She blinked. “I’m not getting married.”
“Of course. I’ll just leave this right … here.” He edged it over, then snapped up his briefcase, then grabbed the box. He gave her one last smile, then walked out the door.
Zoë sighed. Her phone buzzed, and she answered it. “Hello? –Yes, I’m Jamie’s health-care proxy.” A pause. She listened to the message, stunned, and the phone dropped out of her hand.
3.
Thomas stayed with Ariel for the rest of the afternoon, and Zoë didn’t return. He realized it was almost exactly a year since she lost one friend, and now another had died.
Perhaps he had been too concerned with his own problems, or Ariel’s. Maybe he was out of touch with his fiancée, and she was giving a subtle hint for him to get out of her life.
He listened to the time traveler’s breathing. Air in, out.
In, out.
“You saved Damien,” he said. “And me, and Emily. She’s going to be queen, too, and sooner than I thought. You probably knew that already.”
In, out.
“I decided not to take that newscaster job,” he said. “Sure, it pays about ten times what I make now, but I found a job that’s even better. And I’m still taking Audrey to London for the summer. Can you imagine? She’s got a boyfriend. Did you have a boyfriend when you were that age?”
No reply.
He ran a hand through his hair, and got up to walk over to the kitchen. But a voice from the next room over stopped him:
“Thomas, you had a boyfriend when you were that age.”
“Ariel!” he said, delighted. He rushed over to the lounge and saw her sitting up on the couch. Her skin looked less flushed.
“What day is it?” she asked, her voice still drowsy from sleep.
“Tuesday the twenty-first, and nearly evening. The Flyday. Are you okay, for real?”
“Yeah. I think so.” She slid off the couch. “I feel better. I guess I’ve got a strong immune system. What about you? Are you all right?”
“Perfectly.” He was standing in the doorway, and felt as if his heart had simultaneously stopped and started beating faster than he’d ever thought possible. “Zoë said that in your time, people got sick a lot, and your body should be used to a battering. Have you ever had influenza, or the rhinovirus?”
She blinked. “The flu? The common cold? Are you kidding me?”
“Uh ... you’ve never had them?”
“We get them all the time! The flu swings around every winter, and kids get a cold just about every month. Don’t you ever get sick?”
He thought back. “I got an infection after my injury four years ago.”
“Man, you must not be able to keep a contact lens in for two days straight without your immune system shutting down.”
“Yeah,” he said. “Crazy...”
She stretched. “What happened while I was out?”
“Uh...”
“Did I kill Jude?”
“No. Emily did.”
“And Jamie...”
He didn’t reply for a moment, and she understood.
“Oh!” He pulled out the copper watch. “I took this from Jude.”
Ariel’s eyes lit up. “Brilliant,” she said, taking it by the chain. “Want to pay Jamie a visit before he goes?”
He clapped a hand to his mouth. “Watch him die?”
“I’m feeling lucky,” she said. “Maybe it’s my brain cells overheating. Let’s go!”
The ship around them melted away, and in a second, they stood in a hallway.
A rock star’s hallway.
A door lay ajar, and they heard music blasting from the room inside.
“I don’t think this is a good—” Thomas started.
Ariel pushed the door open, then walked inside the bathroom. She turned off the stereo. Who has a stereo in their bathroom? Thomas thought, then he realized: This was Jamie.
Jamie sat in the tub with his eyes closed. His clothes were soaked. He had two gashes on his wrists, which he held under the flowing water. Thomas saw bottles of pills strewn all over the sink.
“Ariel,” Jamie said, his eyes flying open. “What are you—?”
Ariel shoved him against the wall. With one hand she untied her shoelaces.
Very affectionate, Thomas thought.
“I heard that,” said Ariel. She had pulled off one lace and tied it around Jamie’s arm, above the artery.
“You can’t do this!” Jamie yelled, but he was too weak to do much more than complain. “I’m supposed to die today. June 21, 2507! I saw that on the monument.”
“Maybe they etched it wrong,” said Thomas. “They could’ve meant 2570 or something. Typo, misprint. I mean, this is hundreds of years in the future, right? You shouldn’t bet your life on these things.”
Jamie gave no response. Ariel pulled out a bobby pin from her hair and stuck it in the makeshift tourniquet, then twisted it until Jamie screamed. She shut off the water, pulled out another shoelace and went for the next arm.
“You’re not supposed to use tourniquets,” Thomas corrected. “Just apply pressure to his arms.”
“I can’t be applying pressure to his arms when the paramedics come in, okay? They’ll find him before he needs his arms amputated.”
“What?” said Jamie, his eyes wide.
“Fine. Allow me.” Thomas reached in and didn’t stop twisting the pin no matter how much Jamie protested. “That’s for hacking my account,” he said, clipping it in place. “I’m probably going to get in trouble over that.”
“Did it work?” said Jamie. “Did it save Damien, I mean?”
“Yeah,” said Ariel. “No reason to off yourself, though.”
“You don’t understand. The police are coming. They’ll—”
“Stick you in a hospital,” said Ariel. “For 72 hours, then you’re out.”
