that he left the pocket watch behind.

“And secondly, I want to give Dune a chance with the Skroll before we tell Dad about it. If Dune can’t get anything after a few days, then we can get Dad involved. I don’t want to get his hopes up, and I don’t want to be cut out of any information it could provide. Agreed?”

“Agreed,” Em waved me to the side and popped open the trunk.

Michael swung the bags into the back.

“Are you in?” I asked.

He nodded, but he remained as quiet as the grave.

So was the rest of the ride home.

Em dropped Lily off first. No one said a word until Em pulled into my driveway. I was already reaching for the door handle.

“Kaleb, wait,” Em blurted out.

I sat back in the seat and met her eyes in the rearview mirror.

“I know what you were trying to do for me last night, and I know how much taking emotion costs you. It was a gift that I didn’t accept. I’m sorry, and thank you so much.” Completely genuine.

Michael ached beside her.

“I’m sorry I yelled. At both of you,” I said.

“Don’t apologize.” Michael turned around. Regret. “I called you selfish, when what you were offering to do for Em was completely selfless.”

“There were extenuating circumstances,” I said, repeating Lily’s words. Meeting his eyes. “We were all jerks. But it’s okay.”

“I hope so.” Michael’s ache disappeared. The sadness had been for me, not for Em.

“It’s really okay.”

I’d expected Dad to take a piece out of my hide. Instead, he’d stared at me as if he were memorizing me.

“I’m fine. Everything is fine.”

“What about Michael and the girls?”

“They’re okay, too.” I was surprised he asked about Mike. I figured he’d already know. “Can we go in your office?”

“Sure.”

I followed him in, but instead of sitting down, I walked to the hourglass collection on his bookshelf. I traced my fingertips along the edges of the shelves, again noting the absence of dust. “Are you going to tell me about these?”

“What do you mean?” A weak attempt at evasion.

“What’s with the collections?” He wasn’t going to dodge me this time, and from the defeat on his face, he knew it.

“You’re going to find it simple and silly.”

“Try me.”

“There’s a legend. About an object called the Infinityglass.”

I tensed, working to control my reaction. “The Infinityglass?”

“The Infinityglass is mythical, or most people think so.” He leaned back in his chair, folding his hands across his chest. “There was no evidence to suggest otherwise. Your mother used to tease me about it, her logical husband caught up in a race to find something that didn’t exist.”

“You think it’s real.”

“I became obsessed with it. It caused some issues between your mother and me. Part of the reason I never told you about the Infinityglass was because she forbade it.”

My mom wasn’t the type to forbid anything. “Teague seemed to be pretty obsessed with it herself.”

“How did you… you found her.” He stood so quickly his black leather chair rolled away from him and bounced violently against the back wall. “I gave you permission to go to Memphis to look for paperwork. Not to go on a scavenger hunt through my past.”

“We weren’t looking for your past, we were looking for Jack’s. Teague just happened to be the center point.”

“Did you talk to her? Tell her who you were?”

“No. Lily and I eavesdropped on her from inside a closet. Chronos has set up shop in Memphis. Inside the Pyramid. Gerald Turner came to see her while we were there.” I thought of his silly brown fedora, the turtle ashtray on his desk. All the people who were mourning him.

“Gerald Turner?” Dad asked. Terror and relief.

I nodded.

“He was found dead in his office yesterday,” Dad said slowly, as if his lips were out of commission.

“Guess who found him.”

His anger didn’t shape itself the way mine did. It came fast and hot. “Do you realize what kind of situation you put yourself in? What could have happened to you, to any of you? None of this is a joke. Not to Teague, not to Jack, not to me. Not to whoever killed Dr. Turner.”

“I didn’t know what I was walking into because you don’t trust me enough to tell me the truth. Don’t you think it’s time? I want to know exactly what the Infinityglass is, what it does, and why Teague is looking for it.”

He turned his back to me, rubbing his temples. I waited him out. “The short version is that its intended purpose was to channel time-related abilities from person to person, but it didn’t work out that way. Instead, it was a one-way conductor. Whoever possesses the Infinityglass can use it to steal the ability of anyone he or she touches.”

Magic, like something from Lily’s book of fairy tales.

“Most of the rumors and stories about it are ancient, unchanging. But lately, there are plenty of new rumors.”

I narrowed my eyes. “What type of rumors?”

“Reports of its having surfaced again. People suggesting that they know where it is and telling someone. Then those people end up dead.” His expression was grim but resigned.

“Then why do people keep looking for it?”

“Power. Control. Endless resources. That’s why Teague wants it. And I believe she knows that Jack is looking for it, too. The Infinityglass could give him everything he’s ever wanted. It’s the perfect alternative to Emerson. That’s why he walked away when Emerson wouldn’t agree to help him. The promise of the Infinityglass is why he left her alive. Why he left your mother alive.”

“Because if Jack finds it before we find him, he can use it to drain us all dry,” I said.

“Not just dry. Dead.”