The Eighth Guardian (37 page)

I’m about ten seconds away from losing it. “I—” My voice cracks. “I don’t know you.” I whip around and fly down the stairs toward Yellow, and there is the absence of everything. No sound. The scene before me goes fuzzy. I can’t even remember why I’m here.

Then a door slams, and I’m brought back.

“Julian!” my dad calls in a loud, happy voice.

“Hey, Mitch, who was that?” another male voice says from behind me.

“I don’t know,” my dad says. “Some girl named Iris.”

Yellow’s eyes get big, and I look over my shoulder. She gasps. I gasp. Because my dad is standing there talking to a teenage Alpha. An Alpha who apparently went to Peel. And an Alpha whose memories now include a weird teenage girl named Iris showing up at school one day with something important to say to my dad.

“Iris!” Yellow yells, and my head snaps to her.

I race toward her. “Project!” I yell. “Now! This is going to be an ambush!”

We don’t even get the chance to pull out the watches.

POP!

POP!

POP!

“No!” Yellow screams. We bump into each other as we run. Run away from Orange and Green and Violet.

POP!

POP!

POP!

Three more forms appear in front of us. Blue. Indigo. And who’s that? A male form is crouched on the ground, his hands over his ears and his head ducked. It’s someone new? They added a new member? And then I stop running.

I know who it is. My heart leaps up into the clouds and dances on air because I didn’t destroy his future. He’s here. Alive. But then it falls crashing back to earth because now I know they’ve got him.

Before I can make a move, we’re surrounded.

Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click!

Six gun barrels being locked. Not tasers. Not paintball guns. Real guns.

“Oh, what, you’re going to shoot us?” Yellow screams as she throws her hands in the air. “You’re all being lied to! Every one of you!”

I’m looking at Orange, but I pivot around on my heel to find Abe. His eyes are waiting for mine; and the moment they meet, he lowers his weapon, and my heart soars.

“Abe!” My feet leap forward, and before I know it, I’m running to him.

Abe raises the gun again. “Iris, stop!”

I skid to a halt. He called me
Iris.
And his eyes are distant. As if they see
through
me, not at me. Alpha’s got him. I blow out a breath, blow out my shock. Somehow Alpha got to Abe. Did he threaten him? With what?

“Abe, talk to me! Say something!”

He doesn’t look at me. He’s still looking through me.

“Abraham!” I yell. “I know you. I know about Ariel.”

I start toward him again, but he raises the gun higher with his right hand, so I stop.

“I didn’t,” he says in barely more than a whisper. There’s hurt and bitterness emanating from those two simple, hushed words, and my heart aches. I want to hold him, kiss him, tell him that we’ll figure it out together. But then Abe’s face changes. It contorts into anger. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Because I didn’t know either!” I yell. “Abe, why are you here?” I hold up my hands and take short, easy steps toward him.

“Iris, what are you doing?” Yellow shouts. “You’re going to blow this.”

I turn around. Yellow’s panting and sweating and staring at me with big, scared eyes. She runs toward me, and then a million little things happen at once, and I don’t know how to process it all. Yellow opens her watch face as she runs. She turns the dials. Orange leaps at her. Everyone else runs. Green grabs my arm and yanks it back. But then.

But then.

A deafening blast fills the air. A gunshot. Just one.

And a scream.

“Yellow!” I shout. Green lets go of my arm and gasps. There’s chaos. Everywhere. I can disappear now. I can close the watch face lid and disappear.

Except Yellow is lying on the ground, bleeding from her abdomen, and my boyfriend is standing there watching it all.

I’m not going anywhere.

Indigo pushes past me. “Oh my God!” He drops to her side. “Elizabeth! Oh my God! No! Who did this?”

For a second we all forget that we’re no longer allies. We glance around. And all our eyes lock on Blue—on Tyler Fertig—who still has the gun raised and both hands gripping the handle.

But then he drops his hands. Only for a second. He lifts his right again and brings the gun to his temple.

