by K. J. McPike
“What are you guys talking about?” Macy frowned up at us from her chair, reminding me that the rest of our friends were still in the room. Paris would kill us if she found out we were talking about this in front of them.
“Oh, um, we’ll explain later,” I said, though I knew any explanation we gave probably wouldn’t be the truth. “Give us a sec, okay? We need to talk in private.” Ignoring the questioning looks from the rest of the group, I started toward the hallway with Kai, Kala, and my siblings right behind me. Kole said something I didn’t catch to the others before he followed us.
The painted cinderblock walls seemed to extend forever as I raced in the direction of the bedrooms, my blood pounding in my ears. We’d been anticipating this moment for so long, but now that it was here, panic tried to smother me. What if Sariah didn’t agree to help us?
Turning into the girls’ bunk room, I waited for everyone to come inside before shutting the door. We formed a circle in the space between the two sets of bunk beds, and I looked up at Kole’s astral form floating a foot above the floor.
“Did you see Sariah for yourself?” I asked breathlessly. If he hadn’t, things were going to be much more complicated.
“Yes, briefly,” Kole said. “I came here as soon as I could after.”
“Good.” Kai seemed to pick up on my train of thought. “If you saw her, then Dixon can project me into your past to show me what she looks like.”
“I just need to know when to stop.” Dixon looked at Kai’s father expectantly. “Can you describe Sariah?”
Kole studied my brother for an extra beat before responding. “She is fair-skinned with dark eyes and pink hair that comes down to her chin.”
“Perfect.” Kai rubbed his palms together. “Someone with pink hair should stand out. But if she’s in a blocked room, I’ll need one of the necklaces with the purple stones to get to her.”
“Well, we don’t exactly have any of those lying around,” Ulyxses pointed out.
Kai looked at Kole with a sudden fire in his green eyes. “Your brother does. Cade used to work for the Eyes and Ears.”
Oh yeah. I’d forgotten about that.
Kole frowned. “How do you know where my brother works?”
“Because we came from the future,” Oxanna reminded him.
“You knew my brother in your timeline?” Kole asked.
Kai’s eye twitched, and I jumped in. “That doesn’t matter right now,” I said. “We might not have much time. Kole, do you think you can get the necklace from Cade?”
“Yes.” He looked between Kai and me like we were two parts of an algebra problem. “I will need a bit of time, though. And you will have to return the stone to me when you are finished so my brother does not realize it is missing.”
“We can do that,” I said.
“Then I will return as soon as I can.” Kole drifted out through the ceiling, and I wrung my hands in front of me. Doubt tried to creep into my mind, but I forced it away. Sariah was going to help us. Once we got her out of the lab and explained our situation, what reason would she have not to? If someone saved me from spending the rest of my life imprisoned by someone as evil as Arlo, I’d do anything I could to return the favor. Surely, she would feel the same way.
“This is it, guys,” Ulyxses whispered, dropping onto the deflating air mattress along the back wall. “I can’t believe we’re finally getting out of this timeline.”
“What if I do not want to leave?” Kala asked. Her question caught the rest of us off guard, but her expression didn’t waver as we all stared at her.
“What are you talking about?” Oxanna asked. “We can’t stay forever.”
“Yeah,” Dixon agreed. “Don’t you wanna go home?”
Kala met their questions with a defiant jut of her chin. “I do not want to leave and start over a second time. You plan to return to a timeline where I cannot go back to Alea, and I have nothing in your realm.”
Kai winced. “You have us.”
“And what do you have there?” she challenged.
Kai’s eyes flicked to me but quickly dropped.
“Why didn’t you say this before?” Oxanna snapped, throwing out a hand that almost hit the ladder attached to the bunk beds beside her. “We’ve been talking about this since we first got here.”
“When we first got here, I did not have any ties to this timeline, either,” Kala said. “Now I have friends, and I do not want to lose them.”
