Chapter 29

Arriving at the node was the same as before. The roar of the light, the blinding, and then the moment of getting used to having a physical boundary again.

He knew without looking that Mom wasn’t there. “Gabi?”

It was the first thing he forced his mouth to say. When he opened his eyes he could see her breaking free from someone’s grasp to run to him. She crouched down beside him and bolstered him up by wedging her shoulder under his arm. His legs were weak, but with her help he managed to stand.

Mr. Wells was still there. He started to approach them, but a familiar voice said, “No, leave them alone.”

It was Doc.

Finn’s anger hit him like gale-force wind, overwhelming any fear he had of Wells and his gun. “You did this. You’ve made her into what she is.”

“You have no idea what you’re talking about, son.”

“Do NOT call me son!” Finn spat out the words like they were poison on his tongue.

He broke away from Gabi and stood on his own, though Gabi still held on to his hand. He was glad of it; he’d rather he be between her and Doc.

“I want you to leave my family alone. You may have fooled Gran, but I know what you are and what you’ve done.”

“Finn, you don’t know what I’ve done or haven’t done. It’s all different now. Don’t you see? You don’t know what ISTA has been trying to achieve.”

“I. Don’t. Care.”

“Listen, s—” He corrected himself. “Finn, you’re going to have to show us how to use the tree. We need it. We need it to stop Faith. We need it to right things in the timeline.”

“You stole my sister, you destroyed my family, and now you expect me to help you?” Finn pointed at Wells. “I suppose his job is to make me trust you?”

Wells had his gun drawn, his mouth turned down on both sides with determination. Finn had his eyes on Wells’s hand when he saw something move farther back in the woods. Something big, coming fast and effortlessly through the smaller tree growth. Doc Lovell was still talking, but Finn wasn’t listening. The shadow began to take human form, long legs and arms, a woman striding toward them.

Faith.

She was a bit older than the adult version he’d seen before. Stronger, more full of horrifying purpose. Red hair flying out behind her and a look on her face that was all fury.

Gabi saw her next. Finn only knew because she squeezed his hand tighter. Finn couldn’t look away from Faith. She was headed straight for him and he could do nothing to stop her. Running would mean nothing—you can’t outrun someone who is ten steps ahead of you. Years ahead of you.

Doc’s expression registered defeat before he even turned around. All the muscles in his face seemed to give up at once: terror and resignation born together.

Wells pivoted and held up the small black revolver in defense. Faith kept her eyes trained on Finn as she strode down amidst the dripping green moss. She wore a long green coat made of fabric that seemed like a shiny reflective wool, nothing that Finn had seen before. It billowed behind her, kicking up broken leaves and dried moss in its wake.

She held up one hand toward Wells without so much as blinking. He yelped like a wounded animal. Over before it even began, the scream immediately cut off as every molecule in his body turned to rusty vapor in front of them. He became nothing but a cloud of reddish dust, gently falling down on the forest floor. It was like he he’d been obliterated by a blast from within. Finn saw rings of energy pulsing out from the space where he had been. It looked like magic, but Finn knew better. Understanding came to him as if it had been there all along: Faith had pushed Wells out of this node, molecule by molecule. Pieces of him were strewn through time, never to be put together again.

And now she was coming for Finn.

Gabi screamed, “Run!” She broke free from his grasp and began to tear through the trees.

Finn had no time to stop her, no time to tell her that there wasn’t any point. He reached after her to hold her back and missed the hem of her sweater by an inch. He saw Faith hold up her other hand in Gabi’s direction and Finn screamed, “NO, DON’T!”

A blast of wind blew by him and he watched as Gabi’s body rose into the air, as if an invisible force was gripping her by her neck. Her feet kicked violently and her face turned red.

“Faith, no! I’ll give you whatever you want!”

Doc was kneeling on the ground, cowering in front of this adult version of Faith with a mixture of incredulity and fear.

Gabi’s body slammed against the nearest tree. She was twenty feet off the ground and pinned by an invisible force, but now she was at least able to breathe. Finn could see her gasping for precious oxygen.

“Please, Faith. You came for me,” Finn begged.

Faith was in front of him now, looming over him, a foot taller and impossibly powerful. She was decades ahead of him in everything: in knowledge, science, technology, and most of all, Traveling. She could push people out of nodes, and now she was moving atoms around at the flick of a wrist. In all his terror, he couldn’t help but feel a small pang of jealousy.

“Tell me how you did it.” She spat the words at him. Finn felt them hot against his cheek.

“Did what?”

“Speak! Don’t play games! How did you Travel?!”

Travel? That was all? He’d used the tree. She knew this. She had been there.

“You just grab hold and hang on. That’s . . . that’s it,” he stammered.

She leaned in close. Her green eyes would have looked so much like Mom’s if they had been full of kindness, instead of hate. They were searching his own eyes for something. Whatever she was looking for wasn’t there. She was obviously dissatisfied with him. Behind her, Doc yelled out, “Faith, you can’t. You can’t hurt them.”

Gabi’s body rose higher against the tree and she let out a strangled yell of pain.

Faith spun on Doc. “You! You are of no significance. You don’t even realize it yet, do you? Your plan is dead. Finn took care of that, didn’t you, darling brother? He took me this time. Thanks to him, I’m now in charge of my own future.”

She gave Finn a sly sugary smile. Finn saw the lines on the sides of her mouth. She was older than before.

Doc continued, “Faith, please. We never—”

“Do you really think I need to listen to you, dear Uncle William?” She laughed coldly. The sound bounced off the trees. “You tried to use me. You tried to contain me !”

The angrier Faith got the more Gabi writhed in pain. Faith didn’t even have to look in her direction.

She turned on Finn. “Show me how to use the tree now, or your friend dies.”