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Rayen clutched a handhold above the passenger seat in Takoda’s truck as it raced over the road.
He slowed only when they approached a turn that she recognized from the first time she’d been delivered to the Byzantine Institute.
She’d ridden in silence, afraid to ask what Takoda believed, but she couldn’t risk that he’d change his mind and come back for her or tell the people at the school what she’d said. “Do you believe what I told the shaman?”
“I believe in our people and the elders who guide us.”
No answer there. She pressed her point. “So do you believe that I’m from the future?”
Seconds passed on slow feet as Takoda weighed his answer. “I have witnessed some unusual things in my life, but I have never met someone who time traveled.” His dark gaze swept over to her. “That does not give it less credibility.”
All the way back to the school, her body had vibrated with worry over Callan, fear that the Browns, who ran the Institute, had sent Tony away or found Gabby, who should still be hiding.
Gabby’s powers had begun evolving when she’d entered the Sphere, but she was having a tough time gaining control of them. The last time Rayen saw her, she was having issues such as uncontrollable levitation.
Rayen didn’t know which one to worry about more—Tony or Gabby. Tony had been locked up yesterday for a crime he hadn’t committed after another seventeen-year-old lied. Gabby was hiding from hospital staff in the Institute who wanted to sterilize her.
Gabby was only sixteen.
On top of all Rayen’s concerns, she wondered if Takoda would hand her back to the Browns and declare her mentally unfit, or if he really accepted what the shaman had said.
In the distance, the school shimmered beneath security lights, growing brighter as they approached.
Takoda pulled to the side of the road before reaching the gates. He parked and turned to her. “When you don’t know what to believe, believe in yourself and be true to your heart. You can never go wrong if you do both.”
“Are you leaving me here?”
“Yes. The Browns sent me a message last night informing me they were reporting you as part of the theft ring that your friend Tony is leading.”
“What? Tony didn’t steal anything. Nicholas, the Browns’ boy, lied about Tony.”
Takoda nodded with understanding. “If I enter with you, they will be alerted that you are returning.”
What he was trying to say dawned on her. “I have to find my own way in.”
“That would be safest for you. My shaman said that you would either find the passage back to the place where you will fulfill your destiny or that you would return to us.”
She was not returning to Takoda’s people. Because that would mean she had failed to reach Callan in time to free him. She put her hand on the door handle.
Takoda touched her arm, stopping her. “You will always be welcome among your people, no matter the year. If you come back to us, I promise that we will protect you.”
The words were heartfelt and sincere. She reached over and squeezed his arm. “Thank you. But you cannot protect me from what I must do. What time is it?”
“Two-twenty.”
Smiling her thanks again, she slipped out of his vehicle and headed for the school, searching past the lights for any sign of someone on patrol.
One glance over her shoulder confirmed that Takoda was gone. His taillights were quickly turning into tiny red spots.
When she reached the school, she found it strangely amusing that she had fought so hard to escape this place the first day, and here she was planning to break in.
No one guarded the gate, but a current ran through the metal bars. She could feel the energy of it as she drew near. It felt like the same kind of power that had struck her body that first day here when she’d tried to leave with an ankle cuff strapped on. The electric charge had been even stronger than the stun gun.
Her cuff was gone—Takoda had made the school remove it—but she was fairly certain the current in the gates would burn her.
The gates were attached to a high wall the same adobe color as the pueblos. It had intermittent square columns of layered sandstone. Going over the top was the only way in that she could figure, but there were only shallow handholds and the columns soared twenty-feet high.
Her palms started sweating.
She hadn’t known she feared heights until she’d ended up in the top of a tree after a battle in the Sphere. Callan had been there to help her down. No one could help her now.
She had to get inside, and every second counted.
Heart pounding at a crazy beat, she studied each column and chose a spot that would land her in the shadow of the two-story school. That area would put her near the access to the dorm side of the building.
If she could make it all the way up there, then back down again.
What was worse? Facing her fear of heights or showing up too late to prevent Callan’s death? Pretty equal when it came to her level of terror, but saving Callan won hands down.
She could do this. Had to.
Drawing a couple of deep breaths, she reached above her head and sank her fingers into a recess in the column’s structure. She started climbing, proud of herself when she’d reached six feet off the ground in the face of her trembling.
All was going well until Gabby’s voice shouted in her mind. Rayen, where are you?
Shocked, she let go and fell, landing on her back with a grunt of pain.
She’d heard Gabby telepathically once before here at the school, but she had yet to figure out how to answer her.
Standing up, Rayen calmed her startled heart, rubbed her behind that had taken the brunt of the fall and faced climbing one more time. Now she had even more reason to be afraid.
What if she let go at the top and fell?
What if Callan faces the wraiths alone and with no way to use his power? Quit whining and just do it.
She lunged to grip the stone structure again. From handhold to handhold, she made it to the top where the column had a flat surface two feet square. The small surface would be tough enough, but it was slanted toward the outside of the wall. Struggling to balance, she was in a half crouch, trying to catch her breath when Gabby called out again.
We’re running out of time, Rayen!
She jerked at the sharp sound of Gabby’s voice in her head and lost her grip, sliding sideways and grabbing at anything to stop her fall. She ended up draped half on and half off the top of the column.
We need to go, Rayen, Gabby’s voice boomed in her head once more.
“I know it. Shut up,” she snarled quietly, trying to keep her mind on not looking down or letting go. Gabby couldn’t hear her words, but it made her feel better to answer.
