CHAPTER FORTY-ONE

Time stretched longer than I’d remembered in past jumps and for the first time, I dreaded returning home. How quickly would it take for Jim to turn into a zombie? I could only hope the room didn’t hold a locked cage. Then this would all be for nothing.

After the pop, I tried to open my eyes. My arms felt pinned to the floor, or whatever I was laying on. Heavy, everything was so heavy.

“Open your eyes, Abby.”

The sweet voice filtered from heaven and I wanted to obey. Keeping them closed was easier, though.

“She alright?” Jim’s voice cut through my exhaustion. He’d lived? Or was I dreaming?

“Yeah, just go,” she murmured to someone.

“Alright, ma’am.”

I awoke, pulling in a huge lungful of air. My Complement looked on in worry. I blinked a few times to clear my head and tried to sit up. She lunged forward, then stopped herself. “I can’t touch you, I’m sorry.”

I grunted and pushed myself up on weakened arms. She sat across from me on the floor, cross-legged. Instead of a smile, a tight grimace formed on my lips.

She clutched her neckline and fingered a golden chain. “You must have so many questions.”

My breath remained trapped behind the lump growing in my throat. I couldn’t believe after everything, I finally arrived at this moment: my advice meeting. A tear trickled down my cheek.

Her features relaxed as her lips pulled into a beautiful smile. “Oh, Abby. I want to hug you so bad.”

I sniffled. “Me, too.”

She shook her head. “I so wish this was under different circumstances. I wanted our reunion to be sweet and…” she let out a sigh. “I don’t even have my journal to hand on.”

I studied her, concerned. “A journal?” I choked out.

Her eyes darkened. “Declan has it now. But I need to get it back. It has everything in it.”

I licked my lips and worked to collect my thoughts. “Is it locked, by chance?”

Her eyes widened. “Yes.”

“I saw it.” I blinked at her. “It’s in his office.”

Her hand blanched as she clutched the chain and I thought she might rip it from her neck. “We need that. You need it.”

“I do?”

She unclasped the chain and dangled it before me. “You need to guard this with your life,” she whispered. “It’s the key.”

Arm shaking, I reached out. The chain fell into my palm with a soft shush. A small gold key was pressed into the heart.

“The key?”

“To the journal. It’s an account of all the time jumpers before you.” Her eyes pinched shut for a second. “You need that journal. Promise me you will do whatever it takes to find it.”

I nodded.

“Okay,” she said breathless. “Now where’s Sawyer?”

My mouth parched as I stared into her fretful eyes. “He’s with Kaden, in… the past timeline.”

She sucked in a strangled gasp.

“I know…” my voice trembled. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t have a choice. Declan was threatening him. It was the only way to save him.” Tears filled my eyes again. “And now you’ll never see him again and I’m so so sorry.” I let out a sob.

“What? Why not?”

“Because…” I remembered Jim and looked beyond the President’s ostentatious office furniture for him. Did he not come with me? “I kill people when I jump.”

Her eyes blinked slowly. “What? I don’t understand.”

I stared at the rug we sat on to collect my thoughts. “Declan forced me to jump, to find you, and he wouldn’t accept no for an answer. He handcuffed us together. And right after we jumped, we ran into his younger self and they touched. A rift opened in the air and I was pulled inside with him.” My lip trembled. “His arm came off in the process.”

Anna gasped, then her lips tightened into a thin line. “Serves him right for breaking the rules.”

“Rules?” My gaze wandered away, unfocused.

She leaned over to gain my eye contact. “The future and the past are unstable, and if you touch yourself, it’s a one way ticket to the correct timeline. A safeguard, really, and Declan knows that. But he forgot we only travel back in time twenty years. But the handcuffs—yeah—that wasn’t smart.”

“So I’m not going to hurt anyone if I bring them home?”

“No.” She chuckled softly and reached forward like a mother reaching for her child. I ached for her touch, for her reassurance. Then she froze midway and clasped her hands together. “It means I can’t touch you either, or I’ll jump home.”

Sadness welled inside me. Home. I didn’t even know what that meant anymore. “I don’t understand why you didn’t come to me originally? Why did you send Kaden instead?”

“Oh, no, Abby.” She pinched her eyes shut for a moment and sighed. “Appearing in your world meant I’d need to leave the safety of my people and go to Brighton physically, which I couldn’t do. Kaden was the only one I could trust.”

