Timesurfers (38 page)

“Your information on me is incorrect. Maybe
not in the future, but right now, I have to be conscious
and
want to heal myself.”

Elias’s dramatically lined eyes narrowed.
“You’re lying.”

“Nope. Not lying. So unless you have a spare
conduit handy you’re screwed. And since Jonah’s the only conduit in
hundreds of years, and he’s there on the big screen, you’re
officially screwed. Tell your Timesurfers to stand down if you want
me to see another hour on this earth.” She dragged the spear
further around her throat.

“Cate, no more!” Eve lunged, but the guards’
spears pressed under her chin as they restrained her.

“This week, I’ve fought lions, created
zombies and murdered numerous innocent grommets. I discovered I’ve
been a pawn in the demented plans of my malevolent Timesurfer
mother, and that I’m going to be spectacularly evil. Believe me
when I say you must do exactly as I ask or I will end it.” Her eyes
drifted to the screen. Austin was on his hands and knees. Men were
taking turns kicking his ribs. He didn’t have much time. “You have
three seconds, Elias.” She held up a clenched fist. “One!” She
raised a finger. “Two!” She raised another finger. “Thr—”

“Enough! Your teenage theatrics are giving me
a migraine!” Elias gave a dramatic roll of his eyes. “I’ll call
them back.”

“Not good enough,” Cate hissed and slid the
spear further along her throat. “I see it, or there’s no deal.”

“Fine.” Elias pressed his fingers to his
temples. His Timesurfers vanished from Eve’s yard on the screen.
“They’re all gone, even the dead ones.”

“Prove it,” Cate barked.

Elias
signalled
, and two guards sprinted down the
corridor.

On the screen, Rose, Jonah, Mortez, and the
boys were shocked and disoriented. Mortez screamed and sank to her
knees. Her hands covered her face. “Elias has Cate and Xavier,” she
cried. Gaspar, Balthazar, and Melchior bunched around her.

A gaggle of bloodied people headed toward
Cate along the corridor, some dragging bodies. They were the
Timesurfers who had been fighting on the screen.

On screen, Rose raced to a motionless Austin
and knelt over him. Zach remained unconscious nearby.

“You better hope Austin’s not dead, buddy,”
Eve said to Elias. “That would piss my friend off, and she’s
fierce. I hope that utter jerk Zach’s taken his last breath
though.”

On screen Austin stirred. Jonah dashed to
help Rose with the big job of healing him. Austin’s fingers clawed
at Jonah’s shirt, pulling him closer to whisper in his ear.

Jonah listened intently and the now familiar
predatory smile slid across his face. He straightened and looked
directly toward Cate. “I know you’re watching, Elias. Austin has a
message for you. He’s coming for Cate and Xavier. We’re
all
coming for Cate and Xavier, but I’m
also coming for you.” Jonah lifted Austin’s battered body from the
ground as the boys helped Mortez to stand. Austin looked up and
smiled his smile that made Cate forget to breathe at times, it was
so beautiful.

A fierce determination burned in Mortez’s
eyes. “I will kill you slowly for this, Elias. You will never hurt
my family again. I should have killed that little sorceress, Eve,
when Jonah felt her magic on Cate’s birthday. I will rectify that
the next time we cross paths.”

Zach stirred on the ground.

“Kill him,” Mortez shouted to Balthazar.

Balthazar stalked over to Zach and grabbed
his head.

The screen went blank. “I think we all know
what’s coming,” Elias said. “No need to watch that.”

Cate stared at the blank screen. Zach was
dead. She readjusted her grip on the spear. “Bring my brother to
me. I want you to send Xavier, Eve and her parents back. You have
me now.”

Elias jerked his head, and two guards from
Cate’s left disappeared.

“That will require some negotiation.” Elias
smiled wide like a Cheshire cat. “It seems your family and friends
are all mightily peeved. I may need a sorceress. Mortez is never
one to ask questions before she kills, so I fear Eve would be dead
before her feet have hit the ground should she return. I’ll send
Eve’s parents back and also your brother Xavier, who has no powers
at all, by the way. Eve and you I’m keeping.”

Eve’s parents howled and begged Elias to keep
them and release Eve and Cate. She glanced at Eve, who nodded.
“Acceptable. Can you wipe their memories like Naitanui?”