My stomach knotted. If Kala refused to leave, I was sure Kai would want to stay behind with her. He’d just gotten her back—there was no way he’d be willing to give her up again. But he and I had finally made peace, and even though I still wasn’t sure where we stood, I couldn’t take the thought of losing him.
“It’s not safe for you to stay here,” Ulyxses told Kala. “You’re going to be born in this timeline eventually. Then there will be two of you, and you’ll have the same problem with your astral energy merging.”
“He’s right,” Kai agreed. “We wouldn’t be able to stay here for longer than a couple years.”
Kala’s brow cinched. “That is not fair.”
I sighed, doing my best to look sympathetic despite the relief flooding through my veins. “I know. I’m sorry. But we can help you adjust to our timeline. And maybe some of our friends from here will be there, too.” Not that they would know us if they were. And that was assuming they made it through the raid without being kidnapped.
“Fine.” Kala crossed her arms and slumped against the wall. “Forget it. We will say good-bye to our friends and go.”
Ulyxses cleared his throat. “Actually, maybe we should wait to say good-bye. We need to make sure Sariah agrees to help us first.”
“That’s true,” Oxanna said. “If she says no, then we’ll still need to stay here until we figure out what to do.”
I fought back another onslaught of doubt. I wanted to believe Sariah would be willing to help us, but maybe we needed to figure out a way to ensure that she would. I didn’t want to blackmail her or anything, but an incentive wouldn’t hurt.
“Do you guys think we should offer Sariah something?” I asked, looking at Kai. I’d managed to forgive him for what he’d done, but I hadn’t forgotten that he had mastered the art of getting people to do what he wanted. “You know, to make sure she’ll help us.”
Kai arched a brow. “I was just gonna ask her to do us a solid. We are getting her out of the lab, after all. I’m gonna project her to wherever she calls home, or bring her here to figure things out, and in exchange, she can take us to the right time.”
I knotted my fingers. “You guys think that’ll be enough? We might only get one shot at this, and I want to make sure it goes how we want it to go.”
Dixon rubbed a hand along the back of his head, the inch of black hair that had grown in from his buzz cut making a wisping sound against his palm. “Maybe it is smarter to make a deal with her. Then we don’t have to worry about her time hopping as soon as she’s not trapped behind a block.”
“What if you offer to get Trace out of the lab in exchange for her help?” Ulyxses asked. “They’re supposed to be friends, right?”
“Consider it done,” Kai said. “In the meantime, Dixon, I need you to take me to Kole’s past so I can get a look at Sariah.”
“Then what are we supposed to do until Kole brings us the necklace?” Oxanna asked.
Kai’s chest rose slowly as he looked around our group. “We wait.”
Kole made it back to the bunk room within twenty minutes. “Promise me you will be careful,” he said as he handed Cade’s necklace to Kai with a grim expression.
Kai nodded. “I will. I gotta get these guys back to their proper timeline. I owe them much more than that.” He winked at me as he pulled the necklace over his head, and I wondered if he could read my mounting nerves on my face. I hated that I couldn’t offer any help by projecting with him. If I went along, it would only mean someone else for him to worry about, and he did
n’t need any distractions.
“If I could have gotten her out myself, I would have.” Kole made it sound like an apology. “But there is no way to do it discreetly now that she is waiting to be interrogated.”
“I’ll be fine,” Kai promised, not even the slightest flicker of his expression hinting at nerves hiding beneath the surface. “And I can get the necklace back to you before we leave. This thing can penetrate any block, so I can come to wherever your physical body is—as long as the coast is clear.”
Kole smiled. “Good. If I am projecting, you can shake me out of it. I would like to say good-bye before you all leave.” He drifted higher off the floor, his astral head less than half a foot from the ceiling. “I must get back before they realize I have gone again, but once you make your plans with Sariah and say good-bye to your friends here, please come find me.” With that, he floated through the wall.
“Okay,” Kai said, smiling. “Be right back with our time-hopping savior.”
He vanished, and my heart lodged itself in my throat.
