Con and Ty settled into the cockpit.
“What about me?”John asked, belligerently, despite his still secured hands.
“You helped make this, too,” Rita pointed out.
“I’m not going to help you.”
“I didn’t think you would,” she answered.But in the shadow image, he’d been there with Stella and Alastor.
They all watched the hatches close and theRayrise in the air, setting a course clear of the building butterfly vortex.
“You’ll regret this,” John said.
“Well, that won’t be anything new,” Rita said.
Stella gave a half laugh.“I wish I had more time to get to know you.”
It was the constant irony of time travel.All the time in the universe and yet no time at all.
When theRaywas out of sight, Rita turned to face the thickening wall of butterflies.She caught the occasional glimpse of the device, still lying on the ground where John had dropped it.
She took a deep breath, hesitated, then plunged forward, her eyes half closed.
It felt as if a million wings brushed her face, but there was no resistance to letting her into the calm eye.
She sat down next to the device, facing Stella and Alastor.Stella tried to step forward, to join her, and couldn’t.Rita couldn’t tell why.
Alastor touched the edge with a hand and jerked it back, as if it hurt him.
“Can you hear me?”Stella called out.
Rita signaled with her hand.The air was tight and still in the eye.She felt like she needed all she had to focus.
She extracted the packet, opened it, and set those on the ground next to the device.With the memory of it burning John’s hands, she touched the edge with the tip of her finger, jerking it back.But it was cool to her touch.
She carefully closed the cover, then picked it up and turned it over.She couldn’t see the seams, but her fingertips felt them.
She had magnifiers in her little kit and she put them on, then looked at Stella over the top.
“Here’s what you need to do first,” Stella began.
Rita was impressed when her “shadow” view showed her that Stella was telling her the truth.
Delicately, carefully, Rita exposed the guts of the device and began to fix the broken connections.
At several points, Stella and Alastor argued about her next step.They didn’t notice, or couldn’t see that Rita just kept going, following the shadow through the process.
And around her, the vortex built and built.
She was close, so close to done when she heard a cry.She looked up and saw Alastor struggling with John.
John shoved him backwards.
Alastor sprawled on the ground close to the edge of the vortex.She thought he hit his head, because he looked dazed.
And then he began to fade as the first of the butterflies touched him.
Stella back away from the vortex, but John plunged into it, trying to fight his way to the eye where she sat.
