by May, W. J.
“All I have is time,” Rae cut him off briskly. “This isn’t about me. It’s about them. We need to find them…now.”
“How’re we even going to know where to look?” Molly asked desperately. “There were over twenty people on that list. Cromfield could be headed to any one of them.”
Rae turned deliberately to Julian. “Then good thing we know someone who can see the future.”
Julian stared at her blankly for a moment, before his eyes widened. “You want me to tap in on Cromfield? The guy’s hundreds of years old. I don’t know if I can even—”
“You need to try,” Rae said firmly, squeezing his wrist. “People’s lives depend on it, Jules.”
He stared at her for another second, before he nodded shakily and closed his eyes. “I’ll try…I just don’t really know what to focus on. I’ve never met him. He’s, like, a historical figure.”
This time it was Devon who took over. He seemed almost relieved to be doing so. Coaching his friend through the maze of his visions was something normal, something he could latch on to. “You don’t need to know him personally; you know he’s alive. You know he’s out there. Just focus on the man in the picture. Get inside his head…”
Julian breathed deeply as his face tightened in concentration. For a moment, nothing happened. Then, all at once, his eyes shot open at the speed of light.
There was no color in them—they were painted in an iridescent, glassy shade of white. It would have been a startling sight, especially set against his dark hair in the shadowed car, but his friends had seen it happen so many times, they were almost immune.
That being said, this vision seemed to be a bit different than the others.
“Jules?” Devon leaned forward suddenly, shaking his shoulders. “You okay, mate?”
Instead of his usual blank expression, there was a distinct grimace on his face, a look that made it clear he was in pain. He had braced himself against the car, but was leaning back slightly, almost as if he was trying to fight his way out of something. After a tense moment, a thin stream of blood trickled from his nose.
“Julian!” Devon shook him again.
Julian stayed in his trance for another second, but then suddenly awoke with a gasp. He stared around the car in disorientation, before lifting his hand to his bloody nose in surprise.
“You alright?” Molly exclaimed, her skin significantly paler than usual.
For a second, Julian didn’t look so sure, but then his face cleared and he nodded quickly. “Yeah, I’m fine. That was just…” He shook his head. “I’m fine.” His dark eyes snapped up to Rae. “I know where he’s going first. We’re going to need to pack some clothes. It’ll be a bit of a trip.”
In a flash, Molly hopped out of the car, pulling Julian out with her. “I’ll pack a suitcase for me and Rae, and Julian can get some stuff for him and Devon. You guys just hang tight here,” she instructed, eyeing Rae with concern. “We’ll meet you back here as fast as we can.”
Before anyone could answer, she’d taken off into the dark, pulling Julian along behind her.
No one noticed them as they slipped past the hordes of partiers wandering the school grounds. Devon and Rae watched intently as they parted in the middle of the lawn and took off in opposite directions—Molly heading to Aumbry House and Julian to Joist Hall. A second later, they had vanished completely.
For the first time all night, Rae leaned back in her seat with a bit of relief. Sometimes, it helped to have a best friend who knew her emotions as well as Rae knew them herself. She didn’t want to be anywhere near her schoolmates right now. She didn’t want to risk running into her mom, she didn’t want to be on school grounds; to be honest, she didn’t even really want to talk to Devon.
But it seemed there was no avoiding that one. After her little stunt with the truck, Molly was obviously hesitant to leave her alone.
Rae sighed and angled herself so she was staring back out the window, avoiding Devon’s worried eyes. She hadn’t meant anything by the truck. At some level, she knew it wouldn’t kill her. But it was like she just had to prove it to the rest of herself, to her waking brain, that simply couldn’t process the fact that she was going to be walking around as a teenager in London of 2099.