“No!” I shout. I don’t think. I leap at him and pull the gun down and away before he can do it. But he squeezes the trigger as we fall, and another shot rings out over the trees.

Blue and I thud to the ground. He looks at me, and I look at him, and then his head ducks into his chin and rises and falls as he lets it out. All of it. His failed hopes of escaping his fate. His mother. I reach and touch his shoulder, but he bats my hand away and sinks lower into the ground as if he’s willing it to open up and swallow him whole.

“Elizabeth!” Indigo screams again. “We need to help her.”

No one moves. “The mission was to kill or capture,” Orange says. His voice is empty, methodical. What the hell did Alpha do to everyone?

“She’s my sister,” Indigo yells. “
Our
teammate. She needs help!”

Two shots have gone off on Peel’s campus now, and the doors to the dining hall swing open. Teachers run out first, but students are right behind. I don’t try to look for my dad.

Chaos erupts again. I jump up and back as Violet scrambles toward Blue and everyone else rushes to Yellow. Abe doesn’t move. His eyes lock on mine.

“Back to the present!” Orange yells. “Everyone!”

But I’ve already set my watch. And I have no intention of going back to the present. I know what I have to do. I doubt anyone is manning the trackers back at Annum Hall right now. I take a running start and slam my watch face shut. But as I do, I jump at Abe and grab his wrist.

And then the two of us are torn through space and time, and I’m taking the pain for both of us. High-pitched shrieking invades my ears and burns my head. I scream as I’m shot up. All of my weight pushes to my heart. The pressure. I can’t take the—

I land on the ground in a heap. I’m shaking and crying, and I think I might be dead.

“What the hell?” Abe yells. “How did I get here?”

I open my eyes and make myself breathe.

“You brought me here?” There’s astonished awe in his voice as he whips around, looking everywhere. “How did you do that?”

I push up and suck in my breath. This isn’t the present. This is the date I set on my watch. There’s a rickety wooden tower in the corner of campus, overlooking a plywood maze that was slapped together just last night. I can’t see it, but I know there’s a dropping device set up over the pool. And inside the government building there’s a fake detention room with a faulty sprinkler system.

“This is Testing Day,” Abe says. “You brought me to our Testing Day.”

“I know.” I stare at the gun still in his hand.

“My watch is set to present day.”

“Abe, I brought you with me for a reason.”

“My name isn’t Abe anymore,
Iris
.” He emphasizes the last word, making his point.

“My name is Amanda,” I spit. “Look around. My name is Amanda. Your name is Abe. Right now, you and I are lying with our arms wrapped around each other in a corner of the dining hall. I’m telling you that I have an awful, sinking feeling about tonight. You’re telling me not to sweat it. But I’m freaking out because deep down I know that this might be the last time I lie in your arms for a while. Maybe even forever. Because I know.
I know
. I’m being drafted tonight.”

Abe doesn’t say anything. He looks straight ahead, and in this moment he’s a stranger to me.

“Abe, talk to me. Tell me why you’re here.”

He keeps his head trained on the maze, but his mouth opens.

“To get you back.”

“Why? Why you? Why are
you
here, Abe? Why aren’t you—” I wave my hand in the direction of the dorms—“
there
? Sleeping. Right now in the present.”

“They took me.” He wrings his hands in front of his body. “They showed up at Peel and took me. They told me you were committing treason and were hatching a plan to bring down the entire government. They knocked me out, then told me a bunch of crap about how my grandfather—Ariel—could time travel, which meant my dad could do it, which means I can do it, too, and then they threw me back here and told me to go get you.”

I shake my head.
No.
There’s more. There has to be more. “Have you talked to Ariel?”

“I haven’t seen anyone! I haven’t talked to anyone! I just have to bring you back. I have to bring you back, Iris. I have to.”

I think Abe might cry. His voice is shaking, and his hands are trembling. What did they do to him?

“My name is Amanda,” I tell him. “Stop calling me Iris.”

“Please, it makes it easier.” He squeezes his eyes shut for one brief second, but it’s enough to tell me that he’s completely lost focus.

