by Jena Leigh
Alex was twenty feet away and sprinting blindly for the edge of the forest before she could even register that she’d made it up off the swampy floor.
Weaving between saplings, ancient cypress trees, and the bush speckled underbrush, Alex ran, gasping for breath, terrified that the shadow might have reformed and followed her.
Within seconds, she’d broken through the edge of the forest.
Alex glanced over her shoulder as she ran. With her attention focused behind her, she only just managed to keep from running headlong into the guy standing between Alex and her parked jeep.
As she stumbled to a halt, the stranger reached out and took hold of her shoulders, attempting to steady her.
“Whoa!” he said, laughing. “Easy there, darlin. I’ve got you.”
Startled, Alex stared wordlessly up and into the pale blue eyes of her unexpected roadblock. He was tall, with dark curly hair, and sharply chiseled features. He looked old enough to have been a college student.
Senior? Alex wondered.
A strange chill worked its way through Alex’s shoulders, causing her skin to feel slightly numb in the places his fingertips made contact. She jerked her arms back at the exact same moment that he sucked in a surprised breath and released her.
The sensation immediately dissipated.
Cold hands?
That must have been it. Oz had assured them that there were only two other unknown Variants at Bay View—and this guy wasn’t one of them.
They stood for a moment in silence, each trying to get a read on the other.
“You alright?” he asked finally, his southern accent tinged with concern now that he’d had a chance to look her over.
“I—I’m fine,” she managed. “It’s nothing.”
The senior raised an eyebrow, bemused. He looked from Alex to the woods behind them and back.
“Right,” he said. “Okay, then. I’ll just… uh… I’ll just leave you to it, I guess.”
Obviously at a loss, he turned and started off toward the dark blue Camry parked fifty feet away—the only other car left in the lot.
Alex stood stock still beside her jeep as the senior climbed into his car and cranked the engine, sending her a few curious glances as he did so.
“Are you kidding me?” Cassie groaned from somewhere on the other side of the Wrangler. Alex could hear Declan’s laughter and Kenzie’s grousing coming from the same direction. “Two seconds! You hide in the woods for half-a-freaking-hour and then you make it past us in two flippin’ seconds! I demand a rematch!”
Her friends circled around to the rear of the jeep where Alex now stood, her back pressed against the spare tire, still working to catch her breath.
The second he was within reach, Alex lurched forward and grabbed hold of Declan’s wrist.
Declan’s smile fell. “What is it?” He didn’t try to pull away. “What’s happened?”
Even if she could have found the words, Alex wouldn’t have been able to answer him—surprise had robbed her of her voice.
The transfer had begun. And while the absorption of most Variant abilities wasn’t something Alex could actually sense, Declan’s ability was impossible not to notice.
A surge of electricity coursed through her palm where it met with Declan’s bare skin, the current radiating through her like a fire in her blood.
In that moment, Alex realized just how sorely she had missed that sensation.
But there was more to it than that.
The link between them was restored. She could sense him, could guess his emotions—currently tension and a hint of worry—just by observing the way that the currents surged between them. It wasn’t quite the same as being inside Declan’s head, but it was close.
This was what Alex had missed more than anything else—her connection to Declan.
“Geez, Alex,” Cassie breathed. “What did you do? Stop off to wrestle a gator on your way back to the parking lot? You’re wearing half the swamp.”
Declan’s free hand came to rest over Alex’s where she still clung to his wrist.
The woods were quiet, without the slightest hint of movement. There was absolutely no sign of Masterson.
“I—”
The jeep’s stereo roared to life, the sounds of a local classic rock station crashing through the stillness as Mick Jagger bid her to guess his name. With a strangled cry of surprise, Alex released Declan and backed away from the Wrangler.
Declan held up a hand.
The music cut off.
“Calm… Alex… kick-started the battery.” Declan was speaking, but only half of his words seemed to be reaching her ears. “…accident. That’s all.”
In her fear, Alex called up more energy than she could handle. The overflow surged into the Wrangler, flipping on the radio. At least the jeep’s engine was faring better than the computer lab.
There was a tug at the currents coursing through her as Declan took care of the excess. She fought to regain control, but focusing on any one thing had become difficult.
Her surroundings started to blur, the larger objects growing dull around the edges. Sights, sounds… even her movements had taken on a slow-motion quality.
Her gaze shifted toward Kenzie, who had stepped away from the group and now stood at the edge of the gravel lot, surveying the tree line. Had she heard something?
God. Why hadn’t she just accepted Declan’s offer earlier? If she had, this wouldn’t be happening. If she could just go back and do it over again, she would tell him yes in a heartbeat.
Explosions of light danced around the corners of Alex’s vision and she struggled to remain upright as the world around her slipped sideways.
“…doesn’t look so good,” Cassie was saying. “Declan, catch—!”
Alex could see Declan moving toward her, but it was too late.
The shadow had returned.
* * *
“Why was it red?”
His sister’s question barely registered. Declan was still staring at the empty stretch of blacktop where Alex had been standing only moments before.