In a way, that same warped part of her that needed proof with the truck was almost relieved. At least now she had answers, no matter how terrible they were. This was why everyone looked older in their school pictures, but she looked exactly the same. Maybe this was even why she had grown up outside the world of tatùs. She was never meant to be around them for very long, was she? Sure, she’d get to know a generation or two, but then they’d age out and die, and she’d have to latch on to the next one. That is, if she wanted to keep latching on at all. Somehow, she doubted it. Who would willingly latch on to wave after wave of people, only to have them ripped away? Who could stand living with such loss?
Well…I’ll have to stand it, she thought with a dark clarity. My entire life is going to revolve around loss. That’s the nature of all things permanent, isn’t it? No home, no friends, no family, no—
“Rae?”
She jumped guiltily in her seat and cast a backwards glance at Devon. “Yeah?”
His eyes swept briefly over her face, for one of the first times unsure as to what to say to her. “Do you want to…? Shouldn’t we talk about what’s going on? I mean…what you found in in Cromfield’s letter—”
“There’s more important stuff going on right now,” she said swiftly, shutting down the subject before it could even begin. What good would talking do? They could talk about it forever and it wouldn’t change anything. Well, she could talk about it forever…
He slid closer towards her on the seat. “Honey…we are going to find a way through this. You don’t need to keep it all to yourself. There has to be a way we can—”
“Devon, I really don’t want to talk about this now, okay?” Nervously, she tucked her hair behind her ears as she tried to stem the wave of nerves eating away at her stomach. “I hear what you’re saying, and I appreciate it, but right now we have a list of people to save. That’s what I want to focus on, okay? The other stuff,” she waved her hand as if trying to dismiss it, “I can’t handle right now.”
He nodded seriously, taking her hand. “Okay, that’s fine. Just know, whenever you do want to talk about it, I’m here, alright?”
She nodded briskly and turned her face away before he could see the tears.
She wanted to talk about it, alright. Of course she wanted to talk about it. In fact, she wanted to tear her hair out and scream bloody murder at the stormy sky. But there simply wasn’t time. And, under the circumstances, that was probably a good thing.
She didn’t need more time; she needed a distraction—something to steady her shaking hands. And if that distraction happened to be saving the world of hybrids from a psychopathic madman bent on global domination?
That would have to do. For now.
Chapter 2
“Here you are, Flight 267 to Puerto Suárez.” An airline receptionist half-hidden beneath a virtual helmet of chemically-drenched hair, looked up at Devon with a dreamy smile. “And what class will you be flying?”
Now that the wave of adrenaline they had ridden to the airport had started to fade, Rae stared in open, exhausted astonishment at the woman’s carefully sculpted coiffeur. She had never seen so much hairspray on one person before. Was it hard to the touch? Like cardboard? It looked like, if she tapped her knuckles against it, it might make a sound…
Julian and Molly hovered anxiously behind as Devon pulled a credit card from his wallet. But Rae, unable to process how her entire world had turned upside-down in less than twenty-four hours, latched onto one insignificant detail with a vengeance.
Maybe Molly shouldn’t be standing so close, she thought to herself, staring with wide eyes. One misplaced spark and the woman’s whole head could go up in smoke…
She tuned back in to hear Devon say, “It doesn’
t matter, as long as we’re all together.”
Molly cleared her throat sharply behind him, and he rolled his eyes.
“On second thought, if you had something up in first-class, that would be great.”
The woman quickly printed off their boarding passes, scribbling what looked suspiciously like her phone number on Devon’s receipt, and the four of them headed off to customs.
When Julian had said ‘a bit of a trip,’ he’d meant the rural countryside in the heart of Bolivia. Rae shook her head as she glanced around the crowded airport. Her psychic friend had always had a rather loose grasp on geographical scale. Bolivia. She should have known.
She tightened the straps on her backpack and joined her friends in the seemingly endless line to get through security. All around them, dozens of happy, carefree teenagers were reuniting with their families. Guilder’s graduation coincided with most of the other London schools, and the airport was packed with kids either heading home, or, more often, kids flying back to England for the summer holiday.