Elias smiled. “I can do everything Naitanui
can do.”

“It’ll be better for them if they don’t
remember,” Cate whispered to Eve, who nodded as tears trickled down
her cheeks. “Do it.”

“No!” Eve’s parents pleaded as Elias pressed
a palm against their foreheads. They vanished from the room and
appeared on the screen standing at their front door, laughing and
happy as they let themselves into their house.

“Cate!” Xavier appeared with a guard on
either side.

“Send him back this instant.” Blood trickled
down the front of Cate’s shirt, and her brain felt woozy. She
didn’t have another second. “Mum will explain. I love you, but you
have to go right now.”

Elias touched Xavier’s forehead and he
vanished.

The room blurred, and Cate’s body swayed.
“Show me he’s with Mortez.”

Elias swiped his hand along the screen,
scrolled for a second, and stopped. Xavier stood at the painted
blue door of their house. Cate waited until the door opened and she
saw Mortez, then the entire room faded from view.

***

“Cate,” Eve’s voice called from far away.

She wanted to stay asleep.

“Now you’re faking. Wake up.”

Hands dug into her shoulders and shook her
ruthlessly. “All right! I’m awake.” Her fingers touched a stiff,
padded bandage under her throat. She opened one eye and gave Eve a
questioning look.

“To stop the blood. Now you’re conscious, do
your thing and heal it.” Eve ripped at the bandage with gusto.

“Ouch.”

“Rip it off quick, they say.”

Cate closed her eyes and thought about her
neck healing. Her fingers touched perfectly smooth skin. She
levered herself onto her elbow. The bandage had disappeared from
Eve’s hand. She had turned back another little pocket of time.

Two massive four-poster beds with intricate
lace canopies dominated the enormous room. Heavy silk curtains
draped the floor-to-ceiling windows that covered one entire wall.
Thick, oriental patterned rugs were scattered across the marble
floors. An ornate fireplace dominated the wall directly across from
the beds.

“This is ‘our’ room.” Eve used finger quotes
when she said “our.” “The doors and windows are protected by magic
wards. Touch them, and you’ll end up on your butt twenty feet away
with your ears ringing and body convulsing.”

They sat in awkward silence as the minutes
ticked by.

“I’m sorry,” Eve blurted.

Cate patted her hand. “It’s been a big few
weeks.”

Eve’s eyes glistened with tears as she
nodded. “Will your mum find us?”

“Absolutely.” Cate hugged Eve. The child in
her wanted to think it was because her mother loved her. The
realist knew better. “I’m the weapon everyone wants and Mortez has
the added incentive of being crazy furious with you. They’ll
come.”

Chapter 32

Midnight Reset

C
atherine thrashed against the damp sheet tangled
around her. She reached for the knife that should be under her
pillow. Nothing. The midnight reset was here. She landed with a
thud on a dirt floor. The reset memories ripped through her brain
with such force she dry retched. This was her new reality. She was
in a prison cell on the North Isle de Pantheon. This had been her
home for the last year.

Debris rained down as her cell door exploded.
Eve’s smiling face appeared through the smoldering opening. “Bet
you didn’t expect to see me?”

Catherine remained silent as she struggled to
wade through all the new memories her brain was attempting to
comprehend.

“That was a rhetorical question. I know
there’s a lot going on in that brain of yours at the moment.” Eve
reached in and placed a lump of grey putty on the cell door lock
and disappeared. “Fire in the hole! GET BACK!”

Catherine grabbed a blanket and dove under
the bed. A wave of dirt and noise crashed down around her. Metal
fragments scrapped against her bare skin. She was stark naked.

Eve pushed what now remained of the cell door
open and threw some clothes her way. “There’s something to cover up
your birthday suit.”

Catherine hugged the clothes to her chest as
the altered memories about Eve solidified in her brain. “So you’re
a sorceress...”

“Yes I am.”

“And
you
kidnapped
Xavier?” Catherine took two quick strides and gripped Eve by the
throat.

“Wait...there’s a lot more to that memory
than that one fact.”

