“We have the same time keeping in Theïkós as you do here, so when we were pulled to the other side, pulled through the Rift, we realized pretty quickly that time worked differently here, and as for those that were the last to make it through, they confirmed as much,” Bronte said. “A watch of sorts.”
An object so simple, an object taken for granted by so many, now bridging worlds.
“So that means if we wait a day to assess the situation and create a plan, Atlas will only have travelled for another hour in his time?” my uncle confirmed, and Aster nodded in answer to his question.
“Added to that, the time since he entered the Rift, too. We can’t forget that it was days ago,” I said with exasperation.
My mind felt like it was spinning as I tried to process the information. It was good news for the most part, because it meant that time wasn’t entirely lost. Yet even as I registered the logic, emotionally I couldn’t trust it as my stomach still knotted with panic. I knew that once we made it through to the other side, he would still be ahead of us, the longer we waited here. That we would be travelling in the same time zone, and whatever advantage we had here would be meaningless once we crossed over.
The quiet in the room pressed down on me, no doubt giving them false hope that I was comforted by this fact. Which, yes, in many ways I was, because it at least gave me hope that I had a chance to stop this. That I could reach him before he made the biggest mistake of his life.
But if they thought for a minute that this new information meant changing my mind altogether, then they were sorely mistaken, and no one in this room really knew me.
Now, had Riley been in this room, he would have known.
The thought sobered me because we were clearly no longer friends. No, now we were fighting this war on opposite sides.
“Regardless, I can’t just sit here and wait as time ticks by, no matter how slowly it passes in your world,” I said, my hands clenching into fists by my sides as I added, “Atlas might have found a way to get there faster somehow,” I said, shaking my head as the panic rose again. “We just need to go. We need to stop it before…” My voice broke, the sentence too awful to finish. The image of Atlas standing over his brother, sword in hand, was enough to bring bile to my mouth.
“Alex, think here…”Aster said, clearing the disturbing image from my mind. “We can’t just ignore the possibility of an ambush. We don’t know what’s waiting on the other side.Whatever you saw in that vision, it might have been planted there. It could be a trap to get you to run straight to them.”
I closed my eyes and shook my head in defiance, even when he continued to say, “Atlas trusted me with your life. And I’m not about to let you throw it away because of a vision you barely understand. No, I will go when we have a plan.”
“I can’t sit here and do nothing!” I snapped, hitting my chest with my fist, the pain centering me in my growing anger.
“Alex, please,” Aster and Uncle Rick said in unison, both their voices carrying the same plea, but it was Aster who continued.
“We have to plan. We have to protect you. I won’t let you do this blindly.”
“I don’t need protection, Aster. What I need are answers,” I shot back. My voice trembled with fear, anger and exhaustion. But through it all, one thing suddenly became clear. The enemy I had within my grasp. The one who would have the very answers I needed to diminish Aster’s fears, once and for all.
Which is why I looked back up at him and said with dark certainty, “I know just where to get them.”I then made for the door, my hand reaching out for the handle when Tiff made me pause.
“Alex?” The question came in the form of a name, just as the answer did, because I told her what they all dreaded to hear in the madness of my desperation…
“I will get them from Riley.”
Istepped into the hallway before anyone could stop me, the air outside the room cooler, thinner somehow. But in truth, my skin still carried that lingering warmth where healing oil had been pressed into my broken skin. It was a pity it couldn’t heal the broken pieces within me, too. The ones that lay beyond being just skin deep.
The ones named betrayal.
Behind me, I heard voices rise, muffled at first, then clearer as the door opened again.
“I’ll handle this,” Uncle Rick said, his tone low and firm, the kind of voice that did not invite argument. After that, his footsteps followed mine, steady and determined. As if he had already decided he would rather face my anger than let me do this alone.
But I kept walking regardless.
“If you think you’re going to change my mind in this,” I called back, not slowing, not turning, my hand already braced against the wall when the tug in my back threatened to steal my breath. “Don’t bother. Now, if you want to help me, you will tell me where they’re holding him.”
“Alexandra,” he said, my name shaped like a reprimand, sharp with warning and love and fear all at once.
I ignored it, swallowing down the ache, refusing to let pain negotiate on anyone’s behalf. So, I kept going, forcing my legs tocooperate as I added, quieter but colder, “Or I guess I could just check where they held him the first time. I could go straight to the Prison and start there.”
Yet despite the bite of my words, I knew that the bitterness in my voice wasn’t meant for my uncle.
No, it was meant for the one who had let me down the most.
Riley.
