Yesterday had been particularly hard for Julia; it was the day Jason died. Not the anniversary, but the actual day itself. If it weren’t for Aisha keeping her company, she probably would have gone to try to prevent it. It couldn’t be stopped, she reminded herself over and over again, but she still had wanted to try. She hated that there was nothing she could do except not get involved.

Today was different. Today she could do something. After years of study, she was convinced that she couldn’t change the past even if she tried. Everything that had happened to her during the last thirteen years had already happened. Jason was interested in mana worms because of her brief visit. Indeed, she was convinced that their entire time together, he knew her from that visit and never said anything. That realization, that the past was set, gave her reason to stay away. Something else she realized gave her reason to act today.

The cave was dark, damp, and cold just as she remembered. She waited while sitting on a rock outcropping against one wall. The long wait – at least it seemed long – made her worry that she had gotten the date wrong. When the chair on fire dropped through a portal, her doubt vanished. Her preparations had been thorough, but she still felt a little anxious. There was always the possibility that he might have some surprises. The one reassurance she had was that, after her one encounter with him, they didn’t hear from him again for the next few years until her trip to the past. If he had disappeared, it might have been because she did something about him.

A few minutes after the chair, a person crashed to the ground. Immediately, Julia threw up a barrier around him. He seemed to be unconscious, probably from the fall. After several minutes, Peter began to stir.

“Where am I?” he yelled into the darkness.

“This is just one my little homes away from home.” Just as she had done with David, she used portals to move around while talking, to keep him disoriented.

“You.” Peter said it like a curse.

“Me. I assume you sent the mana worm?”

“How did you manage to survive it?”

Julia clicked her tongue a couple of times. “That’s the wrong question. You should be asking how important to me was the person it did kill. And the answer is that there is no one in the world that mattered more. And then you should be afraid.”

Peter scoffed. “Even now, you’re still hiding. You don’t scare me. If you were going to kill me, you would have done it already.”

“I don’t want to kill you. I could spend years tormenting you. It’s what you probably deserve. Not just for what you did to me, but what you did to Rebecca.”

“What do you want?” His voice was little more than a growl.

“I want to make sure you can never hurt anyone I care about. Ever again.”

Flames began to surround his hand.

“I should warn you that you have limited oxygen in there. If you burn it all up, you’ll suffocate.”

The flames went out. “So you’re just going wait until I asphyxiate?”

“The thought has occurred to me. But lately, I’ve been working on myself. Trying to grow. So I’ve made a nice little pocket space for you. You can hunt, fish, grow crops . . . Whatever you like. It’s big enough that you can walk for hours. Much nicer than this cave. The only limits is that you’ll be alone, and there is no way out.”

“How long do you intend to keep me there?” Maybe she had imagined it, but Julia thought she heard a touch of nervousness in his question.

“Forever. Like I said, I won’t give you another chance to hurt anyone I care about.”

“You can’t . . .”

“I assure you that I can. No one knows where you are. And no one is looking for you. Even your little cult has banished you. I could do much worse; you’re lucky I’m not feeling more vindictive.”

He began to yell, but Julia ignored him. She opened a portal on the floor of the cave beneath him. He tried to avoid it, but it expanded rapidly and soon covered the whole of the bottom of the barrier. When he finally fell through, Julia closed the portal.

She stayed in the cave for a while. Maybe it would have been kinder just to kill him, but she thought Jason would probably disapprove. She wasn’t sure how long she would really leave him there, but for now, it was one less threat to worry about. She opened another portal and returned to her cabin.