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The cab dropped me off just below the Port of New Orleans, and I followed the coordinates Lily had textedon the deck Jack Landers stood beside her, holding a spinning ball of exoticdock was at the other end of the boat I approached it at a run, slowing down as I crossed it, and only then to soften the sound of my footsteps

Chapter 25

Hallie

Fast as a snap, Jack lost twenty years His pale hair brightened to blond, and his skin gloith color His cane hit the ground, and he left it where it fell

"Exotic ht up, and thenit with a bat It shot out like a ho a veil behind hiestured for theet on or off the boat without it, even though ere still tethered to shore, which meant I was on my own

"You have what you wanted," she said "I’m sure it’s all you hoped for"

My stolass could possibly transfer powers between people with ti with the rips

"It’s all we hoped for," Jack said

I started a slow crab walk backward Jack was besideanywhere"

"Don’t , but I didn’t want to show Jack an ounce of weakness "I won’t"

"You will, because that’s your purpose" He steered"I have records Years of information about people with time-related abilities You’re just one of the tools I need to possess the tone slight, but present "Right, Jack?"

"What are the others?" I asked

She pointed to my neck I reached up to find the pendant I’d noticed her wearing in Audubon Park

"There’s nothing standing in the way now We have everything we need," Jack said, bea at my mother

My h to understand what a s You’ve forgotten soet--" He faltered, sensing so amiss in her expression "But … I helped you find the pendant"

"You participated, but you didn’t discover what activates an Infinityglass, and if you remember, that was part of our deal"

"I can still find out We have endless resources now, and a way to use theood graces, I wondered how long she’d had him whipped

"Maybe I already know" Her words slipped over me like cold silk "But if you ever do, you’ll have a weapon to use against me One I can’t block"

She waited Let it sink in Everything about his demeanor proved he hadn’t anticipated the double cross Then she y Mom pulled from him was double what I’d experienced when Jack had usedtwo abilities, his and Cat’s, to ain, and the same pain seared my skin under the pendant In addition to the burst of electricity, flashes of irl, with auburn hair and brown eyes; Poe, with a knife to his throat; a little boy, running into the path of a car