Dark Stars by Danielle Rollins (best affordable ebook reader txt) 📕

She couldn’t sleep yet. There was still one more visit to go.

The visit. The one she’d been dreading.

She set the time machine to hover, feeling a slight drop in her gut as the ship lifted off the waves and vibrated in midair. For a moment, she couldn’t manage to catch her breath.

She thought of Ash’s empty boat, illuminated by the ever-changing light of the anil.

She thought of the veil of blood floating on the water and the abandoned gun at the bottom of his boat.

A sob clawed its way up her throat, but she swallowed it back down. No tears, not yet.

NOVEMBER 11, 2077

The world was just as it had been. Same frighteningly still black water, rippling in the wind, same dark and distant sky. If Dorothy tilted her head and listened very carefully she could hear the hoots and shouts of the Cirkus Freaks leaving the Fairmont and boarding their motorboats. Soon, she knew, the waters would be filled with them. It felt like she’d been gone for years, but it had been only moments. She doubted anyone had even noticed her missing.

She checked the clock on the time machine’s dashboard: there was still an hour until midnight. Which meant that she and Mac had just left Roman’s body behind in the future, they’d just returned, and Mac had just informed the Black Cirkus that Jonathan Asher was responsible for their beloved Crow’s death. Dorothy could still hear his voice, promising the gang of Freaks a great reward in exchange for Ash’s body, dead or alive. Right now, it was just the Cirkus hunting for Ash, but Dorothy knew that, soon, it would be the entire city. She would need to act quickly.

She flew to the schoolhouse where Ash and the others lived and landed the Black Crow on the water outside. She checked that she still had Roman’s dagger safely tucked inside of her cloak. She did. With a low exhale, she climbed onto the docks and wove her way around the side of the school building, counting dark windows until she reached the one that belonged to Ash.

He kept it locked, of course, but the locks in New Seattle were sort of a joke. Dorothy slotted Roman’s dagger between the window frame and the sill, wiggling the blade around until she felt a catch. Then, using the dagger like a crowbar, she pushed the window up and up, groaning a bit when the wood finally gave, and a sliver of space appeared between the frame and the sill. Dorothy pocketed Roman’s dagger and slid her fingers around the frame, groaning as the window shuddered the rest of the way open.

The room was empty, dark. Ash hadn’t returned from the future yet, but he couldn’t be too far behind. Dorothy found a spare scrap of paper on his desk, and an old pen and wrote the note:

Outside the anil. Midnight.

She paused when she was done, a shiver moving through her as she studied the message. It hadn’t been that long ago that Zora had thrust this exact note in her face and demanded to know why she’d written it and what she’d done with Ash. At the time, Dorothy had insisted it hadn’t been her. She felt a sinking feeling now, as she realized she was turning herself into a liar.

That’s not the worst thing you’ll become tonight, she told herself. A sour taste rose in her throat. She swallowed it down, making her way back to the window.

It was time to get this over with.

Forty-five minutes left until they were to meet. Dorothy flew the Black Crow out to a desolate part of the city and did her best to hide it in the trees, even using some spare brush and branches to camouflage it further. She couldn’t fly it to her meeting with Ash. With the Cirkus out in full force, she was sure to be spotted. She would have to come back for it later, after . . . after it was all done. Once she was satisfied that no one would stumble onto the time machine by accident, she began the long trek back to the Fairmont.

The hotel was dark when she reached it, Mac and the rest of the Black Cirkus already out looking for their traitor. Her past self, she knew, would be on the fifth floor, in Roman’s hotel room, trying to make sense of everything that had happened. There was little risk of anyone seeing her. Still, she pulled her hood over her face, and made her way to the parking garage quickly. There, she found a boat that she doubted anyone would notice missing and climbed inside.

She used the paddle until she’d left the Fairmont behind her, not wanting to draw anyone’s attention with the sound of a motor. When she was far enough out, she turned on the motor, taking some comfort in the sound of the gears chewing through the air. The sound made it all that more difficult to focus on her own thoughts, which was fine with her. Her thoughts weren’t entirely pleasant just now.

White trees flew past her, reminding her of fireflies in the dark. She paid them little attention. In her head, she was counting down to midnight, trying to figure out just how much time she had left before she had to do this terrible thing.

Was it fifteen minutes? Ten?

Her breathing grew shallower.

Roman’s dagger hung heavily in the pocket of her cloak, weighted down with the expectations of what she was supposed to do with it. She pushed her hand into the fabric and gripped it, her palms quickly growing sweaty around the cool metal handle. She found herself wondering, idly, what kind of dagger had a handle made out of metal instead of bone or wood. Had Roman found this thing in the past? She had no memory of him ever stealing a dagger from the past during one of their journeys through time,