The Golden Spiral (21 page)

“But originally she wanted
me.
Before anything else happened, she was interested in me.”

I heard the fierce pride in V’s voice then, the confidence and certainty. It was like a layer had been peeled away from V and I could see him with new eyes. He wasn’t as charismatic as Zo. He wasn’t tall or suave like Tony. And he knew it. He knew he was a rather average-looking guy, with dark hair and a build that was more stocky than stout. I had always thought of him as the thug who carried out Zo’s plans. And maybe he
had
spent most of his time in the background, but Valerie hadn’t seen him that way. She had seen him as the most interesting member of Zero Hour. The one she wanted to get to know better. Not Zo, with his good looks and snake-charmer’s way. Not Tony, with his quick wit and ready smile. The bright star that was Valerie had been attracted to the pale moon of V. And for V, her unexpected attention must have been as surprising as waking up one morning to see the sun rising in the west.

“If you loved her,” I said, “then why did you let her . . . ?” A memory of Valerie rose up in my mind—her sitting in the plastic chair next to the hospital window—and I couldn’t finish.

“I hated what he did to her—”

“What you
all
did to her,” I interrupted. “Zero Hour wasn’t a one-man band, after all.”

V grimaced. “I know. And I take full responsibility for my part in what happened. That’s why I’m trying to make it right.”

“Then why don’t you? I thought the whole point was that you guys could go back and change things. Make things the way you wanted them to be. Someone
else
certainly has been exercising his power, reshaping things however he wants.”

V sighed and looked down at his hands. “It’s not that easy—”

“Why did you bother to come to the café today?” I demanded. “You show up, spin some tale, tell me you’re in love with my friend, and what? You’re going to leave without giving me any answers? What was the point?”

“The point is that Zo deserves to die for what he did.” The words slid from his mouth like oil. “For what he made me do.” He finally looked up and met my eyes. I recoiled at the hardness I saw there, the pitilessness. “And I need your help to kill him.”

Chapter

15

Natalie whistled low, under her breath. “Okay, this conversation is officially over. I don’t have a clue what you guys are talking about, but killing someone is out of the question.”

I couldn’t look away from V’s dark eyes. Conflicting emotions stormed through me. Instinct said no, with horror, but my anger leaped at the chance to say yes.

“I thought you guys couldn’t be killed,” I said slowly. “I thought that was one of the benefits of having gone through the door a second time.” I nodded at the gold bands around V’s wrists, winking from the dark cave of his sleeves. They were identical to the ones I’d seen wrapped around Zo’s arms.

“The only person who can kill a master of time is another master of time,” V said.

“So why do you need my help? You’re as strong as he is. Why don’t you do it yourself?”

V’s mouth turned down. He leaned forward, wrapping his hands around the posts holding up the headrest. “I’ve tried. More than once. But every time I get close, he slips away. I need you to help me get close to him. That’s all. Just a chance to get close to him.”

Natalie started the car. “Seriously, guys. We’re done talking about this.”

“I’d be the bait?” I asked in disgust.

“
I’m
the bait,” V said, shaking his head. “You’d be the trap.”

“What?”

“He’ll come for me, but he’ll stop for you. And when he does, then you can hold him in place.”

“And why would he come for you?” I asked, cautiously.

“Because he doesn’t take betrayal lightly,” V said, slumping back into his seat. “Especially from those he was close to.”

I knew that was the truth. The last person who had betrayed Zo had been Leo, and Zo had repaid him by implicating Dante in his traitorous conspiracy and sentencing them all to a trip through time.

“He’s hunting
you,
isn’t he? That’s why you wanted to leave Helen’s. It wasn’t because you were afraid for me. You were afraid for
you.
”

V looked out the window and pulled his sleeves down over his wrists. “You said I’m as strong as he is, but you’re wrong. I’m not. I don’t know if anyone is. Maybe if Tony was here, we’d have a chance to stop him together. But he’s gone and I don’t know where he is. I’ve tried to find him, but I can’t. I’m the only one left.”

I knew where Tony was, but I hesitated to tell V. There was nothing Tony could do to help. As it was, I’d be lucky to save Dante.
No,
I told myself.
Don’t think that. You will save him. You will.

“What did you do?” I asked quietly.

V shrugged. “I told him no.”

“That’s all?”

“That was enough.” V sighed and ran his hand through his hair. “He has been targeting you—”

“Yeah, I noticed.”

“—and he wanted me to do something that would hurt you. To test my loyalty, he said. I said no. I walked away.”

My blood turned to ice. “Why would you do that for me? You hardly know me.”

V turned his dark eyes to me. “I didn’t do it for you. I did it for Valerie. She’s been talking to you, hasn’t she? Telling you stories?”

I nodded.

“He doesn’t like anyone telling his secrets. He told me to take care of it. He said he didn’t care what I did to her, just so long as she was unraveled from your timeline.”

Unraveled.
The word sat in my mind, refusing to be shoved aside. Several threads had already been pulled out of the tapestry of my life: Hannah, Dad, Jason. Even Dante was coming loose, fraying at the edges as the darkness between doors closed in around him. Valerie may not have been the strongest thread, but her life didn’t deserve to be unraveled just because she was my friend.

When V spoke again, his voice was surprisingly gentle. “I didn’t want to hurt her again. I couldn’t. And now that I’ve walked away from Zo, he’s punishing me by keeping me away from her. I can’t reach her even though all I want is to see her, talk to her, tell her . . .” V met my eyes again. “Please, Abby. I can’t do this alone.”

I could see it so clearly then: Zo was working to isolate me. His efforts had been focused on making changes that would take people away from me, divide me from those who might help. He needed me alone and vulnerable.

He wasn’t going to get it.

