by Gwen Cole
I just had to remind myself—everything would be back to normal tomorrow.
I heard the sound then and felt the soft breeze.
I let out a sigh of relief.
Levi put his ears back, but I called him off and stood, facing Kiato. I hadn’t noticed before, but there were dark circles under his eyes and his skin was too pale.
“Was he right?” he asked, staying where he was. “Did you have enough time?”
At first, I wasn’t sure what he was talking about, but the desperate tone of his voice helped me figure it out. Reid must have talked to him and tried to convince him to . . . help? He’d asked if I had enough time, so maybe Reid asked him to not come for me right away, hoping we would come up with a plan.
“Yeah, I think we did,” I said and he nodded, confirming my thoughts.
He hesitated and asked, “What am I supposed to do?”
“What you were told to do. Then let me handle the rest.”
Kiato looked unsure, like once he took me, there was no going back. I wondered what Reid had said to him to change his mind. Maybe not change his mind, but at least something in the way of that.
The plan would have worked either way—this just gave us an advantage.
I stood and let him take my arm. Even though I was doing this on purpose, my stomach still had knots and my heart wouldn’t stop hammering.
Everything depended on me.
Kiato drifted us to what looked like an old office in a warehouse. Buck was there, talking on the phone, and he visibly jumped when we appeared, looking pissed at Kiato. But when he saw I was with him, he smiled and hung up.
“You,” he said. “Can’t stay away, can you?”
No wonder Knox couldn’t find Buck—he was the one behind everything. Were the other missing sliders here too?
I swallowed away my doubt and said, “It’s a little hard when you have my whole family.”
“And your boyfriend.”
My breath hitched at that—just out of surprise from hearing the word.
Buck nodded, motioning me to come over to a set of windows overlooking the warehouse. Kiato gave me a warning look before letting go, probably just for Buck’s sake. I stepped up to the window, and what I saw took my breath away.
Even though Buck was watching my face, I couldn’t mask anything.
He was holding the drifters in what looked like stalls with cement walls, and he’d chained each of them to the floor. From this high up, I could see in most of them. I saw Logan and Jake, and the closest one held Reid.
He sat against the wall with his legs drawn up and his head resting on one arm, with the other on the floor, cuffed to a too-short chain. Reid flickered and jerked back against the wall, like waking himself up from a bad dream.
He had just tried to drift and couldn’t.
Flicker. Snap. That’s all it was.
“Are my parents—”
“They’re fine. Whenever one of them gets too sick, I have Kiato make them drift somewhere.”
“Why are you doing this?”
“I have people coming tomorrow morning—willing to pay for people like you.”
“So you’re doing this for money? That’s it?”
Buck turned so suddenly that I thought he might hit me. But he stopped himself or maybe thought better of it.
He just brought his face closer to mine and growled, “I don’t have to explain anything to you.”
Buck grabbed my arm, a lot harder than Kiato had, and led me out the door and downstairs. I saw a lot more guards— probably other sliders—once we reached the bottom floor, and I hoped Knox had enough people to counter them.
We came around the corner and Reid lifted his head.
It was like time stopped without it really happening.
The look he gave me—it was like he would have done anything to keep me from being there. It was hard to imagine us anywhere else, though. Would we have been on the subway? Would Reid be making a new animal with folded paper while I watched, wishing he would kiss me instead of just looking at me like he wanted to?
It was always hard wondering about the what-ifs.
So instead of wondering, I decided to take hold of the moment and show Buck exactly who he was dealing with.
I gave Reid a smile, and then it began.
REID
IN MY DREAM, I WAS SOMEWHERE ELSE. AT FIRST, it was a forest and the bright sun was coming through the branches, luring me out onto a beach. It was the beach that I had met Jake on, but this time, the waves were small and nobody was surfing.
I thought about going home because I wasn’t supposed to be there. My parents would have been angry if they found me gone, again, in the middle of the night when I was supposed to be asleep.
I had to get back home.
I drifted away, and then I was woken by the snap of the chain and my arm being pulled back. I let out a sharp breath and looked around, like I’d somehow forgotten where I was. My wrist stung now that the wound had reopened and, at some point while I was asleep, a headache formed at the back of my head.
I was dreaming, and I had tried to drift.
I settled back against the wall again. I had to make sure not to fall asleep, but it was hard because there was nothing else to do.
The guards talked to themselves like we couldn’t hear them—or maybe they didn’t care—and the word was that the buyer was coming the next morning. I wasn’t sure how I was supposed to sit here until then, doing nothing. Especially not sleeping.
The frequency Buck found seemed to only work when you were on the outside, trying to look in. Like a dead zone. It definitely screwed with my ability to know where we were, but I could still look out.
So once in a while, I would look for Sam, wherever she was in the world, and get glimpses of her. The thing about finding people, though, it was like seeing a snapshot. You saw whatever they were doing in the moment you thought of them and it was gone in a second. She was in the desert with Gavin once and then she was in a room full of people I didn’t recognize.
I hoped whatever she was doing, it was working.
