From somewhere in the back of my mind, I feel like I should be uncomfortable with the get-up, but I'm not.
Spinning around in a circle, I watch the dress poof out around me. Then I spread my arms to the side and spin and spin and spin, watching the glittery beads shimmering in the inadequate lighting.
"Allura, are you about ...?" Blaise trails off, stopping in the doorway, his eyes practically bulging out of his head.
I stop spinning and wave at him. "Hi."
"Hi." His gaze dances all over me, scorching hot, leaving my skin tingly. "You look ..."
"Like a faerie?"
"A what?"
I hold up my finger. "A fictional character that has wings and sprinkles glitter everywhere." I giggle. "I don't even know how I know that."
His breathing grows raspy. "I don't know ..."
The skirt rustles as I move toward him. "Do you think I look pretty?"
His gaze crashes with mine, and he gulps. "I don't know ..."
I pout. "That's a no."
He shakes his head. "No, it's not."
"I wonder if the old Blaise would've thought I was pretty."
"The old Blaise?"
I shrug. "He was very brooding. Maybe more than you."
"What are you ...?" His jaw clamps down. "She poisoned you, didn't she?"
"I'm not sure." I tuck a strand of hair behind my ear. "She did bite my earlobe, and I felt really giddy. Then she kissed me, and I wanted to kiss her back until she couldn't breathe ... Does that make me weird?"
"I don't know." He looks extremely uncomfortable. "Maybe not, if you're attracted to women."
I consider what he said. "I don't think I am since I find you very sexy and handsome."
"Okay." He cuts the conversation off with a sharp clap. "It's time to go to the library."
I reach out so he can grab my hand, because I think at one point he used to hold it all the time. "To go to the library?"
"Yeah." He stares down at my hand. "What are you doing?"
I wiggle my fingers. "Waiting for you to hold my hand."
"I don't hold hands."
"Yes, you do."
"Allura ..." His tone is tolerant.
"Blaise ..." I mimic.
"Dammit, Poppy," he grumbles, then grabs my hand.
The instant our fingers touch, his stiff muscles loosen a smidgeon.
"Not so bad, right?" I ask, swinging our arms between us.
"Maybe not." He looks genuinely perplexed. "Why do I feel like I've done this before?"
I wink at him. "Maybe you have."
"No ... I don't think so ... Well ... Maybe." He stares at me. "Are you sure we only met briefly?"
I want to tell him no, that I lied, that we know each other well enough that he risked getting killed to kiss me, and I probably would've, too, if Zander didn't come barreling through the doorway in a panic.
He pants for air, hunching over. "We need to go. Now."
Blaise grasps my hand tighter. "What's wrong?"
"Fredrick's coming," he gasps out, bracing his hands on his knees. "And I think our cover is blown."
Blaise releases a sequence of curses. "Fuck. How did he find out?"
"I think Poppy told him." He stands upright, pressing his hand to his chest. "To get back at you."
"Dammit, I knew one day she'd out us." Blaise lets out a frustrated scream then kicks the wall hard. "Why did she have to do it now?"
Zander wipes sweat from his brow with his arm. "It will take Fredrick some time to gather the mob, so we might be able to make it to the library still. We just need to hurry."
Nodding, Blaise runs out of the room, pulling me along with him. Zander hurries after us, working hard to catch his breath as we weave through the tunnels. The torches flicker off as we pass by them, leaving a trail of darkness nipping at our heels. The air is quiet, still, cold, and sends goose bumps sprouting all over my arms.
"What happens if Fredrick captures you?" I struggle to breathe evenly as I race to keep up with Blaise.
The red door comes into view, and Blaise increases to a sprint, almost yanking my feet right out from under me.
"Then we're going to be the ones locked behind those doors," he says with his eyes fixed ahead.
"Forever?" I gasp as I stumble over my own feet.
Blaise tightens his hold on my hand and stops me from falling completely. Then he slams on the brakes as we reach the door.
"No, just until he kills us." Zander zips past us to open the door.
"Kill us?" I whisper as Zander drags open the door with a grunt.
