Free Timestorm by Julie Cross Page A

two-year-old self and Eileen Covington.”
    “Right, yeah, that was a complete jump.”
    “Well, did you think about what mark you were going to hit on your way back?” she asked.
    I shook my head. “Not really. Just like the half-jumps, I have to go back to home base, back to the exact moment I left.”
    “I think you could go somewhere besides home base in a complete jump,” she explained, as if thirty years older than me. “The problem is, you’re going to have to deal with a duplicate version of yourself. It’s not like when you switch timelines from World A to World B. The other Jackson doesn’t vanish.”
    “What if someone killed him,” I muttered under my breath, but she heard me.
    “I heard Grayson talking about that.” Emily shook her head. “It’s confusing, I know, but everyone would have another version of themselves in 2009 if you go back and it’s not the moment you left. But aligning with the moment you left won’t be difficult. Your body is naturally going to seek out the former home base where there aren’t two Jacksons. Anything other than that would be very difficult.”
    Grief swept over me. It was a hopeless situation. “It doesn’t matter anyway. We’re all stuck here with no prospect of escape anytime soon.” I glanced down at her weary face. “It’s not your fault, Emily. They would have come up with dozens of ways to get us here, or at least me. Imagine how crazy I’d be if I were stuck here alone.”
    She nodded and wiped away a few more tears. “You don’t want me to tell anyone about you and Holly, right?”
    “I’m not trying to lie to her intentionally, I promise. It’s just … she should have a choice about who she loves. A choice that isn’t influenced by what happened in the past. Or in another timeline. She deserves it. I’ve put her through hell and I won’t do that again.”
    “If she asks me anything, I won’t tell her, I swear,” Emily said.
    I glanced down at her and smiled. “Are you sure you’re only eight? Maybe clones age slower? You must be at least twenty-seven.”
    Emily giggled and jumped off the bed, pulling a pair of red high heels from the clothes pile now on the cabin floor. “You’re right. I’m twenty-seven. That means I can wear these, right?”
    “Go for it, kid.” I stood up and watched as she kicked off the little tennis shoes she had on and slid her feet into the pointy red heels. They were the most impractical shoes for Eyewall people to store in a supply closet for the prisoners of Misfit Island. I had to assume that either Sasha or Lonnie showed up here wearing those the day they got trapped.
    Emily scooted at a snail’s pace across the slippery, dust-covered floors. “Look! I’m five point three eight centimeters taller!”
    “Really? I would have guessed at least five point three nine.”
    “Nope.” She laughed again and headed for the cabin door. “I have to show Holly.”
    Her hand froze on the door and she turned slowly to face me. “It’s too bad she doesn’t know what you did for her. I think she’s really scared but in a different way than the others. There’s nothing worse than thinking that no one cares about you.”
    I walked closer and squatted in front of her. “I care about you , you know that, right? From the first time I met you, I knew we’d need each other someday. I knew you were important to me. And it is possible for good things to come from bad ideas.” Not that Emily herself was a bad idea, but cloning time travelers and forcing children were.
    “Do you really believe that?” she asked.
    “I do. I really do.”
    She gave me a sad smile and then turned to leave again. “I won’t tell her anything, I promise.”
    When I went back outside, the first thing I noticed was Courtney standing in front of the cabin next door. Her arm was wrapped around the tall wooden post in front, and Mason stood across from her, a little too close, and leaning closer every second. I stormed up behind