Fates Unsparing

by K. J. McPike

  “Fine,” she grumbled, descending again. “Just hurry.”

  Once we’d reached the roof and I was back in my physical body, I pulled the tracker remover from my pocket. I held it over Kai’s arm, seeing the green light appear under his skin. I lined it up as best I could with shaking hands.

  “Come on.” Macy looked back over her shoulder, and then searched the air behind me. “Get the stupid thing out already.”

  Sucking in a breath, I pressed the button to stab the device into Kai’s arm. He didn’t even flinch. They must have tranquilized him to get him to stop fighting.

  “Okay.” I ejected the tracker and tossed the sticky bead aside, hearing it clank against the metal roof as I shoved the device back in my pocket. “I’ll get us to the transposer.”

  After that, I didn’t know where we would go. With Kai unconscious, it would be much harder to get everyone somewhere safe to rest and regroup.

  One crisis at a time.

  Closing my eyes, I projected us to the transposer, aiming for the center like I had earlier with Amber-Ann and Macy. We landed in a heap, the change back into my body hitting me harder this time. The events of the night seemed to be catching up to me, but I had to hang on a little longer.

  Kai lay unconscious on the tunnel floor, and, knowing we couldn’t lift him, I asked Macy to project with him and meet me outside with the rest of our group. Then I raced through the house, my blood pounding in my ears. I knew Kala would be able to mask everyone, but I just needed to see that they were okay. I pushed through the door and ran into the night, toward the patch of trees where I’d left the others.

  Except they were gone.

  My heart plummeted into my stomach. Had someone found them while Macy and I were gone?

  “Guys?” I called, my voice coming out high and tight as I scanned the darkened patch of trees.

  “Lali!” Salaxia appeared out of nowhere and threw her arms around my waist. “That was so scary! I thought they were gonna catch us.”

  “What?” I stared down at her, waiting for my brain to catch up. “Who was going to catch you? What happened?”

  “A group of Astralii came to search for us.” Kala’s voice sounded like she was just a few feet away from me, though all I saw was the small patch of forest. “Sorry,” she said, and then the whole group became visible. My eyes found Oxanna and my brothers first, and then Bianca, Elliot, Amber-Ann, Truman, and Caleb, all of them sitting on the ground behind Kala.

  “When I heard you approaching, I created an illusion to cover us,” Kala explained. “I assumed they had come back.”

  “They came by here already?” I asked, the thought closing around me like a giant fist, squeezing until it was hard to breathe. Arlo already had his workers come looking for us. If it hadn’t been for Kala’s illusions…

  “We couldn’t move or make any noise,” Salaxia said, still hugging my waist. “We had to hold our breath and everything!”

  I ran a hand over her hair, trying to comfort her as much as myself.

  “Where’s Macy?” Bianca asked. “Did you find Kai?”

  “They’re both coming,” I said. “Kai’s unconscious, and we couldn’t carry him. Macy’s projecting him here.”

  “Unconscious?” Ulyxses exchanged a look with Dixon.

  “I think they tranquilized him,” I explained.

  Macy appeared then, sitting on the ground with Kai lying next to her.

  “Macy!” Truman rushed over to her, stopping just short of hugging her when he caught sight of Kai. Caleb’s face fell when he looked at him, too.

  “Is he okay?” Amber-Ann asked, her arm linked with Elliot’s as she leaned forward to get a better look.

  I nodded, though, honestly, I couldn’t be sure. “He just needs to sleep off the tranquilizer.” I hope.

  “How are we going to get out of here?” Oxanna asked, the light of the moon reflected in her dark eyes. “I was kinda banking on Kai projecting us somewhere safe.”

  “Can we stay here?” Elliot looked toward the cliff house just beyond the trees. “The house is huge, and they already came by looking for us.”

  “I dunno about that,” Dixon said. “What if someone finds us while we’re sleeping?”

  “They will not.” Kala spoke as if that were fact. “If anyone comes inside, I can make sure they only see an empty home, just as they saw an empty forest when they came here before. I will stay awake while you all rest.”