Rae watched as a girl about her age barreled down the corridor and jumped into the arms of her waiting father. The pair looked remarkably alike. Both tall, with waves of wispy blond hair, and both of them closed their eyes at the exact same moment when they smiled. A second later, he picked up her bags and they headed out to the parking lot, chattering away in matching Cockney accents.
It took Rae a minute to realize she wasn’t the only one watching.
Apparently Devon was having an emotional roller-coaster all of his own. His bright eyes fixed on the same pair she’d been observing, before wandering to another family behind them. This time, it was a father and son who shook hands briefly before the father pulled the boy in for a fierce embrace.
Devon’s face tightened for a moment before he turned deliberately away. It was then that Rae suddenly remembered her talk with Devon’s father, Dean Wardell, just the previous evening. So much had happened since then that she’d put it entirely from her mind, assuming that the Dean would simply speak to Devon himself when they returned to Guilder.
Except they weren’t going back to Guilder. In fact, with the number of names on the list, they had no realistic idea of when they’d be returning. Instead of celebrating the summer holidays like the rest of their friends, instead of leaping into the waiting arms of their own parents and heading home, they were off to Bolivia to find a boy whose name had been placed on a psychopath’s hit list.
Just your average summer vacation.
“Your dad talked to me after graduation,” Rae blurted suddenly, speaking in a voice so soft only Devon would be able to hear.
He turned to her in surprise. “He did?” His face suddenly tensed in preemptive anger. “Rae, whatever he told you, just ignore it. He has no say, alright? This is my life. It’s our relationship. He can throw me out on the streets if he wants to, but that’s never going to change. And if he thinks—”
“He gave us his blessing.”
Devon stopped short as the words hung in the air between them. Seeing his blank look of surprise, Rae couldn’t help but smile; a smile which soon darkened with faint traces of suppressed hysteria as she realized the ironic timing of the blessed event.
Of course the Dean would decide to condone their relationship now. A mere twenty-four hours before Rae found out she was cursed to live forever, so any kind of ‘future’ with Devon would be tragically one-sided. She wondered if Devon was putting two and two together yet. How the chance of a never-ending life for only one of them essentially doomed a shared life for both of them.
On the upside, Uncle Argyle was sure to be thrilled.
“He…” Devon seemed to be having a hard time saying the words. “He gave us his blessing?”
By then, Julian and Molly had turned to them in interest.
“Who did?” Molly asked. “Your dad? That’s amazing, Dev!”
Julian smiled. “Does that mean you can stop sleeping on my couch? Not to rush you,” he added quickly, “but I’d love to get a full night’s sleep without waking up to hear you and Rae texting each other at four in the morning. Some people are not night owls, and need their sleep.”
Devon ignored both of them and focused completely on Rae, still unable to imagine a scenario in which his father would ever relent. “What did he say, exactly?”
Rae shelved her darker feelings for the time being and tried to smile. “He said your happiness was the most important thing in the world to him. That he was only trying to protect you, but he realized he had been wrong. He said he’d do whatever he had to make it right.”
Devon was clearly stunned. He moved up in line to the metal detectors like he was floating rather than walking, his thoughts a million miles away as he knelt down and began taking off his shoes.
“Sir, do you have any liquids or electronics in your bag?” a nameless security guard barked routinely. “If you do, you need to remove them at this time.”
All at once, Devon’s trance was broken as he and Julian shared a panicked look.
“I didn’t even think…” Julian muttered, turning pale.
Devon’s eyes grew wide. “This isn’t a sanctioned mission.”
“What’s going on?” Rae stared back and forth at the two boys.
“It’s not PC security,” Devon hissed in a hushed tone.
“What’re you guys talking about?” Molly asked impatiently, glancing at the restless line of people waiting behind them.
Devon looked abruptly uncomfortable. “We may have some things that might not exactly pass a customs check.”
Rae folded her arms across her chest, shooting the security guard an innocent smile. “Like what? You guys smuggling in kiwis or something?” she murmured between clenched teeth.
