by Jena Leigh
“What the hell?” came an angry voice from the end of the hall.
Alex gave a start. Li grimaced.
“Dr. Li? What are you doing on this level?” An Agency guard in black fatigues was moving toward them from the other end of the hall.
“Diego,” said Li, flashing the guard a genial smile. “I’m here to check on Mister Gale. Just a routine follow-up.”
“Then what is she doing with you?” asked Diego. “I’m sorry, Dr. Li, but I never received clearance for this. You’ll have to come with—“
The guard cut himself short as he reached the end of the hall and gained a clear view inside the cell. His eyes settled on the shard in Aaron’s hands.
“Shit,” said Diego. He reached up to use the radio attached to his shoulder. “Riley, I need you on six. Be advised, prisoner is armed with a shiv.”
He dropped his hand from the radio, unsheathed the Glock from his side holster, and stepped closer to the bars.
“Come on, kid,” said Diego. “Hand it over.”
Aaron arched a brow. “Come and get it.”
And that was when Diego did something profoundly stupid.
He dropped one hand toward his hip, presumably to reach for the keys to the cell, and took a step closer to the bars.
It was one step too many.
Three seconds, and it was over.
Aaron lunged forward, thrust his arm through the bars and buried the obsidian shard deep in Diego’s chest. The shock caused Diego’s gun arm to jerk upward and his finger to constrict against the trigger, letting off one wild shot.
As Aaron fell, Li let out a furious cry of, “No!”
He lurched toward the cell, beating futilely against the bars.
It wouldn’t make a difference.
No doctor on earth could save Aaron now.
The bullet had hit him in the head.
Alex turned away, unable to bear the sight of her friend lying on the floor as his blood pooled darkly around him. A sob caught in her throat as she sank into the wheelchair.
First Nathaniel. Now Aaron.
Li slammed his palm against the bars one last time. “Dammit, Aaron…”
Turning away from the cell, he knelt on the ground beside Diego and pressed his fingers to the man’s throat. The guard’s eyes were open, but unseeing.
“We need to get you back to your room, Alexandra. Right now.” Li got to his feet and took hold of the wheelchair, guiding her back toward the elevator. “No one can know you were here.”
She barely heard him. Through the tears and the desperate ache in her heart, Alex was devising a plan.
As the elevator doors slid shut and the lift began its ascent, Alex asked quietly, “What if I never was here?”
“What?”
“You could get me out of here, I know you can. And I have Aaron’s ability. I absorbed it when he grabbed my hands earlier… You could get me outside, away from the shield, and I could—”
“No,” He said, his tone adamant. “I know you want to save your friend, Alex, but if something goes wrong and you can’t reach Aaron before his death, all of this will be for naught. If you’re going to jump back, you need to pick a time and a location that will stop all of this from happening.”
The elevator dinged open and he wheeled her quickly down the empty corridor. “You haven’t figured it out yet, have you, Alexandra?”
Reaching the end of the hall, Li stabbed the call button for the second elevator. “You can save everyone. Not just Aaron, but everyone you’ve ever loved. You can still save all of us from this future. But you’re going to have to be smart about it.”
— 31 —
Back in her hospital room, Alex lay awake in bed for almost an hour, struggling to suppress her emotions and quiet the storm she could sense building outside the walls of the facility. The shield Li had mentioned was doing nothing to quell her effect on the weather. Obviously, it was intended to keep jumpers from getting in and out, and did little else.
She could control the ability now, thanks to Aaron’s training.
Still, it was difficult. All she really wanted to do was curl up in a ball and sob into the starched white sheets until she ran out of tears.
Alex bolstered herself with the knowledge that she still had a chance to change things.
Li was on board with her plans. With any luck, he’d arrange her escape soon.
So far, no one at the facility had connected Dr. Li and Alex with the events on sub-level 6. The cameras were offline when it happened, so it was presumed that Diego had gone down to the cells to investigate, discovered Aaron with the obsidian shiv, and the two had killed each other during the altercation.
No witnesses.
Sometime just before dawn, Alex was transferred further below ground to sub-level 4, into what Nurse Ames referred to as a “dorm room.”
Call it what you liked—the bolt on the door and the armed guard at the end of the hall put it squarely in the category of “prison cell,” as far as Alex was concerned.
Though she had to admit, with its small, private bathroom, it was a far nicer cage than the one Aaron had been thrown in.
Aaron.
Nate.
She took in a deep, steadying breath and promised herself she’d mourn for her friends later. And with any luck, by the time she’d finished, there’d be no need to mourn at all.
Alex glanced around at her new surroundings.
There was a full-sized bed, a small nightstand with a lamp and a digital clock, a trunk for her “belongings” (i.e. a collection of standard issue black cargo pants and t-shirts), and a desk with yet another lamp and a white pad of paper.
No pen.
She couldn’t have everything, apparently.
Ignoring the small pile of black fatigues folded inside the trunk, Alex instead worked her way into the clothes Dr. Li had offered her as she left the infirmary—the same jeans and black tank she’d worn days before. Someone at the facility had taken the time to wash her clothes, though the small holes in her tank top from the tranquilizer darts remained.