  “Thank you,” I said. “I’ll stay awake with you so you have some company.”

  “We can take shifts,” Bianca offered. “Whoever is up just has to wake Kala if they hear anything. Then we can all get some rest.”

  I smiled at her, the thought of sleep making my upper body sag. I hadn’t realized how exhausted I was until I pictured lying down. “That sounds good,” I said. “Once Kai sleeps off the tranquilizer, we can figure out a plan from there.”

  That was the best we could do for now. Tomorrow we would see if Kai was up to going after Delta. We just had to hope she had followed through on Elliot’s request for her to trap Sariah’s astral energy so we could use it to time hop. If she hadn’t, I had no idea how we were going to get home.

  Chapter 30

  Truth

  I woke the next morning with a jolt, half-expecting to find myself strapped to a bed. Instead, I felt carpet tickling the side of my face. A sliver of sunlight fought its way through a crack in the curtains, leaving a golden line a couple inches from the tip of my nose. My groggy brain pieced together the evening’s events, the memory of our escape coming in choppy bursts like an old movie playing through my head. We’d made it out of the lab, but it still felt like we had so far to go.

  Sitting up slowly, I moved my stiff body to fight off the chill that came from sleeping without a blanket. Though there were plenty of beds in the cliff house, collecting comforters would have left too much evidence that we were here. Kala could only create illusions to mask what she could see herself, so we all had to stay in the same room and leave the other bedrooms untouched.

  Everyone was scattered around the room sleeping, except Oxanna. She sat with her back to me, facing the bedroom door as she kept watch next to where Kala was balled up on the floor. Beside Kala, Kai lay on his back, and though I didn’t think it possible, his face looked worse. I’d done my best to clean him up last night, but the bruises had darkened from maroon to deep purple, and his eye was so swollen it looked like his eyelid might split open at the slightest touch.

  To Kai’s left, my brothers slept on their stomachs, Dixon facing the wall and Ulyxses turned toward Elliot’s back. Truman and Macy had claimed the corner by the night table, their heads at opposite ends.

  Bianca was asleep less than a foot from me. We’d both slept on floor near the bottom of the queen bed that held the youngest ones in our group. I looked over my shoulder, seeing Salaxia curled up between Caleb and Amber-Ann. I couldn’t help but stare at my baby sister as she slept. I still couldn’t believe she was here. I wasn’t sure if I would ever be able to wrap my head around it, or if I would ever get rid of the nagging voice in my mind that said it was wrong to be happy about having another version of her when the Salaxia from my timeline was still gone.

  “Hey.” Oxanna’s whisper jolted me out of my thoughts. “What are you doing?”

  I sighed. “Just thinking.”

  “About what?”

  “Everything.”

  “I guess that makes two of us. I can’t believe we got out of that place.” Oxanna looked toward the door again, and then turned back to me. “Hey, can I talk to you about something?”

  “You? Talk? Should I be afraid?”

  “Shut up.”

  I smiled, getting to my feet carefully to avoid waking the others as I moved to sit next to my sister. “What is it?”

  She took a deep breath, avoiding my gaze. “I’m sorry I blew up at you back at The Hill. You know, when you were trying to get us to talk about Sal.” She let a layer of her dar
k hair fall over her face as she picked at the carpet. “You were right about it being messed up to take her from another family, but…I just didn’t want her to be gone.”

  “I get that, Oxie. And we were all on edge. I can’t hold that against you.”

  She swallowed. “Is it horrible that I’m happy they stole Sal?”

  “It’s not horrible; it’s human.”

  We shared a beat of silence, and I wondered if she was struggling with her loyalty to our timeline’s Salaxia, too, or if she was referring to the fact that Sariah had done what we decided it was wrong to do.

  “You’re not going to make us take Sal back to where they stole her from, are you?” Oxanna asked.