I held in a sob, realizing how much she’d cared. How much she’d wanted to be there for me. How stupid to not assume there’d be a good reason.

Sadness clouded her eyes. “I would have come, though. You don’t know how hard this has been, trying to manage this from afar.”

I could only imagine. She looked on lovingly while I stared at her openly for a minute. Not only was she beautiful, she was so warm and loving. She exuded confidence and strength, qualities that I coveted—qualities I wanted now. The tears continued to fall down my cheeks.

“I have to tell you,” she said quickly, “that I’m so proud of you. I didn’t know how you’d handle living without your DOD or what would happen once you learned about our abilities, and you accepted it all so quickly.”

I closed my eyes as the guilt washed over me. “But I didn’t get rid of Declan, like you asked.” Did she know that I was contagious? That I’d brought zombies to this timeline, too? “I’ve messed everything up.”

Her brows pinched together. “No. You didn’t. I shouldn’t have asked you to do that. I was desperate.” She stopped abruptly. “Wait. Did you say Declan died?”

I swallowed down my fear. “Not, entirely. H-he’s a zombie now.”

Anna’s face grew pale. “So it is true.”

“And it’s my fault.”

“Don’t blame yourself, honey.” Her glower landed on a picture of Declan gracing the wall next to us. “I have a general idea who might be responsible.”

My hands balled together around the necklace. “Bald Declan said he’d manufactured this timeline—my timeline—with his younger self, giving him all his wisdom and stuff. How could he do that?”

“With my help, that’s how.” Anna’s shoulders fell. “You know, I tried something different than what the others had done. Instead of hiding my abilities, I embraced them, hoping to use them for good. I didn’t want to believe that by giving power to Declan it would destroy him. His mind is brilliant and he had such ideas to use my gifts in spectacular ways, like with the Advice Meetings and the DOD watches. But I was wrong, and now everyone is suffering.”

I blinked at her confession in astonishment. I knew she’d most likely been behind those advances, obviously, but to know they weren’t helping society surprised me. “So, they don’t have those in your timeline?”

She chuckled. “No. I don’t think anyone would allow such controls. They hate Declan, so… I let my guard down and he found me and blackmailed me… Like he always does.”

I zoned out and tried to wrap my mind around this. It was too much to think about. I’d craved this meeting for so long, to find out the answers, to know the truth, and now my brain hurt.

“So now what?”

“You need to get my journal and then return Sawyer and Kaden to their rightful timelines. And I’ll do the rest.”

“But what about a cure?”

“I know someone who can fix this.” She smiled, but it didn’t reach her eyes.

Hope filled me. Kaden would be saved as well as anyone else I’d infected. “Good, cause I think I might have infected Kaden.”

Her brows pinched and I looked away. “I infected Declan somehow and I kissed Kaden. What if I infected Sawyer, too?”

“If they stay alive, they’ll be okay until I find the cure.” She grit her teeth. “Just get the journal and then get Kaden and get our little boy to the homestead. He doesn’t need to be part of this fight, not yet. And don’t jump a whole bunch. It just… it messes things between our worlds every time. Just promise me you’ll jump in emergencies only.”

“Okay.” I nodded. The commotion in the hall drew my attention. “Can’t you just come with me?”

Her lips curled in a soft smile. “I wish I could, believe me. I’ll meet you at the homestead.”

More tears fell down my cheeks. “I’m afraid.”

“I know you are.” Her eyes flickered to the door as the knob rattled. Declan yelled something outside and Anna’s expression darkened. “Don’t ever bargain with that man. He’ll betray you every time. Now go.”

My chest heaved. “I don’t think I have the strength to jump right now.”

She pinched her lips together. “Just relax and let go.”

I pushed the tears from my eyes. I didn’t want to leave. I wanted to be with her forever. In her presence I felt the strongest. “What if I fail?”

She smiled as something crashed into the door. “You can’t, and you won’t. Now go!”

She reached forward and squeezed my hand. Goosebumps flooded over my skin as her body stretched and sparkles burst in the air.

“Wait! Why is your name Anna?”

She smiled for a moment before speaking. “I switched you at birth.” Then she was gone.

I turned one last time to see the door fly open, but I never saw who was on the other side. Darkness enveloped me and I braced myself for what waited on the other side.

… to be continued in Switch, Book 2 of Lost in Time.

Date: 2015-02-03; view: 731