Page 125 of The Girl Out of Time
“Emmeline, stop. Stop.” He squeezed a finger through the grate and brushed her cheek. “Maria Grey could do it, but I don’t want to go back. I don’t want to start a whole new life. I’d rather be with you. Even if it’s only for a day.”
“But you’ll die.”
“You’ll remember me.”
She got as close to the grate as she could, barely able to touch his nose. “I can’t let it end like this.” To hell with all the poetic, tragic endings in books—shecouldn’t accept one. Maria surely hadn’t imagined this when she talked about finding her endings and beginnings.
Emmeline frowned. Her mind went back to the time so long ago—or ahead—that had once been real, but now felt more like a dream than this place. Her home. Her family. She gave them up for a fairytale, but she ignored a crucial detail. Fairytales didn’t exist for their Prince Charmings, sleeping princesses, and fire-breathing dragons. They existed to teach one a lesson.
Images, places, people flashed in front of her eyes. Father heading down the gangway to the ship, ruffling Tristan’s hair as he promised to show him the wireless room. Her mother fussing over her, warning her twenty times that day not to crumple her brand new hat. She herself, angrily squishing the damn thing as she dropped her book at the inquiry office, and looking up into a stranger’s eyes—Leon’s eyes—Theo’s eyes.
She knew her ending—because itwasthe beginning.
“Theo,” she whispered. “I have it. I can do it again. I can transport you out!”
“I told you—”
“I’ll come with you. After you. I promise.”
“What do you mean?”
She gazed into his eyes—the same silver of that first day on theTitanic, even if they were now cast in shadow. “I’m sending you to my home. My family. We’re going back.”
He only stared at her.
“Hold my finger.” Through the grate, she couldn’t offer him the whole hand, but he hooked his pinkie around hers. She closed her eyes and let the memories take her back. Bright blue spring sky, soft winds, the sea like glass, smoke pouring out of the orange-and-black funnels. And the day she’d really, truly, met Theo.
A splitting headache hit her temple. She opened her eyes in time to see her finger color blue, and Theo disappear.
One part done.
She pressed her fist to her mouth, concentrating on that headache, inviting it back, clinging to the memories, the pain. She’d been walking down the ship’s hallway, searching for Leon in her fury over her parents’ decisions. Be somewhere else. Be someone else. Have a different life.
I want back. Let me go back.
The wet, cold air of the cell changed into a warmer, musty smell of the ship’s hallway. Stone walls shifted into whitewashed steel ones. Emmeline let out a cry of relief and leaned on the wall to steady herself, since her balance was off.
She made it. She was back. Back on the ship, back with her family—and Theo! It looked like she aimed well on her return, too. She must’ve come back not long after she’d left. It was still night; the lights were turned low, and the hallway was quiet.
As her joy settled down, she pondered her choices. Should she go find Theo first, or return to her father to apologize? So many things to do, to clarify! But it was fine. She had time.
She pushed off the wall, then realized it wasn’t her balance that was off. The hallway was ever so slightly tilting to the side.
Something cool enveloped her feet. She looked down at the half-inch of transparent, ice-cold water rippling around her shoes. Her eyes followed the ripples to the end of the hallway, where the water lapped from in steady, low waves.
The ship was sinking.
Part 5
Starry Night
Chapter 31
“Imight have found Sylvia’s old pendant,” James said.
Emily took her eyes off the heating pasta water—it was never going to boil otherwise, anyway—and looked to where he was sitting on the living room sofa. “Huh?”
“You remember the almonite pendant she used to have?”
