by AR Colbert
Before I could think or reason with myself, my hands rushed forward, pulling the water from the pond with them. A small tidal wave rushed forward, focused on a single spot—one person. Osborne was knocked off of his feet as the water engulfed him.
That’s when I should have run, but my inner Athena wasn’t done with him yet. The water splashed back into the pond and Osborne growled from the ground, shaking dirty droplets from his hair.
“That was a mistake.”
“You’re right. It was.” I placed my foot on his chest, kicking him back onto his rear as he attempted to stand up again. “It was a mistake for you to think you could take me so easily. Tell Rossel he can come and talk to me face to face like a man.”
“Tell him yourself.” Osborne thrust his legs forward like a ninja, jumping back to his feet in one graceful move. Then he was on me like a flash of light, snagging my hair into his fist, and yanking my head back. “Sleep.”
The sound of a thousand harmonies in his single word was the last thing I heard before my body went limp.
CHAPTER 9
It smelled like Mama Mae’s basement. That was the first thing I noticed as my awareness returned. But I wasn’t back in Oklahoma, and this wasn’t the storage room of my small town’s favorite old widow.
Keeping my eyes closed so that my captor wouldn’t know I was awake, I tried to gather as many additional details about my location as I could. It was chilly—drafty, which meant a window was open. Or perhaps we were just in a really old building. Street noise confirmed that we were definitely still in the city, though.
My shoulders ached, pulled at an unnatural angle. My wrists were bound together behind my back with what I guessed were zip ties. Another rope stretched across my stomach, tying me to what felt like a metal folding chair. My feet were on hard ground. Little light made it through my closed lids, so I lifted them just enough to sneak a peek of my surroundings through my lashes.
I was in some kind of warehouse, dimly lit by dingy windows placed high on the filthy walls. The space was vast and empty. I was all alone.
“You can stop pretending to be asleep.”
Scratch that. I wasn’t alone. Unfortunately Osborne was still here, too.
“And you can stop pretending to be righteous,” I spat back. “We both know how much you enjoy seeing me tied up like this.”
“I don’t have to pretend.”
I scoffed, then gave a hard tug on the ties binding my wrists. The plastic cut sharply into my skin, but they didn’t break. I tried again, yanking harder, and stifled a little yelp as the skin on my wrist broke open on the sharp edges. It shouldn’t have been so difficult with my new powers. The ties back at Driskell’s lighthouse had broken apart like threads.
“What did you do to me?”
Osborne finally made his way into my view, sighing as he strolled past like he was enjoying a casual walk through the park. “I made you sleep. I trust you got plenty of rest?” He grinned, taunting me. I lunged forward, but the rope held the chair tightly to my backside.
“Sit down,” Osborne said. His voice was laced with glamour and I had no choice but to obey.
“I mean, what did you do to my powers?” My voice was like a growl through clenched teeth. Osborne wasn’t playing fairly. If he got to use his powers, I should have access to mine as well.
I thought I saw a brief flash of confusion in his features before he squared his jaw again. Perhaps I was imagining it though, because he quickly shifted back into bully-mode. “I didn’t do a thing to your powers. You’re just weak.”
I wanted to lunge again, but his glamour still wormed through my mind, forcing me to remain still. But one thing was clear: when it came to my powers, Osborne had no idea what I could do. And while a part of me wanted to rip off the binding on my hands and bring him down just like I’d done with the thunderstorm and the Agarthian girls, a bigger part of me knew my power would be more useful if it was kept a secret for now. So I would let Osborne think I was weak until it really counted.
I didn’t think he’d hurt me anyway, or else he would have already done it by now. “So what are you gonna do with me, then? Just leave me tied up here in this warehouse?”
“Yep.” He pulled a phone out of his back pocket and checked a message on the screen. “That’s all I was hired to do. Looks like my work here is done, so I’ll just be on my way. Good luck.” He snorted. “You’re gonna need it.”
