“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!”