by K. J. McPike
“It didn’t work?” Dixon asked. In the light of the transposer, I could see his face fall.
I swallowed against the emotion closing off my throat. “It worked. I saw her. She’s—she’s okay.” I tasted salt and realized I was crying again. Swiping the backs of my hands over my cheeks, I looked up and saw Oxanna wipe her face, too.
Kala shifted beside me. “So we are really in the past?”
I nodded, still unable to believe it myself.
“How long ago did you find this transposer?” Ulyxses asked.
“I think it’s been about four weeks,” Kai said.
My brother’s bushy brows came together in determination. “Okay. I’ll aim for four weeks from now. I want to get as close as I can to when you guys talked at Nelson’s house so we don’t change too much of the past.”
He held out his hands, and we all formed a circle. Closing my eyes, I braced myself for another onslaught of images as we moved into the future.
But instead of a nauseating blur of pictures, I saw the tunnel look mostly the same. A flicker of movement caught my eye, but it was gone almost as soon as it had appeared.
“I think this is it,” Ulyxses announced, though hadn’t realized he’d stopped.
“How do you know this is the right date?” Dixon wondered aloud, his voice the only proof he was here with me. Sharing his skepticism, I looked around the tunnel in search of some indication of where—or rather, when—we were.
“I don’t,” Ulyxses admitted. “But it’s the best I can do. I don’t exactly have a lot to work with when I can only follow a place’s future, especially when the place doesn’t see much action.”
I held in a groan. For some reason, my brothers’ powers had turned out to be opposites—while Dixon could project into a person’s past, Ulyxses could only travel to the future based on a location. In this case, the location didn’t offer any hints about the passage of time.
“What if we passed when the attack happened?” Oxanna asked.
“Then we’ll go back to the past and try again.” I tried to sound encouraging, but I wasn’t crazy about the idea. How many times would we have to go back and forth before we got it right?
“That does not sound safe,” Kala said. “If you keep making errors, you are increasing the risk of Ulyxses or Dixon running out of energy before we all get through the transposer. This is risky enough as it is.”
I hated to admit it, but she had a point. We couldn’t risk getting separated when we were moving through time.
“You may have to accept that you are not meant to change what happened,” she added.
“That’s not true.” My voice came out cold and hard. “We can change it. We’re going to change it.”
“Hey,” Kai jumped in. “Does it matter when we go? Either way, we just have to warn our past selves about Kala’s tracker. Even if we go back to where we just were and tell them, it’ll still play out the way we want. They’ll just use the knowledge when the time comes.”
“I didn’t want to risk changing more of the past than we had to,” Ulyxses said.
“Well, as long as we prevent the attack, that’s all that matters,” Oxanna chimed in. “Maybe we should stick with where we just were.”
Ulyxses scoffed. “Of course you would find a way to cancel out my contribution.”
“Just trying to make things easier,” Kai said.
“And Lyx, we’ll still need you to get to the right time after we warn ourselves,” I offered. “You’re going to take us back into the future, to right after the moment Dixon projected us to the past.”
“Fine. It’s getting hard to hold you guys, anyway.” Ulyxses pulled out of his projection, and I opened my eyes to find the rest of the group standing before me.
“Where are we now?” Kala’s jaw was tight as she looked up at the transposer glowing above us.
“We’re still in the moments just after Lali first found the transposer,” Kai said. “Which means we have to hurry. I took her to Solstice’s apartment a little while after that, but past-Lali should still be waiting in her room right now.”
“Okay.” I glanced at my siblings, not wanting to leave them here without a way out.
Kai reached out his hands. “I’ll take all of you.”
“Are you sure?” Kala asked with something like concern in her voice. Whatever the two of them had talked about in the time I’d been at Delta’s house, it must have made a difference. She actually sounded like she cared.
“I’m sure.” Kai wiggled his fingers impatiently. “But we have to go. I want to catch past-Lali before she goes to Solstice’s place.”
