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"Excuse me?" I put my hands on ht you on?"

"I see a way to solve the probleht now Trust me"

He turned and walked away, did a check of the lobby, and then stared at the largest vase of flowers

It took , and another ten seconds to figure out it was going to work I took off for the display case

Every vase in the lobby started to wobble back and forth--the ones at the entrance, on the piano, on the check-in desk, and on every table The next wave of movement touched the vases in the niches on the walls, and on each table in the restaurant Finally, the giant water dispenser with fresh-cut lemons and limes started to slosh its contents furiously back and forth

And then they all crashed to the ground at once

I switched the crystals in fifteen seconds easy, and turned back to the lobby

The people around the piano were ju to keep their feet out of the puddles "Was that an earthquake? Does New Orleans have earthquakes?"

"My suitcase is soaking wet!" A woman at the check-in desk looked like she expected the trusty Olga to suck the excess water up with her a ran for an arned Then he met my eyes

He crossed the lobby and took my hand

I followed hi The sounds from the lobby echoed up to us, but otherwise the quiet was heavy

"What’s going on?" he asked, sitting down

"You’ve worked for Chronos for five ure out how to do a job on the fly I was going to cop out because of a sing-along"

Dune’s e off the inside ofoff plan?"

"No"

"You have the crystal ball, isn’t that all that , not your thing The Hourglass doesn’t steal"

"Retrieve" He grinned and pulledlike doing jobs for Chronos is the only thing that defines you"

I rubbed the skin abovefor a heart attack "It feels like it is Like it alill I’ll have to be the one to take it over, the one to carry it into the next generation, whether I want to or not I’ll inherit all uards, ood stuff I look atI see in front of me is Chronos"

"I don’t think that’s true, Hallie It doesn’t have to be that way"

"You want to knohy I think my mom is such an unfortunate human? She has the lamest ability ever"

He took my hand away from my heart, held it

"She’s a human clock Ask her what time it is She knows it to the second It was fun when I was little, but the novelty wore off I think she resents what I can do The point is, shetheit over me I don’t want to be her I don’t want Chronos to define o to Newcoram And then I’d dance professionally, anywhere--it doesn’t need to be prestigious--and truthfully, I want to stay in New Orleans There’s so s Not that I’ve seen htlife is like in the Quarter, and I remember all the performance art in the square" I hadn’t set foot in it since Benny died I could barelythe skyline if I glien starved"

"Then do it"

"That’s the problem," I said "I can’t"