“Holy crap,” Oxanna breathed. “This is really happening. We’re really going home.”
And maybe getting our little sister back. I hadn’t said anything to her or my brothers about trying to get Sariah on board to take Salaxia from another timeline—I didn’t want to get their hopes up if it wasn’t going to happen—but I would find a way to ask Sariah in private. I still wasn’t totally comfortable with taking our sister from somewhere if she was happy, but if there was a chance we could find a timeline where she was in trouble—
Kai appeared again, and my lungs deflated. He was alone.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“I didn’t wanna bring her here,” he replied with a shrug. “Just in case they already put a tracker in her or something. I took her to Lanai.” He reached out his arms and turned his palms upward. “I’ll take you guys to her so we can talk and figure out a plan.”
“Wait.” I swallowed, realizing this was my chance to ask Sariah about Salaxia. I wanted to bring it up before everyone else came along. “Let Kai and me talk to her first,” I said, turning to face my siblings and Kala. “Just in case she’s freaked out and gets violent or something.” Or refuses to help us get our sister.
Oxanna huffed. “Seriously?”
“Sorry. I’m overprotective.” I took Kai’s hand. “We’ll be back in a sec.”
A moment later, we appeared on the beach. Sariah clutched her bare knees just below where they peeked out of her skirt, her wild blinking telling me she’d been blinded from projecting with Kai. She had a petite frame, much smaller than I had pictured, and the wide set of her face made me think of a cat.
“I asked…who is there,” she wheezed, her fair skin flushed so it was nearly the same shade of pink as her hair.
Kai tugged my arm to keep me from getting too close to her. “I told you, I’m a friend,” he said, looking at Sariah like she might attack. “Just take deep breaths and I’ll explain.”
Her expression didn’t soften, but she inhaled and exhaled in slow bursts. When she finally straightened her back, her upturned eyes rounded as she took in the beach. “What is this?” she demanded. “Where is Trace?”
I frowned. She spoke like she’d grown up in Alea. Delta hadn’t gotten the chance to tell us much about Sariah, but I had assumed she’d grown up in this realm.
Kai didn’t seem fazed by her speech pattern. “Trace is still at the lab,” he said. “But I can bring him here in exchange for your help.”
“My help with what?”
“With getting to our proper timeline,” I answered, inching my feet forward in the sand. “It’s a long story, but my brother can travel to the past, and we all ended up stuck in the wrong time.”
Sariah’s head twitched in the direction of the palm trees to our left, and then toward the ocean. “And what makes you think I can help you?”
“Delta told us about your power,” Kai replied.
“Delta?”
“She’s one of the test subjects at the lab,” I clarified. “And she—”
Sariah lashed out, grabbing both of us by the wrist. All feeling in my body disappeared, and the world around me rushed by like I was watching a telescope zoom out at top speed. It took me a moment to register what was happening. Sariah was projecting us out of that timeline—away from my family!
I cried out, straining to pull my wrist from her grasp. Sariah held on tight as we moved through a blur of images until we had left them all behind.
“What are you doing?” Kai fought a losing battle against her hold, and we moved into blackness. Swirling, iridescent tubes glimmered far below us like shimmering serpents, the only source of light in the void. “Where are you taking us?”
Sariah didn’t answer. We zoomed back toward the opalescence, pictures flying by so quickly that they were impossible to distinguish. Then pins and needles were stabbing me all over my body. Kai grunted beside me as I crashed into a hard floor. My feeling returned with a vengeance, sending spikes of pain through my shoulder as I rolled onto my back.
Gasping for breath, I forced myself upright. We were in a room with glass walls and a glass ceiling. A transposer glowed right next to where Sariah floated above us, her astral form a replica of her physical body. I caught sight of the orange sky showing through the wall behind her, and my blood ran cold.
We were in Alea.
“No,” I rasped.
Kai sat up next to me, and I reached for him just as the side of Sariah’s hand came down on the place between his neck and shoulder. He slumped to the floor, unconscious.