A door slammed—a sound I’d learned meant Buck was coming out of hiding. He had an office somewhere up top, and I could see the windows from where I was kept, but I rarely caught a glimpse of him.
But when he came around the corner, he wasn’t alone.
Sam was with him.
Sam.
She wasn’t supposed to be here. What happened? Where was Gavin? She wasn’t supposed to be here. A heavy feeling of dread settled in my stomach. If Sam was here, it meant we weren’t getting out of here at all.
Then Sam smiled at me, and I thought maybe I’d imagined it. Because why would she be smiling?
But I couldn’t help loving it all the same. Sam’s smile was contagious—I had noticed the first time I met her, sitting across from me on the subway. Who would have known such a mundane day could turn into something amazing?
There was suddenly a blur and then Sam was gone, leaving Buck looking like someone had slapped him in the face. Sam was now against the other wall of the warehouse, a good twenty feet between her and Buck, who was still confused about what happened.
She had slowed time—she hadn’t drifted.
I stood, using the wall for support. Sam glanced to her left and her smile disappeared. Did she see her mom? Her brother? She didn’t look long, bringing her focus back on Buck.
“Now hold on a minute,” Buck said, his voice suddenly sounding like they were friends. “You know if you drift away, Kiato will just find you again.”
Maybe he hadn’t realized she didn’t drift, or maybe he was ignoring the fact because he didn’t know what to do with it. I glanced at Kiato, wondering if he would take control of the situation, but he was doing nothing but watching.
“You know one good thing about being a teenager?” Sam asked, facing him. “Everyone always underestimates you.”
Then something appeared next to Sam. It was like the air cracked open beside her and a
little rush of wind sounded off the walls. Like the sound of drifting.
Buck flinched back and I could do nothing but stare, shock keeping me in place more than the chain at my wrist.
Then someone stepped through the opening. It was Knox, and then Gavin appeared beside him, and then a dozen more people came through after them.
When the opening disappeared, Sam fell to one knee like she didn’t have the strength to hold herself up. Her name got stuck in my throat and the chain snapped at my wrist. Her eyes found mine and she nodded once. After a moment, she stood.
Buck’s guards were on high alert now that Knox and his men were suddenly here without warning. Most of them had weapons but no guns, since they were mostly useless against sliders and drifters.
Knox narrowed his eyes at Buck, looking angrier by the second.
“It was you behind all of this?” Knox asked, shaking his head. “Stealing the list behind my back? I should have known. You just can’t let the past die, can you?”
“Not when it doesn’t deserve to be dead!” Buck flicked out a knife and Knox eyed it.
“I’m going to give you one chance,” Knox told him. “Leave now before this gets worse.”
Buck angled his body toward him and asked, “What happened to you? You hated drifters once, but now you’re just a bleeding heart.”
Knox paused and looked over at Gavin. When he looked at Buck again, he shrugged. “I think it’s time things change.”
“Your loss.”
Buck surged forward and so did every slider in the room. The only weakness sliders had was they could only slow time for so long, so between the quick bursts of speed, there were fights dancing across the room in every direction.
I pressed myself against the wall and suddenly Sam was there in front of me. “Hi.”
I smiled because I couldn’t help myself. “Hi, are you okay?”
She looked worn out and tired, but at least she was standing again.
“Yeah, I’m fine.” She looked down at the cuff around my wrist and said, “I need to go back up to the office to look for keys. I’ll be right back.”
Before I could respond, she drifted away.
Gavin slammed another slider against the wall next to me and then they were gone again in a dark blur.
I felt nothing but useless, unable to help, and hoped Buck had left the keys somewhere obvious for Sam to find. It was hard to keep track of who was fighting whom, and for a minute, I thought I saw Sabrina there. Then I saw her again, grabbing a slider from behind before drifting both of them away.
Sam came back, breathless, but with the key in hand. After a little bit of fumbling, she unlocked my cuff, and I grabbed her hand.
“Stay close, okay?”
She nodded and we took off down the line of stalls. We found Jake next, shocked to see us both there. His hair was halfway out of his usual neat bun and he wore only a T-shirt and jeans.
The relief I had at seeing him—not just hearing him through the walls—was unprecedented.
“Reid—” He didn’t even finish his sentence before pulling me into a hug. My throat tightened and I couldn’t say anything.
He finally pulled away and Sam unlocked him. I looked to see if our way was clear. The sliders still fought each other, but it definitely seemed like Knox’s men were gaining some ground.
I caught sight of Gavin on the other side of the warehouse and, for a moment, it looked like he was done with his fight, standing over one of the guards. Then I saw movement behind him.
Buck, with a knife in his hand.
He didn’t see him.
I took hold of Sam, saying in a rush, “Get the others out of here.”
Jake said my name, but I was gone, drifting within shouting range, because drifting within arm’s reach of a knife wasn’t a good idea.
“Gavin!” My voice carried and Gavin looked up, hearing me. Then he spun around, catching Buck’s arm just in time. Another one of Buck’s men saw them and started to close the distance.
I needed to get him out of here.
Something crashed into my back and I fell to the floor in a rush. The wind got knocked out of me and someone had their knee pressed into my back.