“Why are you doing this? I want to die.”
“Jamie,” said Thomas, “people are crazy about your music. And for some strange reason, Zoë is fond of you. She was upset, crying—well, will be. Would have been—?”
“She was?” Jamie asked.
He decided to stick with past tense. “Yes.”
They heard a banging on the downstairs door.
Jamie’s eyelids fluttered, and he looked pale. He had lost a lot of blood, and still had toxins in his body that would shut down his system without immediate medical attention.
“Jamie, stay with me,” Ariel urged. “Remember all the fun we had? Tossing barrels at the Boston Tea Party? All those crazy parties in Versailles? Or the sinking of the Titanic? Remember?”
The singer didn’t reply. They were losing him.
“Jamie!”
Jamie took a breath, exhaled—and did not take another. He stared at both of them, unblinking.
“No. I thought I could stop it,” Ariel whispered.
They heard the door burst open downstairs.
Thomas turned. “We need to go. We’re already in Tenokte once right now.”
Ariel risked one more glance at musician, covered her mouth, and looked away. Thomas took her hand, pressed the button on the watch, and they vanished.
Commissioner Huxley walked inside. Even as EMTs rushed in and checked for a pulse, he knew what had happened: Jamie’s eyes were wide open, staring at someone who was not there.
They pulled him out of the water and attempted CPR, then dried him with a towel and set up a defibrillator.
“Clear.”
Jamie twitched.
They tried again. “Clear!”
His body jerked, but his eyes remained wide open.
“Call the lieutenant,” said the police commissioner. “He’s gone.”
They made the call, but the paramedic tried one more time.
“Clear.”
Jamie’s body jerked again, and the rock star sucked in a breath. He closed his eyes, coughing and sputtering.
“Ariel!” he moaned, and started to cry.
4.
>
Thomas and Ariel stood in the next room.
“Is this going to break the time-space continuum?” Thomas whispered. “You know, unravel time, create a black hole or something?”
“I don’t think it should.” Ariel pressed an ear against the wall, listening. “I think we were always meant to come here and save him.”
“But what about me? I don’t know if you realize, but I’m supposed to be dead right now too. I’m not going to get hit by a falling meteorite, am I? Or die in a hotel fire?”
“I don’t know. Maybe the note about your death in my file was a mistake? Historians make errors all the time. In any case, right now you have a blank future. So make it good, okay?”
“Sure. I’ll try.” He paused. “You knew Jamie for awhile, right? What’s wrong with him?”
“Well, it’s kind of self-explanatory. When he’s up, he thinks he’s the greatest thing ever, doesn’t sleep and has the drive to make award-winning albums. And then he doesn’t take any medication, because if he was sick, why would he feel so great? Then he gets really sad and something happens to throw him off and …”
“He tries to kill himself.”
“Pretty much. He must’ve had it rough as a kid. He’s a musician and an only child, and both his parents are deaf. They were always very supportive of him, but it must have been hard, with all that noise in his head, to live in a house that was so quiet.”
Thomas could understand that. He paused. “Were you really on the Titanic?”
Ariel smiled but didn’t answer. She looked again at the etching on her watch’s cover: a sun, either rising or setting. She thought of Jude’s silver watch, which had a picture of a crescent moon … the gold one, which showed a sun high in the sky … and Jamie’s; what else? Stars.
She pressed the fob, and the two angels of death reappeared on the Halcyon.
Chapter Twenty-One
June 21, 2507
Clouds fluttered by in the skies above a blue and green planet. Cars flew over invisible highways, driven by people with one route on their mind and a million in their hearts. Sunset had started, and the world seemed more dazzling than it ever could be again.
Ariel slipped through the streets, which were all familiar to her but by different names, and passed a group of teenagers lighting candles at a vigil for a musician. At midnight, it would be one year since Kyle Jones’s death. She met some of their eyes as they passed, and knew their grief; but after a moment, she turned the corner, and they were alone with it again.
She passed shops with hologram displays blinking and twirling in the windows, she looked up and saw a streetlight turning magenta, and watched cars stop and go. She passed a Celestial police officer, with his white uniform and blue helmet, and after a quick moment of apprehension, she realized it was okay: after all, this was the year 2507.
When she reached a white palace, she looked up, then pulled out her copper watch and pressed the tab.
A girl of sixteen stood in her bedroom, looking out the window into the royal courtyard.
Princess Emily Montag, heir apparent of the Celestial Federation, wore a pink dress, her golden hair pulled up under a silver tiara. She glanced back when she heard footsteps, then relaxed.
“You really are a ghost,” said Emily.
Ariel Midori, standing a few feet away, stared back at her, perplexed.
“When I was a child, my grandmother told me a story. On the eve of her coronation, a girl appeared to her, wished her good luck in her reign, and then departed. No one knew how she had entered the palace, and my grandmother never saw the girl again.”
“I see.”