“Kai!” I dove for him as Sariah drifted back into the air.
“Grab them,” she shouted to someone behind me.
I didn’t have time to turn around. Cold, rock-like arms wrapped around my waist, lifting me off the floor as a second guard scooped up Kai’s limp form. I screamed, kicking wildly, but the Astralis held me with an iron grip.
“That boy took me out of here somehow,” Sariah said, stabbing a finger at Kai. “Get someone to seek out my tracker. And take these two straight to Arlo.”
Chapter 20
Useful
My thrashing was useless. The Astralis held me with a grip like stone, my body draped over his silver arm as if I were little more than a rag doll. “Let me go!” I pounded my fists against any part of his impenetrable icy form I could reach, feeling my hands bruise with each hopeless strike.
“Quite foolish of you to assume my loyalty would lie with you.” Sariah shook her head with mock pity, her gaze moving over to where Kai’s unconscious body lay slumped in the crook of the second guard’s elbow. “But it will be fun to see how you’re put to use.”
Understanding hit me in an instant. Sariah worked for Arlo. Somehow she had used her ability to loop back through time to deliver us right to him. I stared at our betrayer, my voice dying in my throat as her smile grew.
“Have fun now.” She gave a taunting wave and disappeared, leaving us at the mercy of the guards.
The Astralis carrying me turned toward the metal wall behind us, and my eyes landed on the set of double doors in its center—doors I knew led to the lab.
I screamed, flailing harder as the guards moved toward the entrance. Gold light caught my attention, reflected in the glass to my left. The transposer! If I projected through it, my physical body would drop to the floor across the room, free of the guard’s clutches. Maybe if I managed to take Kai with me, the jolt would wake him up so he could get us out of here.
Straining against my captor, I stretched toward Kai’s hand. It was just out of reach.
But I wasn’t giving up. Maybe I could still go through the transposer on my own and buy some time. I squeezed my eyes shut and focused on the glowing ring. The buzzing in my head had barely started when the Astralis carrying me adjusted his grip, the movement jarring me out of my projection.
The second guard punched a code into a keypad by the door. “Brin Laro,” he said, his
name triggering a green laser to scan his face.
“Match,” a computerized voice announced. The doors slid open, revealing a metallic interior I’d hoped I would never see again.
No! I tried one last time to project to the transposer, but my body jostled as the guard carried me into the lab. The doors closed behind us, sealing us within the blocked space.
My eyes shot over to Kai. He was our only hope of getting out of here now, and he was still out cold. His head dangled toward the floor, the chain of Cade’s necklace peeking out from the collar of his t-shirt. The guards hadn’t seemed to realize that he wore one of the stones capable of penetrating the block around the lab, or that he could project us out of here in seconds—he just had to wake up.
“Kai!” I shouted, reaching out for his hand again. The guard carrying me jerked me to the side, snapping my head so hard my cheek nearly struck my shoulder.
“I don’t think so,” he barked.
I felt my pulse in my eardrums, the throbbing making it hard to think as we moved down the long hall. Countless sets of double doors and keypads broke up the shiny silver walls, but no room numbers or lettering indicated what lay behind them.
Fighting the Astralis was useless, and by the time we reached the end of the hall, I’d stopped struggling to save energy. We came to a round room with a ring of metal desks just off the walls. At least a dozen workers sat typing, their jewel-toned hair the only pops of color in a sea of silver and white.
“Let Arlo know we are bringing him two potentials,” Brin called out, making all the workers look up at once. “Interrogation Four.”
“Got it!” a slender female said, lifting a hand into the air.
Everyone else went back to studying their screens, unbothered by the sight of an unconscious boy and a defenseless girl being hauled off against their will.
Kai, wake up! I watched his face for any flicker of movement, but he didn’t so much as stir.
We moved down another corridor that looked just like the first. We’d nearly reached the end when we came to a stop in front of yet another unmarked set of doors. The guard tightened his grip on me and entered a code into the keypad.