I reached for Natalie’s hand. I still had her on my side. And Leo. And Dante—once we broke him out of prison. And with V defying Zo’s wishes, it meant I still had Valerie with me. Plus, V had come looking for me, asking for my help. It was starting to look like Zo might be the one left alone and vulnerable.

Zo had been running free for too long. If V had a plan to trap him, stop him, then now might be the best time to make a stand.

“I have as much reason to hate him as you do—maybe more—so I’ll make you a deal,” I said slowly. “I’ll do what I can to arrange a meeting between you and Valerie.”

“And?” V asked, both hope and hesitation in his voice. “What do you want me to do?”

“I want you to build me a new door for the time machine.”

“What? Are you crazy?”

“I have the plans. But the building schedule is on a strict timeline and I need you to figure out how to get it built now. Not in two months. Not in two weeks.
Now.
”

V shook his head. “I’m not sure that’s possible—”

“Zo doesn’t seem to be letting something as trivial as the impossible stop him from doing what he wants.”

V flinched, his expression etched with anger.

“It’s simple. You help me with the door and I’ll help you with Valerie.”

“And Zo,” V added. “You’ll get me close enough so I can kill him.”

“It’s in everyone’s best interests for him to be stopped,” I replied diplomatically. Stop him, yes. Trap him, yes. Help to kill him? As angry as I was with Zo, as sweet as my hate for him tasted, I didn’t think I would be able to do that. I didn’t want to be the kind of person who
could.

A grin spread across V’s face. He held out his hand to me, the gold chains bright against his flushed skin. “Deal,” he said.

I slipped my hand into his, abruptly remembering Leo’s hand matching mine, Dante’s hand caressing mine, Zo’s hand capturing mine, and I wondered if I was doing the right thing.

“Deal,” I repeated.

***

I offered to have Natalie drop V off somewhere, but he shook his head. “I can get where I’m going easier than you can,” he said as he got out of the car. “I’ll be in touch.”

He waited on the curb as Natalie pulled the car away. I watched him in the side mirror as he turned and began crossing the parking lot. Somewhere between the light post and the far edge of the building, he simply disappeared.

The air where he had been rippled ever so slightly—if I hadn’t been watching for it, I would have missed it—and deep in my inner ear I heard the shivering chimes of time ring. The barriers between the river and bank were thinning; there was no doubt about it.

I glanced at Natalie to see if she had noticed V’s unusual departure, but she kept her eyes fixed on the road, her hands wrapped so tightly around the steering wheel that her knuckles turned white.

“Who was that guy?” she said, more of a demand than a question. When I hesitated, she whipped her head toward me. “You promised me the truth. What have you dragged me into?”

I touched Dante’s locket around my neck. I was starting to wonder the same thing. Drawing in a deep breath, I tried to think of how best to answer Natalie. She’d asked for the truth, not knowing how impossible it would be to believe. But I’d made her a promise, and I needed to honor it, no matter what.

“His name is Vincenzio, but we all call him V.”

“We?” Natalie asked. “Who’s
we?
”

“Me. Valerie. His friends, Zo and Tony.”

“The Tony who’s missing and the Zo he wants to kill? Some friends.”

“Well, they used to be friends.”

Natalie was quietly skeptical.

I forged ahead, trying to explain. “You call him that too. You’ve met him before, actually.”

“I’ve never seen him before today,” Natalie protested.

“Well, see, that’s the thing. It was a different you who met him.”

To Natalie’s credit, she didn’t slam on the brakes and kick me out of the car. Instead, she said calmly, “Go on.”

So I told her. Everything. I told her about the time
machine, about Zo and Tony and V and what they had done to Valerie, about Leo and the Dungeon. I told her about the river of time and the bank that paralleled it. About the door I’d opened and the choices I’d made. I told her how I fell in love with Dante.

Natalie was quiet through the whole story. She didn’t look at me once but simply drove through the streets, retracing our path back home.

We pulled up in front of my house. My throat hurt from all the words that had poured out of me. I clenched and unclenched my hands in my lap, twisting my fingers into knots. Was it too much? Was it too unbelievable? Had I alienated an ally I could ill afford to lose?

Natalie finally turned to face me. Her eyes were clear and steady. “It’s crazy,” she said. “All of it.”

I felt my heart shrivel and tighten.

“I don’t know if I can believe it.”

Swallowing, I waited in silent hope.

“But I’ve never known you to lie to me before,” she continued slowly. She brushed the hair out of her eyes and shook her head. “I don’t know, Abby. This . . . this is a lot to think about.”

I felt tears in my eyes, grateful that Natalie hadn’t rejected my story outright. The hope grew until it crowded out everything else.

“I know,” I said quietly. “And it’s okay if you can’t believe me right now. Just promise me that you
will
think about it. And if there is any way you think you might be able to believe me, I’d really appreciate it.”

“I’ll try,” she said.

I loved her for those two words. For taking that leap of faith and trusting that what I said was the truth. For being willing to at least hear me out.

“Thank you.” I reached over and gave her a hug. “Thank you so much.”

Natalie hugged me back. “No promises, but I’ll try.”

“Hey, I’ll take it,” I said with a grin.

“You owe me lunch, you know.” Natalie sat back in her seat, returning my smile. “That V guy interrupted a perfectly good meal.”

“I’ll make it up to you,” I promised. “Plus dessert.”

Natalie tilted her head to the side. “So about Dante. He’s real, right? I mean, you’re really in love with him?”

My heart was full with too many memories and moments to detail how deeply I felt, so I simply nodded and whispered, “Yes. I am.”

“When can I meet him?”

“Soon,” I said, feeling the dry heat of uncertainty pass over me. “I hope.”

The front door to my house opened and I saw my mom step out onto the porch. Even from the car, I could see how red her eyes were.