Page 57 of Once a Villain (Only a Monster #3)

“And I didn’t die,” Nick said. “Eleanor said it herself—she told everyone—she couldn’t lock the timeline while I was alive.

And I’m not dead.”

There was still doubt in Mum’s expression, but she looked at Nick curiously. “How did you survive? We all saw you fall.”

“I...” Nick shook his head. “I don’t even remember landing.”

Joan swallowed hard, remembering how dead he’d seemed in the stasis. She’d thought he was dead.

“The thing is, though,” Nick said, “if she didn’t lock the timeline, then she didn’t repair it either.”

“I felt the damage being sealed,” Mum said again, but her eyes were troubled.

“ Sealed. ” The hairs rose on the back of Joan’s neck. That was how it had felt to her too. “What if... ,” she said, feeling out

the thought. “What if Nick’s right? What if she didn’t repair the tears in the sky, and the one we saw above the stadium? What if she’s still hiding the damage behind Ali seals?”

“But that would mean the world is still on the cusp of collapse,” Aaron said, frowning.

Mum looked even more troubled now. “I can make some discreet inquiries. I have a close friend high up among the Alis. If the tears are still being concealed by the Ali power, my friend will know.”

“We have a friend with Ali contacts too,” Joan said. She told Mum about Tom and the others—still at the Chimera Inn. About

the place on the Thames where the Ali seals had failed, showing the true state of the world.

“I’ll find out what’s going on,” Mum promised. She gestured for them all to go back inside.

As the guys walked back into the house, though, Mum lingered on the balcony, and Joan found herself lingering too. Wanting

just a moment alone with her mother.

Mum sighed. “I’m sorry, Joan, but I think you’re wrong. I think the timeline truly is locked. I believe this is the last timeline, and that you won’t be able to change it.”

Joan’s chest tightened. Maybe Mum was right. Maybe Joan just wanted to believe there was another chance to fix everything that had gone wrong.

Mum’s eyes roved over Joan’s face, taking her in. “If this timeline truly is locked, you’ll have to live in this world permanently.

I’ll need to organize a safe house for you. It won’t be safe for you to stay here.”

“We’d have to leave?” Joan blurted. “ When? ” She’d only just found Mum.

Mum’s eyes shone with tears. “I wish you could stay. You have no idea how much I wish it. But... if I learn from the Alis

that the timeline is truly locked, then I’ll need to send you away today.”

“ Today? ”

“I’m sorry,” Mum whispered.

Joan found herself looking over at Nick and Aaron. They’d retreated into the hall, far from the balcony, to give Joan and

her mother some privacy. What if Mum was right? What if this was life from now on? This tangled mess Joan had made of it.

“Mum...” The word felt strange in her mouth. It was only the second time in her life that she’d addressed Mum directly,

rather than talking about her to someone else. “I don’t know what to do.” She barely knew what she meant.

Mum followed Joan’s line of sight.

“I trust them,” Joan said.

Mum gave her a look that Joan associated with Gran—no-nonsense but affectionate. “Is that what we’re calling it?”

Joan felt herself flush. She didn’t really talk to Dad about stuff like this—or Gran, for that matter. She’d never had a mother

to talk to, though. “I don’t know what to do,” she said again. And this time she knew what she’d been trying to say. How could she make a choice like this? They both loved her, and she loved them.

Mum’s eyes softened. “Your heart will tell you,” she promised.

“It’s giving me a lot of mixed messages at the moment,” Joan said. She tried to smile, but she couldn’t.

Mum tugged Joan into her arms again, and Joan hugged her back, tight. This wasn’t goodbye, she told herself, but it felt like

it.

“You’ll know which choice is right,” Mum said softly. “When the time comes, you’ll know.”

“How can you be sure?”

Mum pulled back and tucked Joan’s hair behind her ear. “I’ve watched you your whole life, my beloved Joan. You always make

the right choice in the end—even when it’s hard.”

Joan walked back slowly into the hall. Mum headed up the stairs—she needed to speak to her Ali friend. Joan guessed she was

going to call them.

Mum had implied that there were other people in the house, and Joan could faintly hear footsteps on the levels above. No one

else had come in, though. Maybe this was another way Mum was trying to keep them safe—by limiting who knew that they were

here.

Nick took a step toward her as she came in, and Joan’s throat tightened as his eyes swept over her— Even after everything

that had happened, he was concerned about her well-being. Aaron clearly was too. They both knew what it was like to speak

to someone you’d thought you’d lost forever.

