I stared down from the Mount of Olives at the crumbling city below.
Jerusalem. I knew every street by heart, searching it as I had. I repeated my reason for being here silently, reminding my feet why they really should keep walking. My feet, however, had unanimously voted against me. I was outnumbered—two of them, one of me—so I stayed put.
Frustrated, I ran my hands through my untidy dark hair, which immediately fell back into my face. Claire said I looked homeless but conceded that my unkempt appearance was helpful in the Middle East. It drew attention away from my ice-blue eyes, a color that garnered too much attention here.
My head ached from staring at the dizzying maze of streets for her—the girl. I wished I knew her name. She had become something of an unintentional obsession of mine. I hadn’t seen her today in my wanderings, which put me on edge. And that was really stupid, since I had never even spoken to her.
Mortar shells cracked and thudded far in the distance, sending up dust along the farthest horizon. Surrounded by so much volatility, it made me even more nervous for the girl I hadn’t seen today.
Above the far-off din, my stomach growled angrily. It missed pizza. This sudden longing for a slice of heaven on earth (I understood this colloquialism as soon as I had tried my first bite) conjured up a litany of memories from the last two years.
As beautiful as it had been, my sojourn in Italy, where the Masters assigned Claire and me, had been …well, not a waste of time. Can spending two whole years living la dolce vita really be a waste of one’s time? But we hadn’t fulfilled our assignment, unable to find the evidence we were sent to obtain.
Our time on Earth was rapidly coming to an end. I was getting desperate to find something, anything, to bring back to the Masters. So, just a few short weeks ago, in the middle of the night, I’d decided on a drastic change of course. The next morning, I packed my bags and announced to Claire that I was going to Jerusalem, with or without her. I couldn’t leave Earth without stepping foot in the Holy Land, the place at the heart of Earth’s savior story. Of course she followed; she was just as curious as I was.
Truthfully, the more arrogant part of me believed that if I could get to Jerusalem, I would find what all the others before me hadn’t. But here I was, overinflated ego and all, still no closer to the answer than researchers before me had been.
Another loud thud boomed in the distance, reminding me that I should probably try to find Claire before it got too dark. I hated her wandering alone through these hazardous areas, her exotic face usually a one-way ticket into trouble. But she did have a knack for slipping right back out of whatever mess she got into.
As though she had been summoned by my silent thoughts, she slapped me on the back, breaking my silent meditation, making me jump just a little.
“Such a good day,” she said smugly, satisfied both with how she had spent her hours and that she had startled someone so much bigger than she. After greeting her with a disapproving glance, I slipped back into staring at the city.
“I saw her an hour ago at the Kotel. She’s fine,” Claire said with a toss of her plum-purple hair.
“I don’t know what you are talking about,” I murmured. Was I really that transparent? I thought I was hiding my fixation well. My body relaxed out of its tense stance at the news, which Claire undoubtedly noticed.
“Any luck today?” I asked. Claire smirked, seeing through my attempt to change the subject.
“Absolutely. They are simply fascinating, aren’t they? So many answers to the questions I’ve always had!”
“Funny, they don’t seem to see it that way.”
She nodded her head in agreement, looking across the storied city with me.
“They just don’t know what they have is all. Can’t see the forest for the trees?” she questioned, unsure whether that particular phrase fit this particular situation.
I grinned as she tried on the expression like a pair of new shoes. “That phrase works. Add it to your repertoire.”
She smiled, her eyes squinting in the last of the sun’s dying light. Humans usually placed her clear, pale skin and almond-shaped violet eyes as Asian. Her looks were too enigmatic to be easily categorized, which was because, of course, she wasn’t Asian at all. She sighed loudly.
“I wonder what Mateo and Chase are doing today.”
I didn’t answer, lost momentarily in my relief that the girl, as of an hour ago, was safe.
“Ryen!” she yelled, grabbing hold of my arm.
“What?”
“Chase and Mateo! Have you heard from them?”
“This morning, actually. They are leaving Tonga to finish their time in Central America. They stumbled onto some information they want to pursue before we go home.”
“Then what are we doing here? Let’s go! I can have us out of here tomorrow, first thing!”
“What’s the rush?” I asked.
“No rush. Just trying to be helpful,” she said, looking decidedly away from me.
Maybe it was time to leave. I had already been thinking about joining the boys for our last few weeks, anyway.
There was nothing here for me. No reason to stay.
I really tried to believe that.
“So, is your stomach up for one last adventure?” I asked. Her eyebrows furrowed, remembering how her digestive tract was never as willing to accept new surroundings as the rest of her was. “Come on, let’s go meet the boys in Mexico. Sounds like a good time,” I said, trying to stir some excitement in myself. “It will be less crowded, less dusty.”
“Will there be better food?”
I grinned at her pained expression. “I guess we could try to be optimistic. Though last night I was reading online about something called Montezuma’s revenge.”
She stopped my teasing by throwing her arms around my neck. And, though I was still trying, I couldn’t drum up the same level of enthusiasm at the thought of leaving this place.
All who had come before me had failed. Aurik had made it very clear that ours would be the last of the research missions. If we didn’t succeed, I had an uneasy feeling that our quiet observation of Earth may be at an end. I cringed at the thought of life changing at home or here because I couldn’t find what the Masters were seeking.
I mentally said a painful goodbye to the now-darkened streets of the old city. I wouldn’t miss them as much as I would miss—I stopped the futile thought cold.
I didn’t even know her name.