I peeked back at Maddox, who paced the quad with his jaw clenched, having what appeared to be a heated conversation on his cell phone. “I promise he’s not mad at you. But I’ll tell you later. Right now, I’m gonna go see who he is mad at.” Or rather, what Laith had done this time. Maddox’s brother was obviously up to something, and that could only mean trouble.

  “Okay, fine. I’ll catch up to you at lunch, but when I do, you’d better be ready to dish, girlfriend.” She laughed as she backed away from me. “That’s the price for bailing you out. I want full disclosure on the details.”

  “I never expected anything less.” I shot her a grin and fell into a full-on sprint over to where Maddox stood, half hidden by the sign.

  Before I’d even reached the corner, I felt the static charge in the air. The force of the jolt kicked me back the instant I stepped around the sign. My entire body lit up as if I’d tossed a toaster into the bathtub. And as I hit the ground, I saw Maddox’s horrified face before he completely disappeared into thin air.

  I was too calm. I must have been in shock. But things could have been worse. At least my heart was still beating. I tried to roll over from where I lay on the ground with the wind knocked out of me, waiting to regain the use of my limbs. My head buzzed as I tried to make sense of what had happened. I must have stepped into the jump zone as Maddox was on his way out. I could only hazard a guess as to what had prompted him to jump. Laith. I just didn’t know the reason.

  “Hey, are you okay?” A boy in a blue windbreaker crouched down beside me, looking at me as if he were inspecting roadkill. “You pass out or something? My sister passes out all the time. You should eat. Girls never think they need to eat.” He reached a hand out to me, and I grasped it, letting him haul me to my feet.

  “Thanks.” I kept things short and sweet. I didn’t need to get into the hows or whys of my current predicament.

  “Yeah, sure.” He scratched his blond head, looking at me like I had rabies. “You need to go to the clinic?”

  I shook my head.

  “Okay, well, I’m gonna go. You’re lucky I was already running late.”

  “Yeah, lucky.” Maybe my head was still a little fuzzy. Maybe I did need to see a doctor. “Thanks.”

  “You said that.” He smiled that time—a crooked grin that made him a lot cuter than I’d first realized.

  If I hadn’t already been spoken for, twice over, I might have let this one flirt with me. “I’m gonna…” I pointed toward the science building as I willed my feet to move forward.

  “Yeah, me too. Chem lab.”

  “Molecular bio.”

  “Nice.” His head bobbed a few times as he backed slowly toward the building. “You know, I think I’ll go ahead and walk with you. Make sure you don’t take another dirt nap on the way.”

  “Sure.” I shrugged, keeping pace with him. I caught him shooting glances at me every so often as we crossed the quad.

  He reached the door first and held it open for me. “You sure you’re okay? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

  “I’ll be fine. Thanks.” The instant the words passed my lips, I knew I was lying. I’d just seen my boyfriend disappear in front of me, presumably so he could travel to another place and time. And even if I could contact him there, my phone was still dead. Maybe I had seen a ghost after all.

  Or maybe what I saw was way worse.

  The boy nodded a few times then turned and vanished around a corner the way normal boys do when they disappear.

  I didn’t think I’d ever be able to settle for normal again.

  Chapter Nineteen

  After making sure my would-be savior wasn’t coming back to check on me, I wandered the science building in a daze. Since I was already late, I figured I might as well skip the entire class. Thanks to the anticipated “recharge period,” I had doubts Maddox would make it back in time for our European history class, not that he’d miss much. As it turned out, my boyfriend was a bit of an expert on the subject.

  Boyfriend. The word didn’t seem to do justice to the entire scope of our relationship.

  When he still hadn’t come back by the time class ended, I wandered off to the library to study for the French test Sam had told my mom I’d already studied for. Instead, I directed every bit of my focus on the entrance. My weak attempts to will Maddox to step through the glass door with nothing but sheer determination didn’t pan out, but that didn’t stop me from trying.