“I don’t know what they told you, but they’re lying to you, Abey Baby,” I whisper.

Abe lets out a little choke and raises the gun. His face is twisted. Pained. “Please don’t call me that. I have to take you back. Iris.”

They’ve gotten to him. I know they have now. Alpha must have something in his back pocket, but what?

“Please talk to me,” I say. Behind us, a gong sounds. Someone has just finished the maze. “What did they do to make you hold a gun in my face? The Abe I knew would never do that. The Abe I knew would throw
himself
in front of a gun barrel if he knew I was in danger.”

“I’ve changed.” His voice wavers, just a bit, but enough.

“Bullshit! What did they tell you, Abe? What did they do to you?”

“They took her, okay?” he yells. The gun falls to his side. “They took her, and she’s sick, and she needs to be at home, and they won’t give her back until you’re caught.”

I shake my head. “Took who?” I have no idea what Abe’s talking about. The only female in his family is his mother, and she’s fine. Perfect health. Unless something changed while I was gone. “Are you talking about your mom?”

“Not my mother, my grandmother!”

I shake my head again. “What? Your mom’s mom? But you barely know her. She lives in Israel. How would Alpha have gotten—”

“No!” Abe shouts. “Mona! They took Mona!”

I feel as if I’ve been punched in the gut again. Mona’s dead. She died from lung cancer several years ago, before Abe and I met. But—I suck in my breath—

And then I blink.

I blink again.

I grabbed a cigarette out of Mona’s hand in 1962. Me. I did it. I threw it on the ground. I told her Ariel would never go for her if she smoked. Did she stop after that day? Because of me?

“Abe, does Mona smoke?” I ask.

“What?” His body shakes. “Why are you asking me this? Of course she doesn’t. You know she doesn’t.”

“Did she ever?”

“No! I don’t know! As long as I’ve been alive, I’ve never once seen her with a cigarette.”

I changed the past. I went back and saved Mona’s life. The weight of this realization sinks in, and I feel dizzy.

“She’s sick now?” I ask.

Abe gets a disgusted look on his face. “Really? What, you conveniently forgot that she was diagnosed with Stage IV lymphoma a week before Testing Day? A week before this?” He waves his hand at the maze.

I crane my neck toward the buildings on the other side of campus. Somewhere over there, there’s another version of me. A version of me who knows Mona. Who was heartbroken by the diagnosis. Who’s loving and comforting Abe as best she can.

And somewhere, Alpha is walking around this campus, pretending to evaluate all the students while really just foaming at the mouth because he’s so close to taking me. To using me.

“Abe, we have to talk,” I say. “They’re lying to you.” I look around for Alpha. I don’t see him.

“How do you know?”

“Because they lied to me, too!”

“Why would they lie about my grandmother? That doesn’t make any sense!”

“Because they’re using you! Will you shut up and listen to me? Tell me, who told you about your grandmother?”

“Alpha.”

“Only Alpha? Did anyone else actually confirm that she was taken? Ariel? Your dad? Your mom? Anyone?”

Abe’s face betrays the answer. No. No one. He violated one of the cardinal rules of information, which is to always confirm when the source is shady. He knows better. Dammit, he knows better!

“Abe, Alpha’s corrupt, and he’s using the entire organization to make a quick fortune; and you know who his biggest investor is? Headmaster Vaughn. They’re both the reason my father is dead. I ran because I found out the truth, and the truth is that—”

But then a tree branch cracks behind us. I whip around. Oh God! Please don’t let it be Alpha!

It’s not. It’s Katia Britanova. The sophomore who lives in my dorm. The girl who escorted me to the dining hall after all my testing was completed and who overheard Alpha talking about me.

Katia’s eyes shoot up, then she looks me up and down. “Amanda! What the hell are you wearing? And what are you doing here? I just dropped you off at the dining hall like ten minutes ago.” And then her eyes zero in on the gun Abe’s holding. Abe sees her staring and tucks the gun behind his back. “Why do you have a gun?”