I scoffed. “You’ve seen me in the ring. You sure you want to find out how dirty I play? Go pick on someone else.”
Esther planted herself between Mad Dog and me, and like an obedient little puppy, he backed down. “I believe words fare better than fists,” she said smoothly. “Let’s talk this out.”
“Forget about it,” Kallie said. “Thaddeus said no. He has nothing else to say to you.”
Kallie nudged me, and I knew we were running out of time. Our past selves would turn this corner any moment, then Esther and her cronies would know we could time travel. That was the last thing we wanted them to find out.
“Sorry, not interested,” I told Esther, before we grabbed Thaddeus and ducked the hell out of there as fast as we could.
“You need to join The Mission. It’s the only way things are going to get better in this cruel world!” Esther called after us.
It was like she’d been practicing that line, because it was the same thing she’d said our first time around.
We ducked around a corner, doing our best to ignore her. Hell, we had to move fast.
“Thanks for getting me out of there—” Thaddeus started, but Kallie hushed him. I shoved him back into the corner, so he couldn’t see anything.
Kallie paused a beat, then whispered, “Esther’s leaving with Mad Dog and Naya. They’re heading toward the cafeteria.”
Just in time, too, because a moment later, I heard the familiar sound of Oberi’s paws padding along the carpet, along with several other sets of footsteps. It was the past version of Oberi, because the present version was standing right next to me, his fur brushing against my leg. Our past selves had narrowly avoided running into Esther.
“What’s going on?” Thaddeus whispered. I held him back, or he’d witness two versions of Kallie and me roaming around. Even Ava and Marcus didn’t know what we’d done. It was best if we kept it to ourselves.
Kallie turned toward him. “You have information on Professor Mazur?”
Thaddeus sounded confused. “Yeah… how’d you know?”
“Lucky guess,” Kallie said quickly. “Wait here for five minutes, then come find us, okay?”
“Okay,” Thaddeus agreed, sounding bewildered.
Kallie grabbed my hand, then yanked me further down the hall, into a quiet classroom.
You shouldn’t have done that,Oberi demanded as he followed.You don’t know what effect this may have!
“Why can’t we stay to hear what Thaddeus had to say?” I asked.
“Because we want to changeas little as possible,” she reminded me. “If he told us now, he’d never go looking for our past selves and tell Ava and Marcus. Now that he’s safe, he’s going to find us, tell us what he found, and everything will be back in place. We have to let this play out as it should have if Thaddeus hadn’t been compelled.”
“Okay. Let’s go back to the time we left and find out what he learned,” I stated.
Kallie snapped her fingers, and the world spun around me once more. I felt like vomiting, and I landed hard on my knees as the sound of screams filled the air.
Shouts echoed down the hall… but how could that be, when we were standing in a classroom a moment ago?
I didn’t have a moment to make sense of my surroundings before I heard Oberi cry Ava’s name. He barked, but his bark came from several yards away.
I didn’t understand. He’d been at my side a moment ago.
“Charlie, what are you doing!?” Marcus screamed.
“Get to Ava, quick!” Thaddeus called.
I turned my head, trying to make sense of the noises all around me. Something shifted in my shirt pocket, and I realized it was Sprigs. I’d given him to Marcus before we saved Thaddeus. How did he get back in my shirt?
I realized in horror that Kallie must’ve transported ustoo farinto the future. We weren’t where we were meant to be, and had gone past the moment we’d left. I had no idea what was going on.
Someone grabbed the back of my shirt and yanked on me. I pushed my hands against the ground to get to my feet, but my palms landed in something warm and sticky.