  I’d officially become a zombie. The zap I’d taken from his time jump ripple and the sense of loss I always experienced when he wasn’t around left me with a fuzzy head. Even halfway through the day, I couldn’t seem to shake the feeling.

  My need to talk to Maddox bordered on desperate. I spent my entire lunch break making a mountain out of my mashed potatoes like a crazy person and staring at my dead cell phone, willing it back to life.

  By the time I sat down to take the test in French, I would have settled for seeing Laith, not that I had any idea how to reach him. I certainly didn’t have his number, if he even had a phone.

  If Sam was concerned about my odd behavior, she didn’t say anything. And I barely saw Paige or Hannah, who appeared to be surgically attached to Abercrombie’s hip these days and didn’t seem to notice me at all.

  In fact, the only person who acknowledged something might be wrong with me was the guy who’d found me sprawled out in the grass under the sign. He stopped me in the quad before French to ask if I was still in shock. The guy had no idea how right he was.

  After finishing my test, I decided not to wait for Sam and slipped out quietly, walking the six blocks home for the first time since I’d started at the Port Michael campus.

  “Mom?” I tossed my keys on the kitchen table and listened for any signs of life other than that damn clock. “Josh?”

  I jogged up the stairs and pushed my brother’s door open. Empty. Mom hadn’t mentioned it, but I figured Josh must have had one of those after-school things again.

  “Guess I’m on my own for dinner,” I muttered as I took the attic steps two at a time.

  I’d gotten used to being on my own in the afternoons, but even after living in my grandmother’s house for over a month, it still freaked me out to walk into my room with no one else home. I just couldn’t shake the feeling I was being watched.

  The shadow of a face that wasn’t mine formed in my mirror, fading almost as quickly as it appeared, and I nearly came out of my skin.

  Laith.

  Maddox had told me they had the ability to reach out to me in creepy ways, but I still swallowed a scream when I glanced at the window and watched as my name appeared then disappeared in the condensation. “I’m not paying attention to you, Laith!” I yelled into the empty room and plugged my phone into the charger and flopped down on my bed. I must have dozed off because the next thing I knew, the battery was full, and the sun was going down. I switched it on, and less than a minute later, a series of chirps went off as several texts came in all at once.

  Sam: Where are you? Covered for you with your mom. You owe me!

  Sam: Am I picking you up this morning, or are you riding with Romeo?

  Mom: I have a work thing for dinner tonight. Stouffer’s lasagna in the fridge! Just heat it up.

  Mom: Dropped Josh off at Mrs. Crane’s house around the corner. Can you walk over and get him when you get home? I told her you’d get him by 5.

  Mom: Did you get my messages?

  Mom: It’s almost 5. Don’t forget your brother.

  Mom: Remind me to get you that emergency charger. Please don’t forget your brother!

  I checked the time. Shit! Five forty-five. I grabbed my sneakers and left my phone charging. Hopefully Mrs. Crane hadn’t sold the peanut to the circus yet.

  I grabbed my keys on my way out and walked around the block where I figured Josh was deep into a game of Grand Theft Auto 99 or whatever he and his friends were into this week.

  The porch lights were already off when I rang the bell.

  A little girl no more than six or seven came to the door in a shimmering blue Disney princess dress with a fat ribbon holding her auburn curls out of her face. “Who is it?”

  I crouched down to her level. “Hi, I’m Ava Flynn. I’m here to pick up my brother, Josh.”

  “He’s not here,” she said and slammed the door in my face.

  Once the initial shock wore off, I rang the bell again.

  This time a much older version of the little girl opened the door. Mrs. Crane, I presumed. “Hello, can I help you?”

  “Yes, hi. I’m Ava Flynn. My mother told me to pick Josh up at five, and I’m so sorry it took me so long to get him, but I just got her message a few minutes ago.”