I took one of his hands and grabbed Oxanna’s with my other. “I guess we’ll just drop in on past-me.”
“Sounds good.” Dixon reached for Oxanna and Ulyxses, and Kala and Kai completed the circle. I didn’t know what we would say to my past-self, but we’d just have to wing it.
Kai sucked in a sharp breath. “I can’t project to you.”
“What?” I frowned. “Why not?”
“I dunno,” he said. “Maybe it’s because there are two of you, and I can’t be in two places at once.”
Oxanna huffed. “Great. Now what?”
I tried not to panic even though our plan seemed to be unraveling at every turn. “Can you project to my room?” I asked, keeping my tone steady. The last thing we needed was everyone to start freaking out at once. “Maybe that’ll work.”
“I’ll give it a shot.” Kai squeezed his eyes shut, and I did the same. A moment later, we appeared in my bedroom.
Past-Lali leapt off the unmade bed. “Kai, what are you—” Her eyes found me and nearly fell out of their sockets. She made a few sounds that didn’t quite make sense and staggered backward.
“Just listen,” I said, hoping the desperation in my face would get through to her. “We’re here to warn you. When Kai asks you to help him save Kala in a few weeks, do not bring her to this house. Don’t bring her anywhere near our family. She has a tracker, and if you bring her here, Salaxia will be killed.”
“What?” Past-Lali gaped at us, and though I didn’t think it possible, her eyes grew even bigger.
“Kala has a tracker,” I repeated. “Don’t let her come into this house.” Out of nowhere, a sense of vertigo hit me, and I had to squeeze Kai and Oxanna’s hands to stay upright.
Both turned to look at me, but I shook my head dismissively. We didn’t have time to get distracted. It was probably just weirding me out talking to my past-self like this.
“Do you understand?” I studied the speechless version of myself, needing some kind of confirmation that she would heed my warning.
“Y-yes,” she whimpered, looking like she might faint.
“Good.” My knees buckled, and I clung to Kai and Oxanna again. What was wrong with me?
“We need to go.” Kai turned to past-Lali. “Warn me about the tracker, too, okay?” With that, he projected the rest of us back to the transposer tunnel.
As soon as we arrived, I staggered into the curved wall.
“Lali, what’s wrong?” Dixon asked, rushing to my side.
“I don’t know,” I breathed, keeping a palm against the cold tunnel wall. “I felt dizzy all of a sudden. Maybe it was because I was close to another version of myself or something.” I met Kai’s concerned eyes and did my best to look reassuring. “But I’m fine now.”
“It is likely the result of changing the way things were meant to be,” Kala scolded. “I knew this was not a good idea.”
“Then how come it didn’t affect the rest of us?” Ulyxses challenged.
“How should I know? I have never tried to change the past.”
“Whatever.” Oxanna threw her arms out impatiently. “Let’s just get back to our time and see if it worked.”
“You got it.” Ulyxses smiled as we all joined hands again. “I can’t wait to see Sal.” His words made my heart swell. Now that we were going to get her back, I would never let her down again.<
br />
I held my breath, waiting. A long moment passed, but nothing happened. Opening one eye, I peeked over at Ulyxses. Even with only the glow of the transposer lighting his face, I could tell he’d gone pale.
“What’s wrong, Lyx?” I asked.
“I—” He swallowed hard, shaking his head. “I can’t do it.”
Chapter 10
Spliced
Everybody started speaking at once, their panicked voices reflecting the string of concerns playing through my own mind.
“Why can’t you do it?”
“What’s wrong?”
“Did you forget your trigger?”
“You just did it!”
Tugging my hands free from the circle, I pressed my fingers to my temples. They were making it impossible for me to sort out my thoughts; I could only imagine how Ulyxses felt.
“Guys!” I shouted. “Let him breathe a minute.” Things fell silent, and I dropped my arms to my sides. Glancing around at the five worried faces glowing golden in the light of the transposer, I sighed. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to snap. We’re just not going to get anywhere if we all bombard Lyx with questions.”
