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There were three guards in the room now; they looked around, and Joan knew they were seeing nothing but an empty café and Nick. The view through the seal only went one way.

‘Nick!’ Joan shouted again.

‘They can’t hear you.’ Ruth’s voice shook. ‘When I was out there, I could hardly hear you, even with the portal open.’

Two of the guards snatched Nick’s arms, wrenching his hands behind his back. The difference in strength was almost laughable. Nick’s muscles rolled in his confined arms. The guards looked like children restraining a bull.

‘Nick!’ Joan said. She slammed at the barrier with both hands. Maybe Nick could fight them off. He was untrained in this timeline, but he was still strong. He’d knocked Corvin Argent out in the courtyard.

But Nick was just standing there placidly. It took Joan a long moment to remember that he couldn’t fight. You’re fine with monsters, Owen Argent had told him. You don’t want to hurt them. Nick couldn’t defend himself.

Joan was suddenly close to tears. Were these guards going to kill Nick in front of her? ‘Ruth, you have to open another portal!’ she blurted. ‘He can’t fight with the Argent power on him! We have to help him!’ She looked around. She needed to find another frame. A rug. Anything that could form a large enough loop to act as a conduit.

‘Joan …’ Ruth shook her head, and Joan focused properly on her face. Ruth’s eyes were sunken and dull. Joan had a flash of her like this in the other timeline—burned out from making gates at the Monster Court. ‘I don’t have anything left,’ Ruth whispered.

Joan’s own breath came out in a sob. You don’t understand what he means to me, she wanted to tell Ruth. I’d die if anything happened to him. But Ruth looked utterly spent.

Desperate, Joan flattened her hands against the barrier, willing her power to work. Dissolve, she told the seal. Be unmade. Nothing happened. She heard herself make a frustrated sound, and she pushed at the barrier hard with both hands, putting all her weight into it. Her power always came out when she didn’t want it to. Why couldn’t it come out now, when she needed it most?

One of the guards—a spiky-haired man—came out of the kitchen. ‘There’s no one else here. Guess those weird fluctuations are still at play.’

‘Those fluctuations are just rumours,’ another guard said.

‘Right,’ the spiky-haired guard said, drawing out the word into a drawl. ‘It’s the intelligence that’s wrong, hmm?’ He surveyed the room. Joan felt a jolt as his gaze swept over her, unseeing. His eyes lingered for a second on the fallen picture frame, and then moved on. He lifted a thin phone to his ear. ‘We found the boy. He’s here alone, just outside the seal.’

Who had he spoken to? All three guards were just standing there, Joan realised. What were they waiting for?

The spiky-haired guard glanced at the front door, and Joan amended her own question. Who were they waiting for? Her heart stuttered.

As if in answer, the handle flicked down. Nick lifted his head.

And Aaron Oliver walked through the door.

nineteen

The guards’ manhandling had untucked Nick’s shirt and rumpled his hair. Aaron was a pristine contrast: crisp suit and perfect golden hair. He walked over to inspect Nick, a hand in his pocket. Joan, Aaron, and Nick had been in a room together just once before in the previous timeline. Nick had been restrained then too. He’d seemed powerless at the time, but by the end of that night, he’d slaughtered Aaron’s whole family and Joan’s.

Aaron and Nick faced each other now. Nick was only a little taller than Aaron, but his muscular build made Aaron seem slender. Joan had thought they’d be a mismatched pair, but they highlighted each other’s looks: Aaron, fair and otherworldly; Nick, dark-haired and classical.

Aaron’s gaze lingered on Nick’s face. ‘He’s human,’ he said after a pause.

‘We already knew that,’ one of the guards said. ‘He was susceptible to the Argent power.’

‘Well, I’m confirming it as requested,’ Aaron said dryly. ‘Anything else I don’t have to be here for?’ The man’s jaw tightened, but Aaron ignored him; his gaze was still on Nick. Joan thought of the way people’s heads always lifted as they passed Nick, looking to him in the way a compass pointed north. She didn’t know why she’d assumed Aaron would be immune to him.

Nick didn’t seem immune to Aaron either. His gaze scoured Aaron up and down. Aaron had his full attention; the restraining guards might as well have been absent.

‘Where’s the girl?’ Aaron asked.

Nick’s chin lifted defiantly.

‘Was she here?’ Aaron pressed. ‘We have reports that you came here as part of a group.’

‘Why did you come here?’ the spiky-haired guard asked. ‘Did you know there was a seal here?’

When Nick still didn’t answer, Aaron shrugged with exaggerated nonchalance. ‘You can talk now, or you can be made to talk later.’ He held out an elegant hand to the guards. ‘Give me a cuff.’

‘No,’ Joan breathed. Where was Aaron going to take him? She’d been afraid they’d kill Nick right here, but this prospect was somehow almost as frightening. What were they going to do to him? Were they going to interrogate him? Hurt him? If they moved him in time, how would she ever find him?