The cries of the prisoners hit me all at once, lifting me further out of the daze Poppy put me in.
I don't want to be behind those doors.
I want to go back to Leviter Station where I will be safe. But I don't know how, and I don't want to leave Blaise behind. Therefore, all I can do is hold on to him tightly and hope this version of him will get us out of here safely.
If this is the past, then I'm guessing we will. Unless somehow the past can be altered.
Instead of going back toward the bar, Blaise and Zander lead me down a secret tunnel hidden behind one of the rusty doors. The ceiling is so low that the three of us have to duck our heads, and without torches to light the way, we constantly bump into each other.
"I feel like I've done this before," I whisper as water sprinkles from the ceiling and soaks the top of my head.
"Maybe you've been here before," Blaise suggests as he continues moving down the tunnel while still gripping my hand.
"Maybe ..." Images blaze vividly inside my mind of tunnels, bookshelves, a map, half-machines chasing me, and a guy in a hoodie watching it all happen ...
"Dammit, I thought you weren't going to figure it out this time."
A hand slaps across my mouth, and my fingers slip from Blaise's as I'm dragged back into the darkness.
Chapter 14
Did You Think I'd Make This Easy for You?
"Easy." Lips nibble my ear. "I'm not going to kill you just yet."
My body shudders at the eerily familiar tone.
The time traveler.
I open my mouth to let out a scream, but he smashes his hand against my mouth.
I writhe my body and kick my legs, but his arm secured around my waist never wavers.
"Scream all you want," he whispers, dragging me farther and farther away from Blaise and Zander. "They've already forgotten you."
Letting my body go limp, I attempt to get him to drop me, but he continues moving, hauling me backward down the tunnel until we emerge inside the cell at the end. Soft moonlight filters through the barred window and into the room, casting shadows all over the walls. At least, I think they're shadows until the shadows begin to move, dancing around on the bronze
d walls.
"Scary, aren't they?" The time traveler releases me and shoves me forward with enough force that I crash into the wall.
My cheek and forehead smack against the metal and stars spot my vision ... Or maybe they're just in the sky outside ... The sky ...
Peering through the bars, I spot a full moon and thousands of countless twinkling stars in the black sky.
"This sky ... It doesn't belong to the red sky world ..." The bars singe to dust in front of me and float down the rocky ledge I'm standing on. "What's happening?"
"What's happening is that I'm reminding you of what I can do." The time traveler steps up beside me, pulling his hoodie higher over his head to shield his face. "Don't forget, Allura, you may erase everything, but I control everything--create--which is so much more."
I turn sideways to face him, the breeze rising from the cliffs gusting my hair into my face. "Who are you?"
He stares ahead at the cliffs and stars stretching before us. "I already told you, I'm a time traveler."
"No, I know you." I curl my fingers inward and slowly start to reach for him to draw down his hood. "And well. That's why you purposefully keep your face hidden."
"Perhaps you're right, but it doesn't really matter, because you'll never know." He snaps his head in my direction, and his hand follows, seizing my arm. "Did you really think I'd make this easy for you?"
I wrench my arm back, but his fingernails pierce into my flesh. "Make what easy on me?"
"Bringing Blaise back." He faces me full-on and tugs on my arm until I stumble into him. "He's going to stay where I put him and live the worst moments of his life over and over again until he goes mad."
"No." I flatten my palms against his chest and push back. "I'm going to save him."
"Save him?" He leans forward, laughing in my face. "And how are you going to do that when you can't even save yourself?"
"I'll find a way. I always do." The words leave my lips under no control of my own, and a long forgotten memory surfaces. "I've said that before."
"Yes, you have." The time traveler blows out a frustrated exhale. "I guess it's time to reset."
"Reset--"
He seizes both my wrists before I can finish. With one swift tug, he whips me around and lines my back to his chest. Then he slips his arm around my waist and rests his other hand at the base of my throat as he turns us toward the edge of the cliff.
"Do you remember this part?" he whispers in my ear with a hint of remorse.
"You kill me." My hollow voice doesn't even sound like it belongs to me.