Catherine’s grip faltered as she
realised
it was Jonah who had
kidnapped Xavier for Mortez. There were no words to explain the icy
betrayal engulfing her heart. Eve she had forgiven. She released
Eve and retrieved some underwear from the clothes on the dirt
floor. “I see you haven’t mastered a spell to unlock doors in the
last three years. Surely that’s one of the most basic sorceress
skills?”

Eve grabbed Catherine’s wrist. “I’ve been a
bit busy looking after your
arse
, and planning how to deliver you to the Break
like Naitanui requested after you completed the GTs for two of
those three years. For the last year I’ve been plotting your escape
from here, all by myself.”

Catherine yanked her arm away when she spied
a syringe filled with pale gold liquid in Eve’s hand. “What the
hell?”

“Chillax.” Eve tugged her arm. “This will get
rid of your residual temperature, nausea and the other side effects
from the reset. You’ll be feeling like a million dollars in less
than a minute. Look at me. I’ve used it and I’m taking this
enormous reset in my stride.”

“Hmm.” Eve did look very well for someone
just minutes into a major reset. There was nothing in Catherine’s
memories to make her think she shouldn’t trust Eve. She hesitantly
held out her arm. “Only because it’s you.”

“We’ve had three years to plan how the next
ten minutes in history will play out. Admittedly you’ve been locked
up in here for the last year of that, but don’t even think about
messing this up now!”

“Ouch! You suck at giving needles.”

“You’re a rubbish patient. The serum will
make you feel better, but also slows down you processing your
altered memories. The others took it a few hours ago. I couldn’t
get to you any earlier. WOW!” Eve screwed her face up. “You smell
disgusting. Like moldy broccoli.”

“What does that even smell like?”

“So gross. Sniff your armpit if you dare and
you’ll find out.”

Catherine didn’t need her reset memories to
know she hadn’t showered in a long while. “I got a tattoo?” She
poked at the gold star on her collarbone. There was something hard
in the middle of it. “Is that some kind of piercing?”

Eve slapped her hand. “Don’t play with that.
Get dressed. I’m uncomfortable being this close to you while you’re
completely naked. Oh and we have to ESCAPE! Hustle, hustle.”

“What is that?” A zing shot through
Catherine’s chest. Whatever was in that syringe was certainly
kicking in.

“It’s a microchip. Get dressed.”

“Who put it there and why?” Catherine
wrestled into the sports bra and tugged the T shirt over her
head.

“You know all this stuff.”

Catherine rolled her eyes. “Excuse me while I
process three years of the biggest reset ever.”

Eve examined her with narrowed eyes. “That
serum must really be blocking your memories.”

“You want me to wear these?” She held up the
leopard print leggings.

“It’s that or escape in your underwear.
Choose and choose quickly.”

“You had three years to plan this, and you
bring me leopard print leggings,” Catherine grumbled as she tugged
on the leggings.

Eve hauled at her arm. “Come on. Elias put
that microchip in there. It’s infused with an obstruction charm. It
makes it impossible for you to use any of your magic. You can’t
compel other Timesurfers or anyone else for that matter and you
can’t make zombies.” Eve peeked around the cell door and motioned
Catherine to follow.

“I really dislike that gold dress wearing
tool.” Catherine jogged along the silent corridor behind Eve. Try
as she may she couldn’t remember what had gone on with Elias. She
couldn’t even remember why she was at the prison.

Eve
signalled
Catherine to stop. “I’d be more worried
about the destroy chip embedded in the base of your neck. That one
could kill you at any moment.”

Catherine’s fingertips touched smooth, cold
metal at the top of her spine. “What the hell!”

“Don’t overreact. You’re fine while you’re
locked in here. The wards surrounding the prison prevent any magic
getting through. The wards at the Break will protect you too. I
have to get you from here to the Break as quickly as possible. If
Elias is aware you’re travelling he will active that chip and it’s
lights out for you.”

“I don’t think it’s possible to overreact to
that.” Catherine took a few deep breaths. She was panting after
jogging for less than a minute. “So I’ve really pissed Elias
off?”

“That is the understatement of the century. I
certainly don’t have the time to go into it in any detail now. I’m
going to try a cloaking spell to cover your time tube while we
travel.” Eve stole a quick look around the corner. “This way.”

“Try?”

Eve nodded.

“Have you done that successfully before?”

“Nope.”

“Fabulous. Is there just you here to get
me?”