“I didn’t think much of it until a few days after her death, when I heard my father asking the servants if they’d seen a young woman walking through the palace. Much later, when Richard was crowned, he mentioned a visit from her. I thought he was joking. But then I found my great-grandfather’s diary, which included an entry about this mysterious visitor. He also painted a portrait.” She moved her eyes to the wall above the fireplace.
Ariel looked up at the painting. It detailed a girl with reddish-brown hair, wearing green-tinted sunglasses, standing in front of a burning building.
“I love it,” said Ariel.
“The girl is always the same. She never changes, not in all the years.” Emily frowned. “Every time there is death or destruction, you appear. Ariel Reynolds, sister of our first leader, you should have died a long time ago.”
“I’m a time traveler. Sorry if I didn’t stop for an explanation. Things were a bit hectic.”
Emily sat down. “I’ve sat in on a few of Richard’s meetings. There have always been whispers of you. I take it a young lieutenant was looking for you?”
Ariel smiled, impressed. “You’re good.”
“Traveler, tell me this. If you can move through time like the years are windows and the centuries are open doors, then why couldn’t you save my brother?”
“I couldn’t.”
“You saved the journalist. He seemed convinced he would die; now he’s alive.”
“Technically, you saved Thomas. If you hadn’t come along and distracted the assassin for a minute, he would have died. It’s a crazy loop—I try not to think about it too much.”
“I see.”
“Saving the king would create a paradox, as I arrived in a time when he was already gone. No matter what, I was never meant to save him. It was too vital to history that he die.”
Emily turned away.
The princess had inherited her mother’s beauty and heart, and the brilliant political mind of her father, but for a flashing instant Ariel realized how young this girl was. Sixteen, and already she’d lost her entire family, and not easily. The entire world looked up to her ... but they wouldn’t be disappointed. Ariel saw a mature young woman who, with a little experience, could stand with the wisest of adults.
The people loved Richard, but they feared change, and they feared a government riddled with secret agents even more. Emily, a blooming rose of a girl, would light a path for the future.
“You did the right thing, stopping that killer,” said Ariel. “Don’t let yourself think otherwise, not for a moment.”
Emily’s eyes watered. “My parents loved Richard. They left their throne to him. They wanted me to wave at the cameras and appear at charity events. Now everyone expects me to know what to do.”
“But you will. The world is about to enter a golden age. In the thirtieth century, you’ll be considered one of the greatest rulers of all time. Right up there with Dimitri Reynolds.”
“You’ve been to the thirtieth century?”
“Oh ... once or twice.”
The princess looked down. “I’m the last of my family.”
“No. Not for long. You’ll get married, have a few children. Don’t worry about it now, though.”
“Then how long will my family survive?”
“For as long as they’re needed.”
She looked up at her. “Right,” she said, not especially convinced. “In the past week I saw my brother killed, I had to flee for my life, and I had to shoot an assassin. This doesn’t sound like a golden age to me.”
“No. Maybe not yet. But you’re the only one the people trust to lead them. Are you sure you’re all right?”
“Yes. I’m a lot stronger than people think.”
“Then good luck.” Ariel strolled to the door of the girl’s bedroom, past the ornately carved tan walls, the many oval mirrors, a fireplace and a portrait, and she vanished.
The future queen walked back to the window, staring out at the gardens.
Tomorrow would be the first day of her preparation for ruling, for planning for a coronation, for choosing advisors. The summer solstice, longest day of the year, waned. An end and a beginning. But she felt happier now, wiser, as if the heaviest part of her burden had been lifted up and carried away by the breeze.
2.
June 15, 2507
As for what had ha
ppened to the drummer: When it came to bad luck, Damien Martínez had enough to last a lifetime.
The musician was running late, and rushed through the covered tunnels of Tenokte. The subway had been delayed by twenty minutes, but if he timed it right, he would make it into the field just before the king’s speech started. If he came any later, he wouldn’t be able to get up to the front with the press, and would have to meet up with his sister afterwards.
He dodged a small crowd of people, running at full speed through the narrow hallway.
“Damien Martínez!” gasped a teenaged girl, star-struck. “Can I get your autograph?”
“Write me a letter and I’ll send it to you! Gotta go!” he said, darting around a corner.
The girl sighed. “Rock stars.”
Damien checked his watch. Three minutes left. He could hear the distant booms of fireworks, which made the city seem like a war zone. Okay, he had to turn left—no, wait, was it right? He skidded to a stop.
Left?
He rushed down the hall, only to find himself on the street. People were still arriving for the speech. Not this way. He ducked inside the building and ran in the other direction.
He had two minutes. He turned another corner. One minute. When he realized the speech had already begun, he stopped. Okay, he’d just slide in the back and meet up with Zoë later. Easy enough. He waited a minute to catch his breath, then walked toward the exit.
Soon he heard another loud crack, then another. More fireworks? No idea. He rushed down the corner.
“Hey! Don’t go that way!” someone called. “It’s, uh, not a good idea.”
He skidded to a stop, and saw a red-haired girl. He stood by an elevator and flight of stairs which, though he did not know it, led to a balcony a few floors up. The elevator car was coming down, but no one was inside.
“I’ve got to find someone,” he said.
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