  The woman blinked a few times then wiped her hands on a red-and-white-striped dishtowel. “Oh! Well, I’m afraid someone already picked him up. H-he said he was doing you a favor.” She scrunched up her face as she studied me. “You do have a boyfriend, don’t you? He’s a good-looking boy. Hazel eyes. Messy brown hair. Josh seemed to know who he was.”

  I sucked in a breath. “Maddox picked him up?”

  “Yes!” Her face lit up, and I could see how she might have been pretty, once. “I think that’s what he said his name was. I hope it’s not a problem that I let Josh go with him. The boy arrived right around the time I expected you, and Josh said he knew him.”

  I smiled, but on the inside, I was on the verge of panicking. How could she just let my brother leave with someone else, even if he was my boyfriend? “Oh, I’m sure it’s fine. He’s a good guy. He probably knew I was a little out of it. My phone died, and I didn’t realize I was supposed to pick Josh up until a few minutes ago.” I wondered how Maddox knew to pick Josh up when even I didn’t. I guessed if he could travel to the future, it wasn’t so farfetched to think he’d known this would happen. I needed a crash course on all things time related.

  But what if it wasn’t Maddox? I shoved that thought right out of my head.

  “Did you need anything else, dear?” Mrs. Crane’s artificially sweetened voice startled me out of my thoughts.

  “Oh. No, thank you.” I gave her another forced smile and turned to walk back home.

  An eerie feeling festering just below the surface of my skin had me practically running the entire way. I raced up the porch steps and had my key ready to slip into the lock when I came to a screeching halt.

  A bloodred tack held a white envelope to the door with my name scrawled across the front in bold black ink. With a shaky hand, I plucked out the pin, letting it fall to the ground as I retrieved the note. I ran a finger over the indentations left by the pen. Something about the swirling script seemed familiar, yet I couldn’t place it. A gust of wind rustled my hair, and I spun around to search the darkness behind me.

  “Maddox?” When no one answered, I hurried inside, closing and locking the door behind me before tearing open the envelope.

  Ava,

  Don’t worry about me. I’m fine.

  Josh

  “What the hell?” I sat down on the bottom step and read the note again. Don’t worry about me. I’m fine. Fine, but where? And why hadn’t Maddox called me yet?

  I realized I’d left my phone upstairs and dashed up two flights to snatch it off the charger. “No messages?” I sat down, scratching my head.

  Where would Maddox take Josh?

  The doorbell rang, and I let out a burst of nervous laughter. “Oh, thank God. That must be them.”

  I hadn’t even made it to the steps when the banging started. Whoever was at the door alternated between holding down the doorbell and pounding on the door as if they couldn’t wait another moment to get inside my house.

  By the time I reached the bottom of the stairs, the hair on the back of my neck stood on end. My brother didn’t have the strength to pound the door that hard, and I couldn’t imagine Maddox being that aggressive unless the situation warranted it.

  “Who is it?” I yelled, keeping myself to the shadows and out of direct sight of the door.

  “Ava?” It was Maddox, and he sounded frantic. “Jesus, Ava, open the door.”

  I practically vaulted to the door, sliding the deadbolt out of the way, and all but tore the damn thing off the hinges opening it. “Where have you—”

  “Has he been here?” Maddox nudged me out of the way, and the instant he’d made it inside, he quickly closed and locked the door again.

  “Has who been here?”

  “Laith.” Maddox grabbed both of my shoulders and held me still. His eyes were wild as he ran them over me, presumably making sure I was in one piece. “Has my brother been here?”

  He had me completely confused. “No, I mean, I thought I saw him in my mirror earlier, but in the flesh? No. Why? Where have you been all day? And where’s my brother? Mrs. Crane said you picked him up at five.”

  Maddox turned into a statue in front of me. I could have planted him in the middle of the quad, and birds would have used him as a perch. That’s how still he went. His face morphed into abject horror. “I’m too late. Damn it! I let him play me, and now I’m too late!” Maddox shouted the last word as he turned and pounded both fists into the wall. “That sonofabitch!”