My pulse quickened as he turned toward the rusted metal door to my right. My lips parted, and I stopped myself before calling out for him to wait. It wasn’t like Osborne would help me even if I asked him to. And I certainly didn’t plan on asking him to.
Light from the alleyway beyond flooded in briefly as Osborne stepped out of the warehouse, but it was quickly blotted out by a tall, wiry shadowed figure who took his place. The door slammed shut again behind the new man, and I instantly recognized the white knot of hair balanced atop his head.
Rossel glided toward me—his unique gait identifiable anywhere. He wore all black, from head to toe, and I wondered briefly if he owned anything in any other color. Probably not. Nothing else would look quite as intimidating as the darkness against his pale skin and the shock of white hair on his head. Plus—it brought out the soul-sucking blackness of his hollow eyes.
He was like a phantom. But this ghost couldn’t hurt me. His only power was the ability to see the future. My new Keeper strength would certainly give me the upper hand if push came to shove.
That’s what I told myself anyway. Everyone needed a little internal pep talk now and again.
“Ms. Gordon.” His thin lips pulled into a pout as he assessed me. He didn’t look quite as excited to see me bound to this chair as Osborne had, but I suspected he was simply more skilled at hiding his reactions. I tried once more to break free of the ties around my wrists, but whatever strength my powers had once provided seemed to have disappeared.
“Rossel, what a pleasant surprise. If I’d known you were coming I would have fixed the place up.” I couldn’t hide the sarcasm in my tone. It was a defense mechanism, and I hated it. My snark never packed the punch I hoped it would—it just made me sound immature.
Rossel wasn’t amused, either. “I thought we had an agreement. I asked you to stay away from Gayla.”
“And I asked you to tell me where my mother is.”
He pursed his lips, neither confirming nor denying that he knew where she was. After a beat, he laced his fingers loosely together behind his back and began pacing before me.
“Will you tell me where she is?” I prodded again.
“No.”
“Will you at least confirm that she is still alive?”
“No.”
“She’s dead?”
He paused, turning his hollow black eyes on me. “I will say no more about your mother.”
“What about my father?” I didn’t know where the thought came from, but I had a hunch that if anyone knew about my father, it might be Rossel.
Rossel stiffened, but continued pacing the dirty floor as though he didn’t hear me. But I knew he had. And based on his reaction, I suspected my hunch might have been correct. Now I just needed to get the upper hand on him, somehow. I gave another feeble tug on the restraints around my wrists, but it was no use. My powers had abandoned me.
“I need you to leave,” he said finally. His face had twisted into a strange mix of uncertainty and regret.
“Gladly,” I said. “Just untie me from this chair first, please.”
“I need you to go far away. You must tell no one. And you must never return.”
“Oh, like you tried to do with Driskell?”
He turned a hard gaze on me.
“I know you cursed him to remain on an island in the middle of the sea. But don’t worry, I rescued him. I delivered him to safety. You can’t hurt him anymore. You can’t hurt me either, can you?” I was going out on a limb, but it was all starting to come together in my mind. The pieces fit, but t
he puzzle looked a lot different than I would have guessed before.
Rossel began pacing again, so I continued with my hypothesis, trying to see what kind of reactions I might elicit from the old man. He was reluctant to tell me anything, but maybe if I guessed correctly, I would be able to see the truth in his response.
“He knew about the tablet, so you hid him away. But now that I have it, you can’t control him anymore. You can’t control me either. My power is too strong. Is this why you tried to kill me before my power emerged?”
He gave me no response. He didn’t so much as glance in my direction. So I kept going.
“It’s why you wanted me to stay away from Gayla, too. Isn’t it? If she got too close, you knew she could have a vision that would lead me to the truth. Well you were right, Rossel. I know the truth. And you can’t stop me from what is going to happen now.”
“You know nothing!” He snapped, and the fierceness in his dark eyes made my heart stop. In three long strides he was standing inches from my face, and I fought to keep my breathing steady. I was terrified, but I wouldn’t let him know it.
