Secrets of the Time Society Read Online Free

Millicent’s manner. Rebecca swallowed hard as she watched them leave, her throat dry with sudden nerves.
    “There’s someone here to see you, Rebecca,” Millicent said, her quiet voice a warning.
    Rebecca’s body and mind felt paralyzed with fear as she watched the door slowly open. In walked a young man, who eyed her accusingly.
    “You!”
Rebecca gasped.

San Diego—November 3, 1910
     
    Rebecca approached the three-story Victorian house next door to the Aura Hotel, knowing somewhere in the logical part of her mind that this couldn’t be a sound idea, that her journey here was a mistake, that Millicent August had made it very clear years ago that she never wanted to see Rebecca again. But adrenaline and hysteria were drowning out Rebecca’s common sense, and she found herself banging her fist persistently on the door until it at last opened.
    The shriveled, wrinkled woman who answered the door shocked Rebecca into momentary speechlessness. Millicent August was a skeleton leaning on a cane, her hair wispy-thin.
She’s not age shifting
, Rebecca realized.
This is Millicent at her true age—over a hundred years old
. Rebecca didn’t know whether the sight was admirable or grotesque.
    As she and Millicent stared at each other, Millicent’s steely eyes suddenly narrowed. “Rebecca Windsor,” she snarled, her voice weak but somehow still intimidating. “I told you I never wanted to see you again. You’re a liar and a thief and—”
    “He had a child!” Rebecca interrupted, her voice rising in anguish. “He had a child in the future—he broke the law of your Society! And now the girl has gone back in time. I saw her at my family’s ball in 1910. She’s after my niece’s fiancé—he can
see
her! She’s trying to ruin my family. You must put a stop to it!”
    Millicent paused, then grudgingly opened the door just wide enough for Rebecca to step into the entrance hall.
    “And what do you expect me to do?” Millicent asked coldly. “Have the girl killed?”
    Rebecca rubbed her forehead in desperation. “Change things—make it so he never had a child, so she can’t exist.”
    “What if I told you that the girl is a member of your own family?”
    “My own family?” Rebecca echoed, uncomprehending. “What could you possibly mean?”
    “You aren’t the only one who has discovered this girl, Rebecca. He had a child with Marion Windsor in 1993. The girl you seek to erase is not ruining your family—she
is
your family.”
    “No.” Rebecca shook her head. “That can’t be true. He would never betray me like that, not with someone of my own blood!”
    “It wasn’t betrayal. It was love,” Millicent said simply.
    “No!
” Rebecca roared. She felt wild with anger and pain, and she lunged for Millicent, furiously pushing her against the wall. “You’re the liar!”
    Millicent’s elderly body hit the wall hard, and her head cracked against it. Her eyes rolled back, her final expression one of shock. Rebecca watched in horror as the woman crumpled to the floor, blood streaming from her skull.
    “No!” Rebecca fell to her knees, shaking Millicent desperately. “Come back, come back, please!” How could someone so powerful die so suddenly, so easily? Rebecca caught sight of herself in a hallway mirror and shuddered. Her hands were covered in Millicent’s blood.
Murderer!
her reflection taunted.
    She leaned over Millicent’s body, her throat filling with sobs as guilt ate at her insides. And then a glint caught her eye: Millicent’s key.
    Millicent wore it around her neck under a high-collared dress, just as Rebecca had once done. Rebecca’s fingers trembled as she touched the key. It was bigger than the one she had worn long ago, the shape bolder,with a diamond in the center of the bow where the sundial was carved. Once again, Rebecca’s dark desires took over.
    With this key, I can time travel again
, she thought longingly.
I can change things—I can
fix
things
.
    And for the second time,