Infinity Bell: A House Immortal Novel

Infinity Bell: A House Immortal Novel Read Free

Book: Infinity Bell: A House Immortal Novel Read Free
Author: Devon Monk
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vehicle.”
    In just a couple minutes, Neds did find an accommodating vehicle. A dark late-model box van with two seats in the front and plenty of cargo space in the back.
    Between Neds, Quinten, Corb, and I, we strapped Abraham securely to the stretcher, then transferred him from the plane to the van.
    I was glad it was dark and foggy and that the dock was secluded. But security cameras could be anywhere. We needed to be gone fast.
    Quinten took the driver’s seat, a stocking cap on his head, covering his curls. He was already rolling away from the dock before I got the side door closed.
    Neds rode in the back, sitting on the floor next to Abraham. I decided that might be a good place for me to stay out of sight too.
    “Gloria’s?” Quinten asked.
    “End of the world, she’d be top of my list of safe harbors,” I said. I didn’t know why he had to ask me. He’d spent time with her. I’d never even met her in person.
    “I think,” he said, “well, it may be
an
end of the world, but there could be a fix. We can fix it. Us Cases. You and I. That’s what I need to tell you. I think I know how. Brilliant, actually, but we don’t have all the pieces yet, so there are some challenges involved.”
    “Pieces to fix Abraham?” I asked. “Or save the world?”
    “No.” He glanced up in the rearview mirror, and I wasn’t sure quite how much sanity shone behind his eyes. “Time. We need to fix time.” The way he said it made me feel like I was a second-grader who hadn’t learned to count yet.
    “We can do that? Fix time?”
    “I think . . . yes.”
    Impossible? Probably. But, then, it wouldn’t be the first impossible thing my brother had done. I was living proof of that.
    “All right,” I said, “We’ll fix time. But first we need to get to Gloria’s for Abraham, right?”
    “Yes,” he said. “Of course, yes.” He turned his attention back to the foggy road, taking us away from the harbor and toward Newport Avenue.
    I stared at his reflection in the rearview mirror. He carried a tightness around his eyes, and in every line of his body, really. As if he expected something to jump out at him from each dark corner we passed. I just hopedcaptivity hadn’t rattled his brain too hard. It had been three years since I’d seen him, and his imprisonment could not have been easy.
    Gloria’s place was about thirty minutes away, a squat, square building crammed between an antiques shop and a restaurant space that constantly rotated through owners, unable to stay in business long enough for the new layer of paint to dry.
    The faded sign above her shop windows said she sold books and odds and ends. While I knew she did do that, she also had one of the most advanced secret medical facilities known only to House Brown beneath her shop. We made sure it remained secret and advanced by sending her monetary support, equipment, and tech whenever we could get our hands on it.
    Because of that and Gloria’s skills, a lot of people in House Brown had received care the other Houses would never have provided.
    I’d never been here, but several years ago, Quinten had spent a year working with Gloria, learning basic and maybe even some advanced doctoring from her.
    He’d never told me why he’d decided to leave her tutelage. That was not long after our parents had died, when he had been intent on absorbing the best on-the-road education House Brown could scrape together for him.
    He parked the van back behind the shop. “I think this is bad . . . well, not the worst idea,” Quinten said, “but it might not be a good idea.”
    “Fixing time?” I asked.
    “No.” He frowned at me and shook his head slightly as if he couldn’t understand why I wasn’t following his mental leaps. “Coming to Gloria,” he said. “She’s . . .”
    His voice faded and his eyes went distant.
    This was no time for him to check out.
    “She’s what, Quinten?” I asked.
    He shook his head again, and this time his eyes cleared.

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