  “Honestly, I don’t think we could even if we wanted to.” It was the truth, but I had to admit I was glad that was the case. Though I was fighting my own inner turmoil about having our baby sister back, I knew there was no way I could give her up again. “We’d have to go through every moment in time and every splice trying to figure out exactly where Sariah pulled her from,” I went on. “I don’t even know for sure if we can get back to our own timeline, let alone find hers.”

  “Are you going to tell Sal?”

  I took a deep breath. I didn’t want to. No nine-year-old should have to deal with knowing that another version of her had been murdered. But Salaxia could project into our minds, and all it would take was one errant thought to reveal the truth to her.

  “We have to,” I said. “She can see what goes through our heads. I’d rather tell her than have her catch one of us thinking about it. At least if we talk to her, we can try and control the message.” I sighed. No matter what, it would be a very distressing message. From what I could tell, Salaxia hadn’t realized that she’d been pulled into this timeline from another, or that the rest of us were alternates of the brothers and sisters she knew. “I guess we’ll figure out what to say to her after we get back to our proper timeline.”

  “And how exactly are we doing that again?”

  “I’m hoping that we can get out of this mess by using Sariah’s astral energy,” I said, keeping my voice just above a whisper. “Elliot communicated the plan to Delta the other day. If she was able to get Sariah’s astral energy into a stone so we can use it, then we can time hop without Sariah.”

  Kai let out a groan, snapping my attention to where he lay. He started to sit up, and I hurried over to his side, my knees sinking into the soft carpet as I took his hand into mine. I did my best to keep my expression from revealing that his swollen face made an invisible knife twist in my heart. I still couldn’t believe he’d stayed back for the sake of saving the rest of us.

  “How do you feel?” I asked, easing him back to the floor.

  “Like I got trampled by a herd of hippos.” His mouth quirked up, and I made myself smile back. “Where are we?”

  “At the cliff house above the transposer,” I told him. Seeing the fear flash through his eyes, I added, “Kala offered to use her illusions to mask us if anyone came by. So far, only one group of Astralii came looking for us while Macy and I went back for you.”

  “Speaking of…” Oxanna scooted to where we sat, dodging Kala on her way over. “What happened back at the lab? We didn’t exactly get to see much from Amber-Ann’s dream.”

  “I did everything I could to keep Arlo and his minions busy,” Kai said. “I knew you guys had to make it to the transposer, and that Truman was gonna hold most of you guys in astral form as long as he could, so I gave the lab crew a bit of a distraction to buy you guys some time.”

  Oxanna scanned his face and extended her lips down at the corners. “You look like you bought lots of time.”

  “Oxie,” I hissed.

  Kai laughed once, and then groaned, clutching his side. I wondered if he’d bruised or cracked any ribs while fighting last night. Given the way his face looked, I wouldn’t have been surprised.

  “Well, I tried,” he said. “I got in some good hits on the ones who weren’t in astral form, and even the ones who were. I mean, it’s less satisfying when they can’t feel it, but still.” He shrugged, and I realized there was blood on the shoulder of his jumpsuit. “I did manage to land a solid punch to Arlo’s face. That felt amazing.”

  “I noticed him rubbing his jaw,” I said.

  Kai’s mouth lifted. “I wish I could have done more. But they managed to jab me with a tranquilizer eventually.”

  “I’m just glad you’re okay,” I told him. Well, mostly okay.

  “Do you think you’re good to go after Delta?” Oxanna asked. I shot her a look that said way to ease into that, but she pretended not to notice.

  “I can drop into the lab and get Delta out.” Kai pushed himself to a sitting position, taking a moment to look around the room.

  Following his gaze, I realized that almost everyone was awake. Kala shifted by the door, and Ulyxses was rubbing the sleep out of his eyes next to where Dixon sat up and yawned. Truman and Macy had propped themselves up on their elbows in the corner, Bianca stretched near the foot of the bed, and Amber-Ann and Salaxia were sitting on the mattress with their eyes half open. Only Caleb and Elliot were still asleep.

  “Morning,” Kai said to the group.

  Bianca made a noise somewhere between a laugh and a scoff. “Good to see you conscious again.”