Gavin was trying to fight two sliders now, losing ground. He needed help.
I pushed up and to the left, dislodging the knee in my back, and got my feet under me. My attacker was already coming down on me again and nicked my jaw with his fist. I blocked the next blow, but I was distracted, trying to see where Gavin was.
I saw a flash of steel too close and I didn’t turn in time.
Another hand closed around the knife, stopping it inches from my chest. Jake stood there, glaring at the slider.
“Reid, go,” he said.
I backed away and searched for Gavin, knowing Jake could take care of himself. The place Gavin had been a moment ago was now empty, but there was an open door nearby. I started for it, dodging another fight on the way.
Through the door was another long hallway, but I saw light at the other end, like an open truck bay. I drifted to it and stepped outside. There was a body on the ground—the other slider. Hoping he was still alive, I went around him and down the steps, searching for Buck and Gavin.
I turned the corner and stopped short.
Gavin was slumped against the wall with a piece of rebar steel through his stomach. His hands were shaking and already covered in blood. His eyes caught mine and I’d never seen that look from him before—like something terrified him so much that he was speechless.
I dropped to my knees beside him. My hands could only hover over his wound because I didn’t know what to do. Should I pull it out or leave it in?
Gavin took a shuddering breath and I locked eyes with him, putting a hand on his shoulder.
“You’re going to be okay,” I told him.
“Reid—”
“Have I ever lied to you?”
He had the audacity to look unsure about that and it made me laugh. I looked down at the rebar again and all the blood gushing out.
Gavin whispered, “I’m scared.”
I met his eyes again and swallowed away whatever tried to come up.
“Well it’s a good thing you’re friends with a drifter,” I said.
Jake came skidding around the corner, taking in the situation.
A shoe scuffed the asphalt behind me and, even though it took everything I had, I stood and turned away from Gavin. Buck glanced down at his work, like he wasn’t sorry at all.
My blood ran red-hot and my fists clenched.
I glanced at Jake and said, “Take Gavin to a hospital.”
And before Buck could say something smart, I drifted to him, grabbed his shoulder, and took him to a forest thousands of miles away in Canada. Huge trees surrounded us, and the forest floor was full of old mossy logs. Thunder growled in the distance.
“What are you going to do?” Buck asked, looking unimpressed. “Leave me here?”
“That would be too easy,” I said.
I took off my jacket and set it at my feet. “You hate when I win those fights? Well, show me why I shouldn’t.”
My heart pounded as I challenged him like this. It was probably the stupidest thing to do, but I couldn’t let him think he won. He had hurt Gavin and deserved to pay for it. He deserved to pay for everything he’d done, and for what? Revenge? Bitterness? Money?
Buck smiled and then he was a blur. I drifted to the left, catching him off guard, and threw the first punch. I missed, or he was too fast. He was suddenly on my right, grabbing and twisting my arm.
I drifted us next to a tree and used his body weight to slam him into the trunk and then elbowed him as I spun away.
“All right, Reid.” He spat out blood. “Let’s see what you’ve really got.”
He came at me again, and whenever I drifted, he was there waiting for me. I dodged blows and tried to hit him when there was nothing but air.
There was a reason drifters didn’t go up against slide
rs in close combat: sliders always had the advantage. Buck was wearing me down and he knew it, but I also knew his slides were becoming shorter. He was losing strength too.
The next time he came at me, I drifted like I did in the fights. Instead of going far away like he was expecting, I drifted only a few inches to the left.
Buck’s eyes widened in surprise, and I knocked him backward and he hit the ground. He finally stopped and just lay there, looking up at me. We were both breathing heavily.
“Are you going to finish me off, Reid?” he asked. “We both know you want to.”
I shook my head and stepped back, even though the thought had crossed my mind. Did that make me a bad person, just thinking about it? Just to consider it? Dad’s face flashed across my thoughts, smiling at me from across the dinner table.
I’m not sure what he would do in my situation, but I knew stepping away from this fight was the right thing to do. I shouldn’t have started it in the first place.
I didn’t see Buck moving until it was too late.
A knife flashed in his hand, and I drifted without thinking.
SAM
NEW JERSEY, UNITED STATES
WHILE LOGAN HELPED ME FREE THE REST OF THE drifters, I caught a glimpse of Reid disappearing through the door at a run. It was hard not to be distracted by where he was going or what he was doing, but I needed to free everyone else.
Logan didn’t even have shoes on, like Kiato really had found him while he was taking a nap, but he still had a grin on his face when I came for him.
“Sam, that was amazing! How did you do that?”
“If my assumptions are correct, you can probably do it too.” But before he could get too excited, I said, “But now is not the time.”
So we went down the line and found Mom and Dad, both of them hugging us too much and trying to ask too many questions I didn’t have time for. After them, there were a few others I didn’t have names for. One woman drifted away as soon as I unlocked her, and then we were done.
By the time everyone was free, Knox and his friends had taken control of the warehouse.
But then there was word that Gavin was hurt and Jake had taken him to the closest hospital. Nobody knew how hurt, but Jake had found a slider just before taking Gavin away, so his family would know.
