She checked the clock on the time machine’s dashboard. Then, blinking, she checked it again.

“Roman,” she said, leaning forward suddenly. “Is this right? It says that we landed a full day later than when we left.”

Roman turned to her. He seemed not to have noticed that they’d arrived back home at all. The last trip back had taken a toll on him. He looked aged.

“What was that?” he asked.

“Look.” Dorothy pointed to the time machine’s clock. “We landed twenty-four hours too late.” She looked over her shoulder, at the anil still swirling behind her. “Should—should I go back and try again?”

Roman went back to staring out the window. “If you like.”

Dorothy tried to think of something to say, but everything that came to mind sounded stupid. He’d spent the day watching his sister die over and over again. She couldn’t think of anything more painful than that, and it angered her that she couldn’t find the words to comfort him. She, too, had lost her entire family, but she didn’t think it was quite the same.

She glanced back at the anil one last time. How much difference would one day really make?

She set the time machine to hover and flew over the dark waves, toward home.

The Fairmont rose in the distance like a golden mountain, lit up and glowing against the otherwise darkening sky. Seeing it, Dorothy felt the anxiety inside of her still. Home.

Then, she marked the dark figures standing guard at its main entrance and frowned. That was strange. She didn’t recognize half the Freaks on duty.

She swiveled around in her seat as she flew past, trying to catch a final glimpse before rounding the corner.

“Wasn’t Donovan’s team supposed to be on guard?” she said, half to herself.

It seemed to take Roman a long time to hear the question. He blinked, as though coming out of a trance. “What?”

“Donovan,” Dorothy said again, more firmly this time. She deftly flew the Black Crow through the dark windows of the parking garage, waiting until she’d landed before explaining. “His team was on guard when we left this morning, wasn’t it? I thought you’d told him to hold until we returned?”

Roman nodded slowly. They always left the Fairmont in the hands of one of their more trusted teams when they traveled back in time, just in case something should happen to delay their return.

“I didn’t see him out front just now,” Dorothy said.

“He must’ve switched,” Roman murmured, but Dorothy could see his brows draw together. That didn’t sound like Donovan’s team. “I suppose it was a rather long shift; we’ve been gone for more than a day.”

Dorothy cringed, once again feeling guilty for missing their intended time.

They exited the time machine and found the door to the Fairmont’s basement ajar, a thin yellow light dribbling into the stairwell. Dorothy could hear the grunting sounds of work being done. It seemed like there was an entire team of people gathered on the other side.