  I stepped back and let him get himself under control as my blood turned to ice cubes in my veins. Whatever had him so worked up could only be bad. “Maddox, please, you’re scaring me. Tell me what’s wrong.”

  He spun away from the wall and began pacing circles over my grandmother’s Persian rug, running his bruised hands through his hair as he walked. “It’s Laith.”

  “What’s Laith?” A list of possibilities, each one worse than the one before, ran through my head.

  “Ava, I’m so sorry.” He abruptly stopped pacing and pulled me into an awkward hug. “I tried to get here as fast as I could. I thought I had his plan figured out. I thought I’d gotten the jump on him. That’s why I came here first. I should’ve known better.” He released me and went back to pacing. His emotions ran the gamut between fear, guilt, and anger, as if even he couldn’t decide how he felt. But the look of absolute panic in his eyes terrified me more than anything else. “Laith knew I’d protect you and leave your brother vulnerable, God damn it, and I fell for it.” The more he tortured himself, the more of his anxiety I felt coursing through me. Maddox didn’t have Josh.

  Which could only mean Laith did.

  My heart skipped so hard it made me cough. The cough turned into a broken sob. “H-he left me a note. Josh left me a note on the door, saying he was fine.” I grabbed the paper from the side table where I’d left it and shoved it into Maddox’s hand. “He has to be fine. He wouldn’t hurt him, right? Laith wouldn’t hurt Josh, would he?”

  Maddox shook his head, but the action did nothing to convince me, especially when I dared to look into his glistening eyes. “He doesn’t want Josh, Ava. He wants you.”

  “He sent me a text this morning just after Sam’s little revelation about me asking her to cover for you.” Maddox had finally calmed down enough to sit on the sofa and explain what had happened, starting with his unexpected time jump that morning. “He was taunting me. About you. He told me how I’d ruined his perfect plan to grab you by hiding you out in the lighthouse all night. God, Ava, he had this whole thing worked out. He’d gotten Sam to cover for you, and he intended to jump with you. To disappear.”

  Hearing the pain in Maddox’s voice made it that much more real. “You would have come for me, though. Right?”

  He grabbed my hand and squeezed. “Of course I would have, but it’s not that easy. It’s not as if we have a tracking beacon embedded in us somewhere. We get a feel for where you are. We can sense when you’re near.”

  My hand instinctively went to the back of my neck. “You mean like the prickling sensation I feel when you’re around me?”

  “Yes.” He swallowed hard. “Exactly that. And if one of us is with you, that sensation is even more intense. The more pieces of the soul that come together, the more powerful the draw is to join it.”

  “But you can’t see exactly where I am?”

  “Not exactly, no. We have an advantage over you because we can search while we’re in that holding pattern.”

  “The elevator?”

  He smiled. “Yes. From inside the elevator, we can see more clearly into time’s wrinkles to find you. But it’s not an exact science. It’s more like a scavenger hunt through the centuries.”

  “So finding Josh would be…” I couldn’t even say the word.

  He squeezed my hand again. “It’s not impossible. It’s just not going to be easy. And the one thing we have going for us is that Laith doesn’t want Josh. He wants you. So he’s going to contact us to make the switch. I’m certain of it.”

  “That’s what he implied earlier?”

  “The asshole flat out told me he was going to do this. That’s why I jumped. I figured I could stop him before he had a chance to do it. But what I didn’t count on was that this was his plan from the beginning. He knew I’d try to stop him, so he took advantage of the fact that I couldn’t be two places at once. When I jumped here earlier and nothing was out of the ordinary, I went back, which is why I couldn’t get here when he actually was grabbing Josh. I’d basically created my own paradox by trying to get the jump on him. I played right into his hands. It was a bloody brilliant ruse. I wish I’d thought of it.”