“She’s right,” Kai said. “Let’s just take a minute to think.” He turned to Ulyxses. “Maybe you need a second to relax.”
“I was relaxed,” my brother insisted. “I did the exact same thing I did when I took you guys to the future before. I don’t know what’s wrong this time.”
“Can you try again?” Dixon urged.
“Maybe try projecting by yourself for a bit,” I added gently. “Just don’t go through the transposer.”
Ulyxses grumbled under his breath and forced his eyes shut. The rest of us watched him intently, and I could feel everyone’s anticipation like an electric current in the air. Whatever was hindering his ability, I told myself it was a fluke. His power wouldn’t simply vanish, especially not after he’d used it less than fifteen minutes ago.
But when he opened his eyes again, his body slumped forward. “I can’t get it to work,” he moaned.
Oxanna and I shared a confused look before she turned back to our brother. “Does anything happen when you try?” she asked him. “Like does time start moving and then stop?”
“No. It’s like I don’t have my power at all anymore.”
I shook my head, grasping to understand. Had we done something to affect his ability? I didn’t see how we could have erased it when all we’d done was tell my past-self not to bring Kai’s sister into our house.
“I told you we should not have interfered with time,” Kala said in a shrill voice. “Are we now stuck in the past?”
“Let’s not freak out.” Kai ran his tongue over his teeth. “There’s gotta be a reason it’s not working. We’ll figure it out.” He sounded confident, but my mind swam in a pool of panic. If we’d somehow screwed up Ulyxses’ ability, we had no way to get to the right time.
“How could your power suddenly stop working?” Dixon demanded, as if his twin needed to answer for a crime. “You literally just projected.” His tone wasn’t helping things. I put a hand on his forearm, hoping he’d take the hint to stay calm, or at least make sure he sounded like he was keeping it together.
Ulyxses stared up at the tunnel’s low ceiling like the answer might be written somewhere in the packed earth. “Maybe moving back in time reset our powers somehow,” he said. “Technically, at this point, we didn’t have our abilities yet, right?”
Oh, crap. That was true; Delta hadn’t awakened my brothers’ and sisters’ abilities until the night after I found the transposer. Did warning my past-self about Kala’s tracker somehow stop that from happening?
“Of course, as soon as my power actually becomes useful, we can’t project anymore,” Ulyxses grumbled.
“I can.” Oxanna’s astral form stepped out of her physical body, making it look like she had sprouted a twin. “I can project just fine.”
Kala stumbled backward and bumped into Kai, her mouth hanging open as she stared at Oxanna’s astral form. I frowned. Why was Kala so shocked? Hadn’t she seen her share of semmie abilities in Alea? Regardless, she should have been happy to see that we hadn’t undone everyone’s ability. There must have been something else affecting Ulyxses’ power.
“Dix, can you project?” I asked.
Dixon closed his eyes, opening them again after a few seconds. “Yeah, I still can.”
Oxanna’s astral form put her hands on her hips. She shot Ulyxses a look that said what’s your issue? and disappeared back into her body.
“Well, so much for that theory,” Kai said.
I shook my head, trying to understand and coming up short. Why would Ulyxses lose his ability and not the others? It didn’t make sense.
Ulyxses huffed. “That’s so unfair! How come I’m the one with the crappy power?”
“Could be worse,” Oxanna muttered. “You could be depending on the one with the crappy power.”
“Oxie, don’t make him feel bad,” I scolded.
“Maybe you’re just drained.” Kai offered Ulyxses a sympathetic shrug. “Projecting so many people at once is a huge energy suck.”
“I didn’t even project that much,” Ulyxses argued, as if he could make a case to convince his power to start working again. “And it’s not like I’m tired and can’t find enough energy to do it. Nothing happens at all when I try. I’m telling you, something’s wrong.”
“Do you guys think Mom will know what to do?” Dixon asked, the transposer glowing behind him in a blatant reminder of what we’d done to get ourselves into this mess. “She has more experience with this projecting stuff than we do.”
