Page 58 of Once a Villain (Only a Monster #3)

Joan’s stomach dropped, horror running through her alongside relief. That meant there was a chance to change the timeline; but it also meant the timeline was still falling apart.

She found herself looking at the window, as if there might already be signs of collapse. The view, though, was eerily normal.

Jamie had told her a monster fairy tale once, about the end of the world. In the story, a boy had torn through the timeline,

trying to find his lost parents. Instead, he’d torn the timeline apart. He’d fallen into the void, and so had everyone else—every

moment in history,every person who’d ever lived had been lost, forever, in the nothingness that lay beyond.

Was that how the world was going to end? With everything and everyone falling into the horror of the void?

“We have to stop this,” Aaron said shakily. Joan had the feeling that he was forcing himself to focus, and Nick too. Their prior conversation

had messed with all their heads.

“We need to seize the timeline back from Eleanor,” Nick agreed. “But how do we get to her? We already failed at the jubilee—and

that was her only known appearance in public.”

“I don’t think we have much time left,” Joan said.

“Eleanor pushed the timeline to the edge of collapse yesterday.” How much longer did they have before the void swallowed them all?

She turned to Mum and realized that Mum was on the edge of tears; she was looking at the balcony view, raw grief in her eyes, as if her heart was about to break.

“Do you...” Joan hesitated. “Do you know how to find her?” she asked Mum.

“She rarely comes out into the world, but she has in the past,” Mum said. “All those visits, though, are sealed away. We’re

blocked from traveling anywhere near them.”

The blocks in traveling. Joan and the others had felt them when they’d first arrived here. Certain times weren’t accessible

to travelers. Eleanor had been protecting herself.

Mum’s gaze was still on the view she’d spent so long staring at when Joan’s counterpart had died. “I need you to make me a

promise,” Mum whispered. She met Joan’s eyes, and Joan knew what she was going to say. Joan was already shaking her head when

Mum said it: “Promise me that you won’t kill your sister.”

Joan felt a sick thrum of guilt—and a bone-deep hurt too. Didn’t Mum know what Eleanor had done to them? Joan glanced at Nick,

and a flash of defiance crossed his face before his expression shuttered. “The things she did to us... ,” she said to Mum,

throat tightening as she spoke. “The things she’s doing now —”

Mum looked agonized. “She’s done unforgivable things,” she said. “To you, to the world. And I’ll never forgive her for how

she hurt you and your father in this timeline. But she’s still my daughter. Still your sister. And I can’t—I just can’t —send you to her, knowing you’ll try to kill her. Knowing she’ll try to kill you. I’m not just thinking of her. I’m thinking

of you . If you succeed, that’ll do something to you.”

Joan had killed people before. Indirectly. When she’d unmade Nick, everyone he’d saved as the hero had been missing in the subsequent timeline. Dead because of Joan.

And maybe she’d killed someone directly once too.... Just before she fell asleep, she sometimes saw the bloodied face of

the man she’d struck in the maze of Holland House. At the time, she’d assumed she’d just knocked him out, but on restless

nights her mind’s eye showed her his caved-in face. She’d hit him with a heavy candlestick as hard as she could. And afterward,

Aaron hadn’t tried to steal time from the guy. They’d been fleeing for their lives, and Aaron had just left a human lying

there, untouched.

Did I kill that man in the maze? Joan wanted to ask Aaron sometimes. But this Aaron didn’t remember it. He wouldn’t know.

Joan ducked her head. “Eleanor killed the King to take control of the timeline,” she said shakily. “There might not be another

way to detach her from it. And we have to fix this timeline—you know we do.”

Mum closed her eyes in pained acknowledgment. “Then promise me...” Her breath shuddered. “Promise me you won’t kill her

unless there’s no other way.”

Joan wanted to say no. Eleanor was too dangerous. If she lived, she’d be back with a new plan, causing new pain. But almost

against her will, Joan also remembered the way her original self had embraced Eleanor. That Joan had loved her sister.

“Please, Joan,” Mum said softly.

Joan swallowed hard. “Only if there’s no other way,” she promised.

Mum looked at Aaron and Nick.

“As you wish,” Aaron said. There was a lie in his eyes, though. Joan knew that if he had the chance to kill Eleanor, he’d take it.

Nick considered it for a long beat, and then sighed. “I don’t think there is another way to fix this timeline,” he said to Mum. “To fix it and to protect all the people she’s been harming, now and in the future. To stop her from killing Joan and the rest of us.”

Mum took that in with a pained breath.

“I can promise that I’ll do it if I can.” Nick’s gaze was steady. “That if it’s in my power, it won’t be by Joan’s hand.”

Mum bowed her head. For a long moment, it seemed like she might not say anything more. Then she spoke again. “I do know how

to get to her. But it will mean breaking into the Monster Court itself.”