Sitting down dejectedly on the edge of the uncomfortable bed, Alex pulled out the other item Li had secretly handed her before saying goodbye—the glossy photograph Aiden had given her as a gift from Nathaniel that she’d shoved into her pocket before leaving for the test.
Little Nate’s smile stared back at her across the years, as quiet and unassuming as ever, and yet filled with that same steady reassurance she’d always found in his presence.
A tear slipped onto the photo and she wiped it clean.
Her heart broke a little more as she studied the image further and realized that Mr. O’Connell was wearing the exact same faded, gray military jacket that Declan so rarely went without.
Late one “girls night” after Cassie had fallen asleep, Kenzie told Alex about the last time she and Declan saw Alex as children.
The story of their parents’ death.
As Alex stared down at the photo, Declan’s attachment to his coat suddenly made perfect sense—and her heart ached to finally realize why it always smelled so strongly of ashes.
On that fateful night so many years earlier, the O’Connells were hiding young Alex in their Kilkenny home.
Masterson showed up and started a fire, nearly burning the house down around them all as they slept. He meant to steal Alex away during the chaos, but Mr. O’Connell discovered him instead.
In the end, Declan’s father drove Masterson off and ushered the children outside—only to teleport back inside the raging fire to rescue his wife, who was trapped in one of the back bedrooms.
Neither of the O’Connells made it back out alive.
Somehow, that jacket survived the fire. And now it belonged to Declan.
Alex returned the photograph to her back pocket.
She had to get out of here. She had to go back.
Alex had made her decision.
This shouldn’t be their future. Those pain-ridden memories shouldn
’t be their past.
She knew exactly when she needed to travel back to, in order to stop all this from happening. She’d go back to the day of the photo. She’d warn Grayson’s team about what was coming for them.
She would fix this.
An explosion rocked the subterranean building, blowing out the lights and plunging Alex’s room into darkness. Heavy boots raced through the halls outside of her cell, headed in the direction of the stairs.
Something was wrong.
A second explosion sent shockwaves rippling through the ceiling above Alex’s head, knocking her off her feet. A klaxon echoed through the corridors.
The facility was under attack.
But from who?
Fumbling her way toward the wall of her cell, Alex ran her hands along the cool plaster until she found what she was looking for. She yanked desperately at the door handle, but to no avail. It was still locked.
If there was a fire… If no one let her out of here…
Frantic now, Alex pounded her fists against the gray metal door, shouting for anyone who might be listening to open the damn door, already, and let her out.
Belatedly, the emergency lights mounted in the hallway blinked on, sending a beam of light cascading through the thin, rectangular window in the door.
From the vibrations in the walls and the thudding reports of gunfire, some sort of battle was raging high above her head.
What the hell was going on up there?
This time the heavy boots sounding down the hallway moved toward her instead of away.
Again, Alex beat wildly at the door, trying in vain to see anything through the narrow window.
“Hello?!” she called.
The footsteps slowed, but there was no reply.
Alex huffed. “I can hear you, asshole! I know you’re there! Now, someone let me out of here, dammit!”
A laugh.
Someone had just laughed in the hallway.
The boots slowed to a stop and Declan’s face appeared on the other side of the window.
Alex let out a cry that was part sob, part laugh, and nothing short of relief.
Declan grinned back at her from the shadows.
“Now that’s the Alex I know,” he said. “Nice to see you haven’t lost your spirit. Now, back up, princess. This might get messy.”
As Alex backed out of the way, she heard Declan say, “Check the other rooms. Make sure Alex is the only one being held on this floor.”
Then the door blew inward, rocketing off its hinges and slamming into the far wall. The metal panel rippled from top to bottom with crackling tendrils of violet electricity.
Declan must have used a sphere to knock it in.
“Lex?” He stepped into the room and looked around for her in the darkness. “Are you alright?”
“I’m fine,” she said, getting back to her feet.
She stepped into the light and Declan’s concerned expression melted into one of relief.
Another step and she was pulled swiftly against his chest as his arms wrapped tightly around her. Alex hugged him back as though it had been years, and not days, since she’d last seen him.
If she did what she had in mind, it might just be that long, next time.
That is, if she saw him again at all.
She pushed lightly against his chest and he loosened his hold, allowing her to step back, but still not dropping his arms.
“Are you alright?” he asked. “Have they hurt you?”
“I’m fine,” she said. “But Nate and Aaron…”
Something flickered in Declan’s eyes. “We know about Aaron. I’m sorry, Alex.”
She frowned. “How did you find me here?”
“Ozzie,” he replied. “And Grayson’s contacts. But it took us a while to decide on the best way to get you out of here, especially since we spent the last few days on the run while we planned it out.”
“You what?”
Declan shrugged. “After they knocked you out during the test, we fought back. We didn’t find out until later what the Director had done to cause you to go berserk like that. But we fought anyway, even without knowing for certain.”