“You are a child, and a fool!” He spat the words like they were on fire, then turned on his heels and walked away from me again. “You don’t understand the finer balance of our world, and you will destroy it.”
“Maybe it needs to be destroyed.”
Rossel whirled around, and a flash of silver glinted off of a blade in his hand. In the same breath, he flicked his wrist and sent the blade flying end over end straight for my chest.
CHAPTER 10
A scream built up in my throat. I felt it rise from my chest in slow motion, like a teapot about to boil over. And just before it erupted from my lips, everything stopped.
The knife hovered before me in mid-air, an inch away from my chest wall. The hilt was a tarnished gold, ornate in design with otherworldly creatures breathing swirls of fire from the pommel to to the blade. Years of grime—probably centuries—had darkened the crevices between the glittering swirls. It looked ancient, but the blade was no more dull than it had been when it was first forged.
And instead of a scream, a laugh bubbled out of me. Why was I focused on the design of the dagger that was about to kill me? My hyper-awareness and observation of detail almost overshadowed the fact that time had stopped, once again.
“Al?” I scanned all the windows of the warehouse, looking for my feathery friend and protector. I repeated his name, but there was still no answer. He wasn’t here… which meant the power to stop time could only have come from me. But how? Was it something I could command at will, or just some built-in safeguard to protect me from certain death?
I refocused on Rossel, his body frozen mid-throw. His lip was curled in rage, but his eyes told another story. Again, I got the impression that he regretted something. Killing me? Or maybe not doing it before now?
It didn’t matter. He’d failed, for now. Though I wasn’t sure how long the time would hold for me. I leaned carefully forward, close enough for the rope around my midsection to meet the blade. If I touched it, would it fall from the air and stab me in the leg? Or would contact simply renew its original momentum, propelling it through my gut?
I hoped neither of those options were the case. I really just needed it to stay in the air so I could use it to my advantage. “Please don’t move,” I whispered. Then I gently brought the rope down along the edge of the blade.
Miraculously, the knife remained motionless in the air. I breathed a sigh of relief, and did it again, moving my body up and down like some uncoordinated version of the chicken dance as I attempted to fray the rope. My thighs burned, held in a perpetual squat with the chair still stuck to my backside, but after just a couple of minutes the rope broke. The chair clattered to the hard ground, the rope still attached to it.
But my hands were still bound behind my back with the hard plastic zip ties. With a quick glance to ensure Rossel was still frozen, I righted the chair with a foot, bumped it closer to the knife with my hip, then stepped onto it and turned around.
The knife hadn’t moved when I needed it to stay still, but now I needed it to move. “Will you please let me take you?” I felt like a fool speaking to the inanimate blade that was still frozen in time. But it did what I’d asked it to before. Maybe it would fulfill my wish again.
I stretched my arms backward until I made contact with the cool metal side of the blade. Taking it between my thumb and fingers, I gave a little tug. Somehow again, the knife submitted to my will. The handle fell, and the edge of the blade cut into me slightly as I gripped harder to keep from dropping it. But a small cut on my hand was worlds better than an open chest wound, so I wouldn’t complain.
Rossel was unmoving, still snarling like a statue across from me. I had to get these ties off as quickly as possible. My clock had to have been running out. This was the longest I’d ever kept time stopped before.
I readjusted the knife awkwardly in my hand until I was able to twist the blade against the plastic around my wrists. It took about a minute of pushing and pulling the blade, but finally, it cut through the ties.
I immediately rolled my shoulders back to stretch my achy muscles, cracked my neck, then inspected the bloody cuts around my wrist from where the ties had dug into my skin. Thankfully these new Keeper powers would help me to heal more quickly. I’d always been kind of a wimp when it came to cuts, and this was like a papercut on steroids.