  “Good to be conscious again.” Kai got to his feet with a grunt. “Well, sort of.” He reached out to steady himself on the wall, and I stood up next to him.

  “Are you sure you’re up for going after her?” I asked. I knew Kai could get in and out of the lab quickly—probably before anyone could react to stop him—but if he was shaky on his feet, maybe it was better to wait.

  He forced the strain out of his face. “Yeah. I can get Delta here in two seconds.”

  “I thought Delta died.” Salaxia sat up in bed, frowning, and everyone from The Hill shot questioning looks my way.

  “Not that Delta,” I said, which was technically true. I didn’t know when I would have the chance to sit down with my sister and explain everything, but I promised myself I would find time to do it soon.

  “You guys have a necklace, right?” Kai asked.

  “It’s right here.” Dixon tugged the chain from the top of the white lacquer dresser and walked over, holding it out to Kai.

  “And don’t forget about the tracker.” Macy swiped a mess of blonde strands out of her face. “If she has a poison one, you have to make sure to get it out before you take her too far from the lab.” She pointed to the tracker remover I’d left next to the lamp on the night stand.

  Kai walked over to grab the device, tucking it into his jumpsuit pocket. “That I can do,” he said.

  “If she’s not alone when you find her, you can take her to the roof of the lab to take out her tracker,” Macy suggested. “That’s what Lali and I did before we brought you here.”

  Kai turned to me, his good eye searching my face. “Can you project me to the roof so I can see what it looks like?”

  “Sure.” I took his hand, and the next second, we were floating above the lab. The sky in Alea was dark, catching me off guard. I still didn’t understand how the passage of time in their realm compared to ours, but maybe this would be a good thing. If it was still night here, maybe it would be easier for Kai to get in and out with Delta.

  “Thanks for coming back for me,” Kai said.

  I turned toward his voice, though I knew I wouldn’t be able to see him. “Of course. There was no way we were going to leave you after you surrendered yourself.” I paused. “I still can’t believe you did that.”

  “Lali, every disaster in your life has been caused by me. I know that. And when you were kind enough to help me after what I did to your family, things only got worse. The least I could do was try to undo some of the damage.”

  “Not at the cost of your life,” I argued. “They could have killed you.”

  “That would have been better than having them control all of us forever.”


  “Kai.”

  “It’s fine. It’s done. We all made it out, and I’m going to make sure you guys get home.”

  The determination in his voice almost made me believe we would make it back to our timeline. But I knew it all hinged on whether we could use Sariah’s astral energy.

  “I think I’ve got a good enough mental picture now,” Kai said. “I’ll bring Delta up here to take out her tracker and project her to you guys. But I think we should move locations first. We’ve tested our luck enough by staying at the cliff house.”

  “Agreed.”

  I let myself give in to the pull to return to my body, and when I opened my eyes, everyone was staring at me—even Caleb and Elliot. Someone must’ve woken them in the time I was projecting with Kai.

  “I’m gonna take you guys somewhere safer,” Kai said. He didn’t have to elaborate; I was sure he was planning to take all of us to his favorite beach in Lanai.

  “Maybe take us a few at a time,” I suggested. “I don’t want you straining yourself and risking something happening in the lab.”

  The corner of his mouth twitched. “I got this.”

  In a matter of minutes, he had projected all of us to the beach in groups of two. The sky was a soft blue, the sun barely beginning its ascent as we all settled in the sand.

  “Okay,” Kai said. “Time to go get Delta.”

  He vanished, and I stared blankly at the place he’d been standing. I knew he would have take a little longer to come back because he had to find a safe moment and place to remove Delta’s tracker. And if Delta had managed to trap Sariah’s astral energy, Kai might have to go back for the stone she’d used, too.

  “Why doesn’t Kai just take us home?” Salaxia shifted impatiently, sitting next to me in the center of the line our group had formed across the beach. “Why does he have to go and get someone else first?”

  “Because we’re stuck in the past.” Oxanna looked at me, as if asking if we should fill our baby sister in on everything.

  Salaxia’s mouth dropped open. “We’re in the past?”