A bird flew past her. It stank like the sentient beast.
Hugging the column, she twisted to look around, trying to determine where the bird was or which way it was flying. Wings fluttering, it dropped to the ledge of a window on the second floor. The window slid up just high enough for the bird to enter.
That was one of the forms the sentient beast had taken since she’d arrived here two days ago. It had also turned into a three-legged creature with the size and speed of a buffalo as well as a whippet-shaped animal, among others.
Why had it not attacked her this time?
Now that she thought about it, the beast hadn’t attacked her since she’d seen it with Phen yesterday when she, Gabby, and Tony returned from the Sphere. Phen must have trained the beast to perform on his command, but Phen was a TecKnati from the future and liked Rayen no more than that creature did.
Especially after she’d refused to help Phen find a way to return home. SEOH had sent him here from the future, but those TecKnati knew how to time travel in only one direction—the past. That was why they wanted the computer that she, Tony, and Gabby had used to travel forward in time to the Sphere.
She couldn’t stay in this spot much longer. The muscles in her arms were screaming in protest.
Now would be a great time to have Callan’s kinetic ability to slow her descent. But she’d also need his lack of fear about jumping to the ground. She wasn’t entirely sure what her powers were capable of, but since they weren’t reliable, she was stuck with figuring out how to get down the normal way and without breaking both her legs.
Forcing herself to release the death grip she had on the edge of the column, she kept her gaze on her hands. Anything to stave off the panic that kept painting pictures of her on the ground with a snapped neck. She moved her feet until she caught a toehold and carefully slid her fingers down to find a handhold, then to the next. One foot and one hand at a time. Even if the fall didn’t kill her, even a damaged ankle would destroy her chance of finding Gabby or Tony without being caught. Don’t look down or think about how far it is, she kept telling herself. She continued moving lower and lower tediously until she was close enough to drop to the ground.
She landed on trembling legs.
Give her a croggle monster to fight anytime rather than face another climb like that one. Wiping her damp palms on her pants, she gave herself a minute to allow her breathing to calm down while she listened for the sound of guards running toward her. She heard nothing. Even the wind moved too gently to make a sound.
She rushed to an exterior door that led to the boys’ dorm, the quickest way to get inside. The door had two sets of locks.
More locks, really?
Where was Tony with his lock-pick skills when she needed them? He was the one who’d taught her how to unlock a door. Combining her powers and his knowledge had made it work.
The door she faced swung open slowly.
She shifted her feet into a fighting stance.
Phen appeared, same wide forehead, dull eyes, and twenty-something attitude. He held the door open. His cruel gaze swept over her with contempt. The black bird was perched on his shoulder. “What do you want, Rayen?”
“I need to get back inside the building.”
“We all need something.”
If Phen raised an alarm right now it would destroy any hope of finding Gabby and Tony. “I told you I’d think about helping you find a way home.”
His eyes lit with interest, but he refused to admit how much he wanted that. “I don’t trust you.”
“I don’t trust you either,” she countered. “But we need each other. Let me in and I’ll try to help you.”
“Try? That’s not good enough.” He gave a casual look over his shoulder then glanced back at her with a sly smile. “Wonder what the Browns would say if they knew you were on Byzantine property.”
She didn’t like making an offer for something that she had no certainty she could deliver, but every second they burned here would cost Callan on the other end. “Fine. Let me in and I’ll share our time travel secret with you, but you have to help me get to my friends for that to happen.”
For the span of two seconds, hope and longing bloomed in Phen’s face. He pulled the momentary weakness back under control and stepped aside for her to enter. “We have a deal.”
She rushed past him and tried not to worry about how she could possibly make good on her offer when the portal only worked between here and the Sphere. She reached the end of the short hallway from the outside access and pushed through the door, then took a fast right.
Phen was close behind and hissed, “Hey. Where’re you going?”
She paused to tell him, “To the girls’ dorm.”
“Is that where the computer is?”
The laptop with the portal should be in the backpack that Tony had left with Gabby but telling Phen would cause him to follow her when she needed to lose him. Instead of outright lying, she said, “The laptop is in Tony’s backpack.”
“You’re screwed. He’s still in detention.”
That was encouraging news, but she didn’t want to admit it to Phen. She nodded and gave him a concerned look. “I have to go find Gabby and see if she knows what’s been happening while I was gone. I’ll talk to you later.”
She turned and raced away before he could stop her.
He wasn’t supposed to enter the girls’ dorm, but who knew what Phen would or would not do?
Phen watched the miserable MystiK-loving twit run into the girls’ dorm. He’d gotten caught there once last night while trying to track down Gabby. It wouldn’t have been a problem if the Browns had been here, but they weren’t on site right now. When the Byzantine security found him in the wrong place, Phen had barely gotten away by acting totally confused over what area he was in.
They’d cut him a break since he was so new.
He lifted the bird off his shoulder and stroked its head. At one of his jobs back home in the future, he’d been responsible for tending sentient beasts at a zootech. They’d turned out to be simple to manage if you understood the hard coding in their systems. He gave this one an order and the bird rolled into a black-feathered ball in his hand. Bones poked out at odd angles and the feathers morphed into the smooth skin of a chameleon.
Phen squatted down and placed the sentient critter on the floor then ordered it, “Follow Rayen until she’s with Tony and Gabby, then return to me.”
He’d programmed images of Rayen, Tony, and Gabby into the beast’s memory.
The chameleon took off, flattened itself to crawl beneath the door, and scurry down the girls’ dorm hallway.