“What just happened?” asked Cassie. She was waving her hand through the empty space as though she fully expected to find Alex still standing there, only invisible. Her hand slid through the air without resistance.
Alex had jumped.
Only, that wasn’t right. Alex had passed out—and then she’d jumped.
Declan pulled the cell phone from his pocket and dialed.
“Hey! You’ve reached Alex. Sorry I’ve missed your—”
He hung up. Straight to voicemail. Either her phone was dead, fried, or without a signal. Declan felt around for her presence. Now that she had reabsorbed his ability, he ought to have been able to sense her.
Nothing.
“Is she close, Kenzie?” he asked.
His sister closed her eyes for the briefest of moments.
“No,” she said. “Where do you think she jumped to? Better yet, how did she manage it? I mean, she was halfway to the ground and out like a busted headlight. How does someone jump when they’re unconscious?”
“And why was it red?” asked Cassie. “I thought the lightning you guys created was always that weird shade of purple.”
It had been red.
Declan had seen the lightning turn a dark shade of indigo in the past, particularly on jumps to faraway places. But red? That was new.
He scanned the tree line, searching for any sign of what had frightened Alex. The woods were quiet. There was nothing there.
Alright, Lex, thought Declan, where are you?
— 9 —
Alex came to on a hard surface, sprawled flat on her back, her right arm submerged in a shallow pool of warm water. She opened her eyes slowly, cautiously, her surroundings reluctant to slide into focus. A clear azure sky gazed back at her.
Lifting her head gingerly, Alex took in her surroundings.
The pool of water turned out to be a sun-drenched rain puddle. The rainwater ha
d dissolved most of the mud that had been caked on her arm after her journey through the woods. Clumps of dirt and thin blades of grass now floated across its surface.
Looking past the tiny pool, Alex recognized the boxy metal cubes of air conditioning units and the prism shaped domes of skylights set into concrete.
She was lying on the roof of a building.
Alex sat up, confused and disoriented, wondering how on earth she’d managed to get here in the first place.
Something moved off to her right. Thirty feet away, Declan was kneeling at the rooftop’s edge, his attention fixed on the ground below.
Ignoring the pain in her limbs, Alex scrambled quickly to her feet. She managed to call out his name at the precise moment he jumped, disappearing from the rooftop in a flash of violet light. He hadn’t heard her.
Damn.
Alex jogged across the rooftop to where Declan had been standing and looked below, wondering what had so piqued his interest mere moments before.
“—I’m using it to singe that windswept hair of yours right off your forehead. Try flirting with Sandy Bleaker with no eyebrows and see how far you get.”
Impossible. She was dreaming. She had to be.
“Is it really windswept?”
Alex sank to her knees, the concrete connecting like a mallet with her unprotected kneecaps. The pain radiating through her legs was far better than any pinch on the arm. Alex was painfully, impossibly, awake.
She watched in fascination as her past self tried, unsuccessfully, to hide a smile.
“Where’s Cassie?” the other Alex asked.
On the rooftop, Alex leaned forward to get a better view.
On the ground below, her other self glanced skyward. Alex ducked swiftly out of sight.
Okay, thought Alex, leaning against the small step that ran the length of the building. Somehow, I’ve slipped back in time by half an hour and now I’m hiding from my former self on a rooftop. No need to freak. I’ve experienced weirder things than this.
None that immediately sprang to mind, but still…
Alex straightened slightly and peered once more over the edge.
“We could easily beat both of them to the jeep, if you would just—”
“No means no, Declan.”
Wait…
Wait, wait, wait.
She could fix this! All she had to do, was warn her past self about what was going to happen. That way, she could tell Declan yes and absorb his ability. Then she wouldn’t be so defenseless when Masterson found her in the woods.
Or—even better—she could warn herself not to go into the woods in the first place.
She could stop it from happening altogether.
Warming to this idea, Alex got to her feet.
She wasn’t sure how she’d landed herself in the past, and for the moment she didn’t care. All that mattered now, was that she’d been given the chance to change things.
Earlier, Alex had wanted nothing more than to go back in time, to this exact moment, and tell Declan yes.
Now she was going to have her chance.
With a triumphant smile, Alex jumped—and immediately knew that something had gone wrong.
Alex could feel the building pressure of the ensuing jump and, as it normally did when she teleported, the world around her shuddered to a stop.
Only, this time, the arcs of electricity that coiled themselves around her body and pricked at her skin were the color of crimson.
The familiar violet light of the jump had been a constant since this all began. This new color felt wrong.
The pressure of the jump knocked the air from her lungs and forced her eyes closed. Prepared for the tingling numbness that normally filled her muscles in the moments after she reappeared, Alex was caught off guard by what was, instead, an excruciating stretching sensation. It felt as though she’d been laid out on a medieval torture device meant to wrench her into submission.
Swallowing a scream, Alex materialized.
Once the pain abated, Alex looked herself over. In spite of what she’d expected to find, she was still in one piece.