Knife in hand, free from all the ropes and ties that bound me moments before, I stalked over to Rossel’s frozen body. This was my chance. I could end him without a fight. Without a struggle of any kind. And I probably should have, considering he’d just launched a dagger at my heart.
But I couldn’t bring myself to do it. It felt wrong. Cowardly. And I couldn’t forget that hint of regret in his eyes. Perhaps there was still some good left in his soul. And if not some good, there was definitely some information I needed to get out of him.
Rossel knew where my mom was hidden. That much I was certain of. And now, I wondered if he might know something about who my father was, also. No, I definitely couldn’t kill Rossel today. Not until I found out exactly what he was hiding from me.
A faint pressure was building in my chest, like a string attached to my sternum was being gently tugged away from me. And somehow I knew this was my body losing control of the time stopping trick. “No.” My voice was firm, but inside I was pleading. No, please, not yet. I just need a few more minutes.
The pressure stopped,and Rossel remained still. I knew I was pushing my luck, so without another moment of delay I rushed back over to the chair and untied the rope from it. It was now in two pieces. I used one to secure Rossel’s hands behind his back the way mine had been tied, and I used the second piece to tie his ankles together. It wasn’t a permanent solution, but hopefully it would hold until I could figure out what to do next.
I sat his lanky body into the chair and whispered to his lifeless face. “I’ll be back for you.”
Osborne was next.
CHAPTER 11
The pressure was already building in my chest again when I slipped out of the warehouse. The sun was bright, even in the shaded alleyway. It called to me, tempting me to seize this moment and just run. Run as far as I could—far away from Rossel and Osborne and some ancient prophecy that I could never escape.
But I was in too deep for that. And it wouldn’t only affect me. There were other people’s lives at stake now, too. Millie and my friends. Tate. And the man in the most imminent danger—Driskell.
I turned the dagger over in my hand, watching the sun play off of its gilded surface. The string tugging my sternum was at full force. I felt as though it would crack at any moment.
With a deep breath, I raised the blade toward Osborne, determined to keep him still once time began moving again. I lifted my hand, and from the corner of my eye I noticed another person who had frozen in place while casually walking past the alleyway on the street beyond. I couldn’t r
isk him looking our way when the spell broke.
I lowered my weapon and sprinted over to the young man. He stared at his phone screen, one foot lifted slightly off the ground. I took his shoulders in my hands and pushed him forward slightly. “Move along,” I said. I’d expected him to remain stationary, waiting for me to drag his body forward past the alleyway. But surprisingly, his feet moved with my encouragement. It was like pushing a bicycle and watching the pedals move as the wheels spun. His feet walked, holding him upright even as the top half of his body remained still.
“This is so cool,” I whispered to myself.
Once he was fully past the alleyway, I ran back to Osborne and grabbed hold of the blade again. Raising it to his throat, I finally relaxed and planned out my words. My chest ached with the pressure of my power, but time was still stuck in place.
How could I make it move again? What was I missing? I glanced back at Osborne, whose blank expression was fixed on the wall across the street. I couldn’t just leave him here. Rossel would sic him after me just as soon as he came to. But I didn’t have anything to tie him up with either.
I looked back and forth, up and down the alley. There was nothing but an old dirty sock laying crumpled against the wall across from me. Then again, maybe the sock could be of some use. I risked another six seconds to go fetch the dirty thing, and I was shoving it into Osborne’s mouth when the string in my chest finally snapped.
The breeze blew through my hair, rushing down the alley like a wind tunnel, and the sound of the city filled the air once more. Osborne’s eyes grew into full circles, and his hands shot up to grab a hold of my wrists. I pushed the flat side of the blade against his neck and shook my head, a clear warning not to try anything stupid.
“Hey, Osborne. Surprised to see me?” I couldn’t keep my smile at bay. The look on his face was just too stunned. He must have believed I appeared out of thin air. Good. Maybe he’d think I had the powers of a messenger, teleporting through space the way Devon and my mom could.
