Future Threat

31

“You split up. You changed something purposefully.” Her tone shifts, and there’s more than anger in her eyes now—there’s fear too. “Oh God. What were you thinking?”

“We were trying to save Ken’s life. We thought if we split up, we might have a better chance.”

“At what cost? Your own future?”

“What do you mean? Do you know something about his death?”

“Nothing more than you do, really. But splitting up is dangerous.” She gives my shirt a pointed look. “Obviously.”

I cross my arms to cover it. “Hey, I’m fine. And maybe you were okay with letting Ken die, but I’m not. We’re going to save him this time.”

She presses her palm against her forehead. “This is a disaster. God knows how much you’ve changed in the timeline already. You need to get out of here before you make anything worse.”

“Why? What could go so wrong?”

She gestures around her, at her gleaming kitchen and her excitable dogs. “Do you see all this? I’ve worked hard for this future. Adam has too. And we’re happy. It took a long time to get here, but we made it work, and life is pretty damn good now. For me, for Adam, and for Chris and his family too. But what you’ve done could jeopardize everything.”

Damn, am I always this intense? And bossy? Or will I get worse with age? “All we’re doing is trying to save one guy’s life. Nothing else is changing.”

“How do you know? By coming here and seeing a glimpse of your future, you might make different choices than I did, which will change the course of your entire life.” She shakes her head. “I have to get you out of here and back on track as quickly as possible and hope the damage to the timeline is minimal.”

“Fine, whatever,” I say, checking my watch. Less than two hours left before we have to get back to the aperture. Time for me to go anyway.

“I’ll get you some new clothes. Wait here.” She points a finger at me. “Don’t move even one step. Not. One. Step!”

She exits the kitchen with a brisk pace. The dogs look back and forth between us, like they’re unsure who to stay with, before finally deciding to follow her. I scowl and lean against the counter and wait for her.

After about five seconds, I get bored of standing around and decide I have to pee. I find the guest bathroom near the front of the house, the one I visited in the first future, where I found a code inside the origami unicorn Future-Adam made for me. This bathroom doesn’t look as formal or pretentious as the other one, although it’s still just as big and unnecessary. And there, on the windowsill, glinting under the light, is a crumpled and slightly dusty silver origami unicorn. Mine is sitting next to my bed at home. This must be the same one, with thirty years added to it.

When I’m done, I find my future self waiting for me outside the door, looking pissed.

“I told you not to move,” she snaps.

“I had to pee,” I say in exactly the same voice.

She narrows her eyes and thrusts the clothes at my chest. “You have no idea. No clue what your future holds and how fragile it all is. But I do.”

“So tell me then. Tell me why it’s so important I don’t change anything.”

“I can’t. The more you know, the more likely you are to do something differently.” She plays with her wedding band as she speaks, making it go round and round on her finger. “I went into my future totally blind, armed with only the knowledge that Adam and I would make it work somehow. That’s all you need to know. Anything else is too dangerous.”

I scowl at her, irritated that she didn’t give me anything useful. “I won’t look into anything else. All I want is to get the others and head back to the present.”

Her shoulders relax an inch. “Good. Get changed and get out of here. You need to join Adam and Chris as soon as you can and make sure you’re all back to the aperture in time.”

“Working on it. Zahra’s outside and Adam’s tracked down Paige, but we still have to find Jeremy and Ken. And I don’t know what’s going on with Chris.”

She frowns. “What do you mean, you don’t know?”

“He went to find Ken at the cemetery, but he hasn’t checked in for a while.”

“Find him. Find the others. Stop wasting time here.”

“You could help me out and save me a lot of time by telling me where the others are.”

Her lips press in a tight line, but she finally relents. “Fine. Jeremy is in Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.”

“See, that wasn’t so hard, was it?” I send a message to Chris and Adam telling them to meet me at the hospital. “Why is he there? Is he injured?”

“Yes, he was injured. I can’t believe I have to tell you any of this. You should have found this out by now, but instead you were off playing hero and getting stabbed.”

“Hey, maybe if Wombat told us where to go, we could have done it all in fifteen minutes and been back at Aether by now.”

“That wasn’t an option. It might—”

I hold up a hand to interrupt her. “Yeah, yeah, it might mess up the timeline, I know. Just tell me what you know about Ken, at least. Do you know what happened to him?”

“Only that we found his body at Griffith Observatory, but we had no idea how he died. We assumed he was murdered, but we could never figure out who killed him or why.”

“Damn. I hope Chris has found him.”

“Me too.”

I slip back into the bathroom to change into the clothes she gave me—a black tank top and olive-colored pants, nearly identical to my current clothes. While I’m in there, Adam sends a message: Paige is in the police station, but I got the charges dropped. We’ll head to the hospital when we’re done here.

Good, I send back.

Still nothing from Chris. He should have checked in by now. He’s a tough guy and he can handle himself, but I’m still worried. Maybe Future-Elena is right and splitting up was a bad idea—not that I’d admit it to her.