Page 29 of Once a Villain (Only a Monster #3)

Joan stared up. She’d been thinking of this timeline as wrong, and now she knew why. This world was a worm-eaten apple. As

she looked up, the tears seemed to emanate an air of corruption, of an almost sweet rot.

“You said the damage was getting worse?” Nick said to Tom.

“There are tears all over the city too. I’ve heard whispers of Ali seals being placed in the dead of night. More and more

frequently in recent months.”

“Good lord,” Aaron said shakily.

Jamie closed his eyes, so pale that Joan reached for him, scared that he’d fall.

“Here—” Tom sounded concerned. He slipped onto the deck and steadied Jamie, helping him down and sitting him on a bench. “Head

between your knees,” he murmured.

Joan wet her dry lips. Her skin was crawling. “Why are there so many of those holes? What’s wrong with this timeline?” And

why was the damage getting worse?

She remembered the tear she’d found at the café in Covent Garden, the one in the library at Holland House. She was almost

sure that she’d torn those holes; that something had gone wrong with her Grave power of unmaking. Not for the first time, she wondered...

had the King erased the Graves because they’d posed a danger to the timeline? Because they might have destroyed it?

Jamie took a deep breath and lifted his head with some effort. “I have a theory.” Joan focused on him. Was he thinking along

the same lines as her? But Jamie said, “I think Eleanor pushed this timeline too far.”

Tom had been unlashing the boat from the pontoon. Now he paused, running a hand over his sandpapery chin. “Too far?”

“Does your timeline know of the zhēnshí de lìshǐ ?” Jamie asked him. At Tom’s puzzled look, he bit his lip. Zhēnshí de lìshǐ was a Liu-coined term, apparently. “The true and original timeline,” he clarified. “The vera historia .”

Tom glanced behind himself—even though they were all alone on this boat and no one was on the bridge above. “Let’s get out

of here,” he said. He finished with the rope and helped Jamie up. The rest of them jumped down from the roof, and Tom ushered

them all back into the cabin.

With a whistle, Tom started the engine, and the boat began to head east. “You should be careful where you use that phrase,”

he told Jamie. “ True timeline. If the wrong person heard you saying that, you’d be arrested.”

“Some things don’t change,” Aaron said wryly, and Tom’s eyebrows went up.

Jamie spread his hands. “Well... according to scholars, the timeline always tries to return to its true shape—the shape

of the original timeline.”

Tom leaned back against the door. He might have objected to the term true timeline , but from his expression he knew the theory. “Go on.”

“What if Eleanor created a timeline too far from the original?” Jamie said. “What if this timeline keeps trying to repair

itself, and it can’t? What if that’s tearing it apart?”

Eleanor twisted the timeline beyond recognition , Gran had said. She created a world that was never supposed to exist.

On the other hand, Joan only knew two people who’d torn the timeline—her and Eleanor. “Or,” she said hesitantly, “what if

it’s my family doing this? What if it’s the Graves? I’ve torn the timeline before with my power. And now my family’s back....”

Eleanor had brought them back.

“You’re a Grave?” Tom said slowly. “With the Grave power?”

Joan’s heart sank. She’d forgotten for a second that this wasn’t their Tom. “It’s a long story. I was raised a Hunt, but—”

“Can you time-travel?”

Joan was thrown by the question. “Well... yes.” What did it matter?

“Then why are you wearing that pendant?”

Joan blinked. She’d forgotten she was wearing it. “I’m half-human,” she explained. “The Olivers could tell.”

“Half-human?” Tom looked mildly shocked.

“Is that a problem?” Ruth said, an aggressive note starting.

“Not for me,” Tom said. There was a slight emphasis on me .

Joan folded her arms around herself. It seemed that people who were mixed weren’t approved of in this timeline. She’d supposed

she’d already guessed that, but still... Something more to thank Eleanor for.

“I don’t believe it’s the Graves,” Jamie said to Joan firmly. “There was something about that message from Nick...” He

recited it again, his intonation identical to Nick’s:

“ The damage is worsening, and we’re running out of time to stop her. We’ve done what we can to prevent her from locking things

down, but she’ll have plans of her own, and she might still outwit us. I wish I could help you, but you’re alone in this now.

You can get to her. You have what you need. Godspeed.... ”

“Good memory,” Tom said to him.

“It’s a family trait,” Jamie said. He was distracted, though. “Locking things down... ,” he murmured. “Why is that familiar?”

He’d said that earlier. A nagging thought coalesced in Joan’s mind. “Since when do you have memory problems?”

Jamie’s eyes widened; his recall was perfect except when it came to memories of previous timelines.

In one of his past lives, he’d been locked in a windowless cell—forced to hold the Court’s secrets as the Royal Archive. He’d

held all the knowledge of the world. “That phrase... ,” he said. “Locking things down...” He closed his eyes, trying

to recall what he’d once known. “When I was the Archive, the King was researching something about locking things down .”

The Liu power was a strange thing. The ordinary Liu power was perfect memory, but the strong Liu power gave them something in addition—fragments of previous timelines. Perfect memory here, and fragments there. Did Jamie ever find that maddening?

Jamie put a hand over his mouth. “Ohhh.” The sound stretched. He looked as sick as he had when he’d gazed up at that pocked

sky. “Eleanor will want to do it anyway,” he mumbled to himself, “but the tears in the timeline will be forcing her hand.

How soon will she need to act, though? How long do we have?”

“Jamie?” Joan said, alarmed.

Jamie stared at her, eyes unfocused. “This timeline is damaged,” he said. “Eleanor has to know that she pushed things too far, and now it’s tearing itself apart. She’ll need to fix the damage—by locking down the timeline.”

“Meaning?” Nick asked.

“There’s a way to make the timeline forget its previous incarnations,” Jamie said. “If Eleanor can do that, she’ll lock this

timeline into place. The holes will close up, and the timeline will stop trying to return to its original shape.”

“That doesn’t sound so bad,” Ruth said. “Closing up the holes...”

Jamie’s gaze sharpened. “You don’t understand. If Eleanor succeeds, it won’t be possible to change the timeline ever again.

Not for Eleanor, and not for us. This timeline will be the last timeline.”

The hairs rose on the back of Joan’s neck. “The last timeline...” Behind Jamie, the window showed the north bank. Eleanor’s

London was as gloomy as a storm. Clouds had dulled the skyline, painting the glass towers the same gray shades as the stone

buildings around them. “We won’t be able to fix what she’s done.”

Jamie nodded. “There’ll be no way to make a new timeline. We’ll be stuck here forever.”

Joan shuddered. Of all the possible horrors she’d imagined, this hadn’t been one of them. The timeline had always seemed flexible

to her.

But now it seemed that Eleanor could cement her rule forever.