Oxanna shook her head. “Mom will kill us. Besides, she doesn’t have a crazy semmie ability. She has a normal astral form like all the other full-blooded Astralii.”
“She might be our only hope though.” I glanced at Kai, remembering that we were still at a point in time where he had been holding our mother captive. My teeth clenched at the thought. “Right about now, our mom was still locked in your basement, right?” I asked him, unable to keep the annoyance out of my voice.
“Locked in your what?” Kala asked.
Kai’s expression faltered, but he got it back under control quickly. “Basement,” he answered in a soft voice. “It’s like an underground room at the bottom of a house.” I looked between Kai and his sister, realizing that she had probably never considered that concept. Astralii homes wouldn’t have had basements—they were in trees.
“And yes, Lali,” Kai continued. “Your mom was staying in my basement when you first found the transposer.”
“How can we get to Mom, though?” Ulyxses asked. “Wasn’t she behind a block then—er, now?”
“Kai has a necklace,” I reminded him.
“Actually…” Kai winced. “One of the Astralii who attacked your house managed to rip it off me after I projected him out of there.” His hand moved to his neck as he spoke. “He was the last one too.”
I blinked at him. I hadn’t even realized he’d lost the necklace. “Well, crap.”
“I can still project to the rest of my house,” he added quickly. “The block was only around the basement. But I think it makes more sense to talk to Delta first. Maybe she has some crystal trick that could help us.”
“She died,” Oxanna whispered, her eyes haunted. I was sure my own expression matched hers. I could still see Delta lying in a pool of her own blood. Shuddering, I pushed the picture out of my mind.
“We’re in the past,” Kai said. “At this point, she was still alive.”
I inhaled slowly, running through our options in my head. Maybe it was better to talk to Delta. She knew a lot about crystals and astral energy manipulation. Maybe she could re-awaken Ulyxses’ ability or find a way to pull our astral energy back to the right time somehow.
“Are you sure this person can help us?” Kala asked. “If she cannot, then talking to her will only change the past more. It may cause even more problems.”
<
br /> Kai blew the air out of his cheeks. “Honestly, I’m not sure of anything. But Delta’s our best bet. She knows all kinds of crystal mojo, and she mentioned to me once that she knew of a semmie who could project through time. Maybe she can help us figure out what’s up with Ulyxses’ power not working.”
I hesitated, looking at the others. Oxanna and my brothers seemed to be at a loss, and Kala still looked skeptical. But standing around in a dark tunnel wasn’t going to get us anywhere. If we were going to figure this out, Delta wasn’t a bad place to start.
“Let’s give it a shot.” I started to reach for Kai’s hand, but he pulled back.
“Just let me find a good spot to take all of us first,” he said, closing his eyes.
“What is he doing?” Kala asked.
“I think he’s previewing the area,” I explained. Noticing her blank look, I added, “He can see wherever he’s going for a bit before he shows up. We don’t want to appear in front of random people and risk the Eyes and Ears somehow hearing about it. A run-in with them is the last thing we need right now.”
Kala’s shoulders tensed, and I wondered how she had felt about the Eyes and Ears before she found out the truth about what they’d done to her family. How would she feel about them now? As frustratingly tactless as she was, I knew she was dealing with a lot all at once. Part of me felt bad for her, but another unreasonable part still resented her for leading Solstice and her army to my house. I knew it was unfair of me, but I couldn’t help it. Maybe I could start to see her differently once I saw that Salaxia was okay.
If we can make it to the right time to see her. I rejected the doubtful voice in the back of my mind. I refused to accept that we wouldn’t be able to find our way to the new future we’d created.
“Got it,” Kai said. “Let’s go.”
We all joined hands, and my thoughts raced as I felt the ground fall away. I had no idea what was going on with Delta at this point in time, but I prayed that she would know how to fix this—and that she would be willing to help. If she knew about what Kai had done in his efforts to get to his sister, I hoped she wouldn’t hold that against the rest of us.
