The Art of Stealing Time: A Time Thief Novel Read Free Page A

be the 1820s.”
    I had the ticket right there. I could be on that plane, leaving my troubles behind me.
    “They didn’t have cameras in the 1820s,” Mom Two told her, and behind their voices, the sirens grew louder.
    Life would be sane again. No more would I find myself being killed, in the afterlife, or suddenly (and inexplicably) resurrected.
    “Daguerreotype! I think that’s the name for it. Gwen, do you remember if that’s what they did?”
    I eyed my phone. Just the touch of one finger on its screen, and I could hang up. My mother probably wouldn’t even notice I’d done so for at least several minutes. Then, carefree, I could blithely go on with my life, leaving my mothers to cope with whatever they’d done with theirs.
    I turned around so the wall was to my back and slid down it until I was sitting on the floor, my forehead resting on my knees. I couldn’t leave them. Not if they had gotten into yet another tight place. There wasn’t even any pretense I could make about having a choice. They were my mothers, and I loved them. They had a knack for getting into trouble and a disregard for pretty much all forms of common sense, but I loved them, and I couldn’t leave them. Not this way. Not when the Watch so clearly had us in their sights.
    “Sooner or later they’re going to follow me to you, and put two and two together,” I told my mother.
    “I don’t think daguerreotypes came out around until the 1840s— What was that, Gwenny?”
    “The Watch. They may be confused about our identities now, but they’re not stupid. At least the blond guy isn’t. I told him I wasn’t you, and he believed me. They’re going to find you, and then they’ll put you in jail.”
    “But, dear, we haven’t done anything wrong!”
    “You were selling magic to a mortal! That’s
so
incredibly illegal!”
    “But we didn’t actually sell anything to that man. Or to the lawyer. We just said we would.”
    “And took the money to do so.” I made sure to mention that. It was one of the points that rankled so greatly with me.
    “Well, of course we took the money. We needed it.”
    “The fact remains that you were poised to engage in illegal activities, but I stopped you from actually doing so. And got killed in the process.”
    “She’s going on again about being killed. I do wish she could have had more time with the counselor,” she said to Mom Two before addressing me again. “Gwen, dearest, I am your mother. I think I’d know if my only child was killed.”
    I thought seriously about rolling my eyes at both the statement and the chiding note in her voice. “The point is that you were about to do something very illegal, and the Watch knew that. They sent someone to catch you in the act. The only reason they didn’t is because I went down to tell the lawyer who arranged for the sale to stop threatening you with all sorts of horrible things if you didn’t honor your contract with him. A wholly illegal contract, I’d like to point out.”
    “He’s a lawyer, Gwen. I’m sure it was illegal.”
    “Where are you?” I changed the subject, knowing the argument was going to go nowhere. We’d had it several times during the last few days, and it always ended up the same way: my mothers refused to admit that they’d done anything wrong. “The siren sounds louder. Can you pull over and cast a spell to escape the mortal police?”
    “Of course we can cast an escape spell. Any third-year pupil of Lambfreckle can cast a basic escape spell, and your other mother and I are more than two hundred years old, so we certainly know—”
    “Mom,” I interrupted. “You know what I mean.”
    “I do, and much as I love you, Gwenny, I’m insulted that you think we can’t take care of ourselves and get away from mortals. Oh, dear, Alice, Mrs. Vanilla is on the floor again. Perhaps if you pulled over I could right her—”
    I stood up, and without even one poignant glance at the plane that was being fueled so that it could