“You fought the Agency?”
Declan huffed. “Wasn’t much of a fight. They ran before we could do much damage. Took you with them when they went, which was basically the last straw.”
“How do you mean?”
“Well after that, Grayson decided it was finally time to make a stand.” Declan dropped his arms from Alex’s waist and took a step back, looking out into the hallway to make sure the coast was still clear. “We’ve officially gone to war with the Agency. What they did to Nate would have been enough in and of itself, but after rigging your test on top of it… taking you like that… Well, let’s just say that the Agency has brought all of this on itself.”
Another explosion rocked the building, this one far more violent than the last. Declan pulled her close again, covering her as ceiling panels rained down from above.
When the dust finally settled, Declan looked her over. “Alright?”
“Alright.”
“We need to move,” he said, releasing her and making for the door.
Alex didn’t follow him.
“We blew their EM shield, but I can’t jump without—” He stopped and finally looked back at her. “What are you waiting for, Lex? We gotta go.”
This was it.
The shield was down. Alex was free.
There was only one thing she had left to do.
Alex closed the distance between them, reached up, and wrapped her arms around Declan’s neck.
The kiss was just as passionate and desperate as their first few had been, and Alex allowed herself to surrender to the blissful sensation of his warm mouth on hers. Of his strong arms wrapped tightly around her. Of the currents that danced all around them.
The kiss tasted of tears.
When she pulled away, Alex wiped carefully at her cheeks and took a few steps backward.
“Alex?” he asked, caught completely off his guard. “Lex, what are you doing?”
“You remember how I thought I’d traveled through time before? After touching Aaron? And you all told me I was crazy?” She smiled sadly. “Well, I wasn’t crazy, Decks. It was all real. And now I finally know what I have to do. I’m going to put things right for all of us… I promise.”
Declan’s face went slack. “I don’t understand, Alex. What are you—”
Knowing that she might never see him again and that this might very well be the last chance she ever had to say it, Alex gave voice to the words she’d been holding inside for so long.
“I love you, Declan.”
Declan’s eyes widened in panicked understanding. “Alex, no!”
As it always did just before the jump, Alex’s world began to slow.
She pictured her destination. The sunny fall day when her parents had welcomed their friends and fellow teammates into their home and then gathered by the creek for a group picture. She imagined the cool weather. The wind rippling through the leaves of that large red maple in the backyard. The sound of her parents’ laughter.
The image of her life as it once was so very, very long ago.
And then Alex looked back at the room she was about to leave behind, and saw something she hadn’t expected.
Declan was lurching toward her, his arm outstretched and his palm inching ever closer to her wrist as time shuddered to a stop.
In the instant before her world turned a vibrant red and Alex jumped, two absolutely unthinkable things happened.
Nathaniel was alive.
She recognized Nathaniel’s bandaged form standing stock still in the doorway, watching on as his brother lunged toward Alex’s vanishing form. And in that frozen moment, he was smiling the same, small smile Alex had grown so much to love.
The expression in his eyes communicated volumes in that fleeting instant.
It was a look that told her he knew what was happening. That
he’d been waiting for it to happen. And that while he ached watching it unfold, it had also unburdened him somehow. He’d finally been released.
It was all finally happening.
And then the second unthinkable thing happened.
Declan’s hand closed around Alex’s wrist.
Alex’s jump had begun—and Declan was coming with her.
— Epilogue —
She was being ripped apart.
Alex cried out in pain as she reappeared, her scream lost amidst the deafening roar of the storm that raged around her.
And she fell.
Rain and ice pelted against her bare skin as a crimson bolt of lightning lit up the darkened sky. An icy wind rushed past her as she tumbled through the emptiness. Alex clawed desperately at nothing, twisting and turning in the black.
Another flash of lightning revealed a churning expanse of water rushing toward her at a terrifying rate.
This wasn’t supposed to be happening.
Connecting with the ocean’s surface was like being slammed ruthlessly against a brick wall. The speed of her descent turned the water into a solid, unforgiving mass. Dazed, she fought to keep her grip on consciousness as the seething waves consumed her, dragging her limp form swiftly downward.
Alex willed her aching limbs to move as she struggled to break free of the merciless current. With no light to see by and no idea which direction to swim in order to reach the surface, she gave in to the panic.
Sharp pains coursed through her limbs, causing her arms and legs to jerk violently. Blood pounded at her temples.
Air. She needed air.
Unable to fight the urge any longer Alex gasped reflexively, swallowing one mouthful of seawater and then another, the briny liquid stinging at her nose and at the back of her throat as it forced its way into her lungs.
Her arms and legs continued to thrash wildly. She made one last, desperate attempt to break free of the ocean’s grasp, but it was no use.
Alex allowed herself to be pulled along by the steady current.
In the darkness she could see nothing, hear nothing but a quiet rushing in her ears. There was no sign of the violent storm raging at the surface—only an eerie calm. She floated through an empty void. All that remained were her thoughts and the endless shadows holding her prisoner inside this watery abyss.