The boys exchanged another look.
“A couple knives…”
“Maybe a Taser or two.”
“There’s that pair of brass knuckles I got in Mexico.”
“Some Vitamin Water.”
The back and forth stopped abruptly, and the girls turned in unison to Julian as he tagged that last one on at the end. He caught their disbelieving smiles and threw up his hands defensively. “Okay, so the water isn’t that bad, but we’re not allowed to have any liquids, are we?” he snapped.
Rae stifled a grin then turned to Devon. “Why the hell are you carrying a knife?”
He raised his eyebrows. “You think I was going to break into a church to track down a five-hundred-year-old psycho without arming myself first?”
“Yeah, but a knife?”
“After Kraigan pulled a gun on us in the parking lot? Yeah—a knife, Rae. Remember, not all of us can turn invisible.”
Molly turned to a bewildered couple standing behind them and smiled sweetly. “They’re rehearsing for a play…”
“Look, it doesn’t matter,” Rae said quickly. “You guys run to the bathroom or something and throw all that stuff away. We’ll meet you at the gate.”
“What?” Julian complained. “Rae, it’s expensive stuff.”
“These PC Tasers aren’t so easy to replace,” Devon added sullenly.
Rae threw up her hands, shooting the security guard another apologetic look. “What do you guys want me to say? You prefer getting arrested by airport security because you won’t ditch your super-spy throwing stars, be my guest.” She turned in a huff to Molly. “You didn’t pack anything weird in my bag, did you?”
Molly shook her head dismissively. “Some super-cute stockings I know you’ll wrongfully hate, but other than that, no. But, Rae, aren’t you forgetting something?”
Rae shook her head. “What?”
“Cassidy’s tatù.” Molly smiled. “Devon was right. You can literally turn invisible now. I’m sure you can find a way to get us through customs undetected…”
* * *
“That was so unbelievably cool.” Devon grinned smugly as he kicked back in his seat.
Thirty minutes later, he and Rae were sitting in the first-class
passenger’s lounge waiting to board their flight, having just dropped out of the security line and then doubled back through it, jumping the barrier while holding hands in an invisible line.
“I can’t believe you were able to expand the cloak to include the rest of us,” he continued, looking at Rae with unmistakable pride. “Cassidy will want you to show her that one for sure.”
“We’re just lucky it worked,” Rae sighed, running her hands back through her hair. “What if it had worn off halfway through? How would Carter and his band of government cronies have bailed us out of that?”
That was the last thing they needed at this point: For Carter and the rest of the Privy Council, not to mention, Rae’s own mother, to find out what they were up to.
Devon gave her a cocky smirk. “They’d have found a way. And Julian would have seen if it wasn’t going to work.”
Rae swiveled around in her chair to stare through the terminal. “Speaking of Julian, where is he? He and Molly were supposed to be back fifteen minutes ago.”
Devon glanced up with a bland smile. “Not sure about Molly, but if I had to guess about Julian, I’d say he’s accessorizing.”
As if on cue, Rae spotted a head of dark hair with a ponytail winding its way through the crowd. A second later, Julian pushed open the door to the lounge to join them—sporting a pair of some of the biggest, blackest sunglasses Rae had ever seen. She blinked up at him as he took a seat beside her, frowning with concern. “Jules, I say this as a friend, you need to stop taking the Matrix so seriously.”
Devon snickered while Julian swatted her with his boarding pass. “It’s my freaking eyes,” he muttered. “I can never tell when they’re going to white-out and send a flight attendant running for the hills. Besides, we still need to know exactly where in Bolivia Cromfield is heading.” He sank down in his chair with a tired sigh. “I’m afraid I have some work to do…”
Rae’s eyes tightened as she watched him rest his head bracingly on the chair. The last time Julian tapped into Cromfield’s mind had been very different from any of his other visions. Instead of acting as an unobtrusive observer, it had almost looked as though he was getting pulled in against his will, fighting off a mental assault.
