Time's Daughter by Anya Breton

bad”
Chronos had warned of.
    “ Do you know of any other abilities
you have apart from the ability to stop time?”
    “ No,” I said.
    The leader made a dismissive gesture. Someone jerked
me back. During the half second before I was twirled around and
forced forward I saw Alex watching me with pained eyes.
    Apparently they’d gotten all of the information
they’d wanted out of me. Now it was time to dispose of me and they
didn’t want to mess up their nice floor. Would they take me out
back and shoot me like a rabid dog?
    My handler shoved me through a door into a
pitch-black room—a space little bigger than a closet. He left me
alone. The raised voices of an argument were obvious through the
door but I couldn’t make out what was said.
    Perhaps they were debating over who got to do the
honors.

 
    CHAPTER
NINE
     
    I slid my fingers around the wall behind me until
I found where the doorknob was. It was locked. What was I supposed
to do now?
    I couldn’t go down without a fight. Maybe I could
escape if I had the element of surprise. I moved directly behind
the door—where they’d look last.
    The voices quieted until fewer and fewer could be
heard. Then it went silent. That was when I began to truly
fear.
    The doorknob quietly turned and then light poured
into the room. A silhouette of a man was cast against the back
wall.
    Strangely he stepped inside and closed the door
behind him without looking for me. I launched myself where I
thought he’d be. He nearly fell over with a ferocious snarl but
somehow he maintained his balance. A hand shoved me back. I slammed
into the wall. My teeth snapped down on part of my tongue. I howled
in pain.
    “ What the hell are you trying to do,
Aeon?” Alex’s annoyed voice cut through the darkness. “You’re lucky
it was me. If it had been any of the others…”
    Until the pain subsided I couldn’t speak and I
didn’t know what I’d say anyway.
    “ Aeon?”
    “ Ouch.”
    “ I’m sorry,” he said but didn’t
sound all that regretful. “You startled me. It was
reflexive.”
    I snorted. I could care less if I’d startled him.
His family was going to kill me.
    His sigh filled the tiny room. “They’ve sent me in
to see if I can get more information.” There was a pause. “What’s
supposed to happen in Junction Hill that you have to stop?”
    “ I don’t know. I already told you
guys that.”
    “ Is it us?”
    I nearly smiled until I realized that it was
possible somehow they could read minds. How else would they know
when someone was lying?
    “ I don’t know,” I said. “But I can
say that right now you guys do seem like the most dangerous things
in Junction Hill.”
    “ I tried to avert this,” he reminded
me. “But you wouldn’t answer my questions.”
    “ Do you blame me? I mean, now that
you know the answer, do you blame me for trying to keep it a
secret?”
    “ Are you really the daughter of a
god?”
    I exhaled noisily. “I don’t really know. All I know
is months ago I had a weird dream where a guy claiming to be
Chronos said he was my father. When I told my mom about the dream
she had a panic attack, said something about a hot guy at a picnic
seventeen years ago and then passed out. The next day I stopped
time for five seconds and Wednesday I saved Guy the camera guy by
freezing it for far longer.” I turned it back on him. “So you’ve
never heard of children of the gods before?”
    “ No.”
    That meant he was abnormal in a different way. “Then what are you all?”
    “ Have you heard of other children of
the gods?”
    It annoyed me that he’d ignored my question but
there was little I could do about it. I was still at their mercy.
“Other than Hercules? No.”
    It sounded as if his head shook but I couldn’t be
sure because it was dark. “My family thinks you’re insane.”
    “ Well, I think your family is a
menace.”
    “ You shouldn’t say things like that
while in our house,” he hissed quietly. “They can