“Hey she’s back!” said a voice. Kenzie, Declan and Cassie were all gathered beside the jeep, looking roughly the same as they had when she’d last seen them.
Somehow, Alex had reappeared in the junior class parking lot, several hundred feet and at least forty-five minutes past her intended destination.
“When am I?” asked Alex.
“You’re in the Bay View High parking lot,” Declan said slowly.
“Not where.” Alex could feel a tremble slowly working its way through her. “When?”
“What?” asked Cassie.
Declan walked closer. “Where did you go when you jumped, Alex?”
Alex swallowed hard, unsure of how to answer. “How long have I been gone?”
“About five minutes.” He crossed his arms over his chest. “Give or take. We were just about to go looking for you. Where did you go? And what happened to you in the woods earlier?”
Alex was silent for a long moment as she tried to calm her racing thoughts and pull herself back together. Walking back to the jeep, she opened the driver’s side door. It creaked loudly on its rusty hinges as Alex slipped into the driver’s seat.
In a calmer voice than she thought she’d be capable of, she answered him. “Masterson was in the woods.”
“What?” Cassie and Kenzie asked in unison.
Alex looked down at her arms, one caked in dried mud and the other free of debris, having already been washed clean in the puddle of rainwater on the school’s roof.
She stared unseeing through the jeep’s windshield.
Dark clouds were forming in the skies above as an unseasonably chilly breeze rippled its way across the parking lot.
A storm was approaching—and fast.
It would start raining soon.
“Masterson found me in the woods,” Alex repeated. “And I think I just traveled through time.”
* * *
“Are you alright?” asked Cassie, eyeing her date with growing concern.
Across from her in the tiny booth Aiden O’Connell was choking on a french fry. He reached for his water glass and downed half of it in one go.
“I’m sorry,” he managed once his coughing had ceased. “Did you just say Alex traveled through time?”
“No,” said Cassie, eyebrow raised in amusement. “I said she thought she traveled through time. Obviously she dreamed it though, right? I mean, your cousins seemed pretty confident that actual time travel was impossible.”
“Right.” Aiden cleared his throat. “Definitely. Totally impossible.”
Outside the cafe, the weather had taken a turn for the worse. A storm had sprung up just offshore and appeared to be making its way swiftly inland.
They’d almost rescheduled their date, but decided at the last minute to go ahead. At least with their dinner reservations, anyhow.
The rain was now coming down sideways on account of the steady winds. Their trip to the outdoor art exhibit set up by one of the boardwalk galleries was going to have to wait until next time.
Cassie smiled. With the way things were going, there would almost definitely be a next time.
When Aiden had picked her up an hour earlier, he’d been so glad she’d agreed to go that he’d promised Cassie not a single drop of rain would fall upon her blonde head as she traveled to and from his truck through the downpour.
No ruined hair, no running mascara. Aiden would make sure of it.
He was a gentleman like that.
At Alex’s suggestion, Aiden took Cassie to one of her favorite restaurants, Cafe Luna. It was a seaside bistro that offered a gorgeous view of the water and the sort of food Cassie rarely had the chance to enjoy, having lived in a house with a bunch of growing boys her entire life.
Between her parents’ hectic schedules and her brothers’ voracious appetites, cheap and easy was usually the name of the game.
If Cassie
wanted a nice meal, she had to find it elsewhere.
But it wasn’t just the delicious plate of chicken piccata in front of her that had Cassie enjoying her evening out, it was also the company. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d laughed this much on a date.
It didn’t hurt that Aiden had been so adorably awkward when he’d first picked her up, submitting himself to a fifteen-minute long interrogation conducted by her younger brothers (her older brother, Tom, had been at work.)
For the first time in ages, Cassie found herself nervous about her upcoming date. So much so, that it took her twice as long as normal to decide on an outfit, an extra half an hour to transform her stick-straight hair into loose golden curls, and another ten minutes to decide on the right eye makeup.
Aiden wasn’t just any guy.
She was determined to knock his socks off the second she walked down those stairs.
If she looked the part, maybe she’d be able to calm her suddenly rioting nerves.
Any lingering butterflies in Cassie’s stomach started flying in formation again, however, the second her baby brothers went to work on the water-wielding O’Connell when he came to pick her up.
The twins grilled him mercilessly while Cassie took her time applying the finishing touches to her makeup—upstairs in her bedroom, with her door open to the hall so that she could hear the conversation taking place downstairs in the living room.
“Do you have a car?”
“I have a truck.”
“Do you have any outstanding warrants?”
“No?”
“You don’t sound very sure about that.”
“No. I’m not wanted by the cops.”
“Do you have a dog?”
“I used to, back when I was growing up in Kansas.”
“That’s good. But a man should own a dog, ya know? So you should probably get a dog at some point.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
“How’d you get to be so damn tall?”
“He’s not that tall, Danny.”
“Shut up, Runt. Is too. Well? How’d you do it?”
“I… ate my vegetables?”
“Ew. Even spinach and brussels sprouts? Cause that shit’s disgusting.”
