Nadin’s face softened slightly. “All right. Let’s get to work, then.” She pulled her medallion out from under her shirt and opened the second posternkey.

“Isaak,” Ceilos said. I started, my face reddening as I realized I’d been staring at Nadin. I could tell by Ceilos’ expression that he had been watching me. “You should probably go tell your father what’s going on.”

I scoffed. “I doubt he cares,” I said. He’d flounced back to the guesthouse after the forum. I was sure he wasn’t really interested in the specifics of the time postern. But I stood up anyway. I’d been dismissed.

I smiled at Nadin as I passed, and to my surprise, she smiled back. Then her face colored and she looked down, tucking a hair behind her ear. My heart skipped for a second, followed by a wave of crushing guilt. What was I doing? I didn’t even know anymore. Everything was a torquing trainwreck.

I trudged back to the guesthouse, still feeling Ceilos’ eyes burning into my back long after I’d left the courtyard behind.

Chapter 36

The week passed in a blur, with Gitrin and I spending most of our waking hours working on programming the posternkey. It was decided that the area we were going to aim for was an open space in the hills outside what Isaak called Tierra Nueva. It was close to the caves where the one working postern we knew of was located, but Emil insisted that the area had been sealed off from the public, so it should be deserted when we arrived.

We didn’t know how long it would take us, but we knew when we would return. Gitrin programmed the key to bring us back three minutes after we departed. Once the stable connection to the postern in Isaak’s time was established, we could pass freely between the two timelines. To the people of Elytherios, it would be as if we never left.

But I wondered how much time it would be for me.

The morning of our departure was cold and damp. The clouds hung low over the village, shrouding the trees and buildings with white mist that I could barely see through. The shipping postern was located on the edge of the village, where the buildings began to give way to crops. As we passed, people watched us from the doorways of their houses, silent and stony-faced.

When we arrived at the postern, there was no one to see us off apart from Marin. I wondered if any of the Elytherioi expected us to return, or if they were hoping this was the last they would see of us.

“Are you all ready?” Marin asked us.

I glanced at Ceilos. I didn’t feel ready, but if I wasn’t by now, I was never going to be. He smiled back at me, and I turned to Marin and said, “Yes.”