But, at the same time, Joan’s stomach churned. Despite what she’d said to Mum, she wasn’t even sure there was still a choice

to make. At the pub, and in the van, she’d felt like she’d lost them both... and as soon as they all had a chance to talk

properly, that would surely be confirmed.

“My mother thinks we’re wrong about the timeline,” she said aloud.

“Maybe we are,” Nick said. “But I don’t believe so.

” He went over to the side table, and Joan was hit with déjà vu as he poured three glasses of water—just like in the vision they’d seen.

He gestured at a set of overstuffed chairs around a low table.

“Let’s sit down. I don’t know about you two, but I’m exhausted. ”

He looked exhausted—dead on his feet. The bruises from the arena were beginning to bloom.

The unfinished conversation was waiting for them, and the tension of it made Joan’s heart stutter.

She sank into the chair. It was so comfortable that tiredness washed over her too. She hadn’t slept much last night. None

of them had.

“You know... ,” Nick said. Joan braced herself, but he only said, “We should have figured out our counterparts’ plan. I

think that’s where we went wrong in the arena. If we get another chance at Eleanor, we have to figure out what they were going to do.”

There was a pause before Aaron spoke. He’d been anticipating something different from Nick too. “My bet is that they had no

idea about the correct course either. They probably would have failed, like we did.”

“There’s something about that ring, though... ,” Joan said. She thought again of the jolt she’d felt when she’d touched

it. She’d slipped it from Nick’s neck, and he’d woken, as if from death.

“I wish we’d figured out the cipher inside it,” Nick said. “If we’d solved it, we might have stood a chance at the stadium.

I think it was the key to it all. A road map of what to do.”

“Uh...” Joan hesitated. In the whirlwind of Nick coming back to life, she’d forgotten that there was something they still

needed to tell him.

Aaron had opened his mouth as if to say something too. “A road map?” he said. “A road map of what to do?” He blurted out a half-hysterical laugh. And then he was really laughing, gasping with it, his beautiful face crinkling.

“What’s so funny?” Nick said to Aaron, clearly bewildered.

“Oh my God, tell him,” Aaron gasped to Joan. “No, no, show him! Show him the road map! Show him what we were supposed to do to stop Eleanor!”

“Are you telling me you solved the cipher?” Nick said.

Aaron was still laughing. “Joan found a book we’d overlooked in, uh—” He stopped himself before saying in my bed . He coughed. “She found it in the house.”

“It wasn’t about Eleanor,” Joan said to Nick. “It wasn’t about the plan at all.” She took the slip of paper from her pocket,

and then hesitated. “It says—”

“No, show him,” Aaron said. His voice was still shaky from laughing.

Nick blinked at him owlishly. He really did look exhausted.

Joan handed over the slip of paper with her handwritten letters. She had no idea what Nick would think of it.

It seemed to take a long time for Nick to read it. Aaron my love. Evere myne. Evere thyne. Nicholas. Joan saw his eyes flick to the start of the message and then back again.

“Well, are you going to react?” Aaron asked after a minute. He’d stopped laughing, but the shake of it still lingered in his

voice. He was starting to look wary.

“Give me a second. I’m taking it in.”

“It’s one line!”

“I’ve had a big day!” Nick said defensively.

“I mean...” Aaron sounded a little defensive himself now. “It’s nothing, really. It doesn’t have anything to do with us . It’s because Joan was dead in this timeline. If she’d lived, it would have been you and her.”

He’d said something like that to Joan too, when he’d first read the note himself. She hadn’t liked it when he’d said it then,

and she didn’t like it now. The way he made himself sound like everyone’s second choice.

“You know... ,” Aaron added now to Nick, “I wouldn’t have picked you as liking guys.”

“Why not?” Nick sounded tired.

“I don’t know.”

“Well, I do. I like both.”

“So do I.”

“Yeah, I kind of guessed that,” Nick said, with a hint of irritation, “when you slept with the girl I’m in love with.”

Joan flushed. She couldn’t help but note the present tense, though. I’m in love with. “Okay... ,” she said. “So we are talking about it.” As she said that, though, she was interrupted by a creak on the staircase. Someone was coming down.

“Nope—still not,” Aaron said. He and Nick both looked as relieved as Joan felt.

After a few minutes, Mum appeared, seeming startled when she realized they were all sitting there silently, staring at her.

“Did I interrupt something?”

Joan shook her head and saw, in her peripheral vision, the guys shaking their heads too, emphatically.

“Well... ,” Mum said. She came over to them, and Joan saw, with a swirl of unease, that her expression was grim.

“You were right. My Ali friend said that Eleanor forced them to seal up that huge hole above the stadium yesterday. And they’re still concealing tears in the sky. The timeline isn’t locked or repaired.”