Meredith McCardle - The Eighth Guardian

Breathe, Amanda. Breathe.

“Tell me what’s going on.” My voice is raspy.

“I told you,” the man says. “You’re the newest member of Annum Guard.” He’s holding something in his hand. Something thin and metallic, like a pen, but I know it can’t be a pen. He holds it to my right forearm, right below where the needle is pumping blood into my veins. “This might hurt.”

I don’t have time to brace myself or even voice a protest. The man punches it down, and pain erupts through the entire right side of my body. I scream. My body bucks up, fighting the leather straps holding down my arms and legs.

“Sorry,” the man says as he pulls away.

“Let me out!” I scream. “Untie me! You can’t keep me here!”

“I believe I can, and I’m going to. You belong to me now, remember?”

“No, I don’t remember. I don’t know anything.”

“Annum Guard,” the man says.

“I’ve never heard of it.”

“No, I don’t think you would have. Not many people outside of Annum Guard have, short of the president and the secretary of defense. We’re a secret, Iris. We’re the guardians of time.”

The guardians of time?

The man takes a minute. His eyes flick to the wall, then back to me. “We have the ability of Chronometric Augmentation.”

What the hell is he talking about? I thrash and kick against my bindings, but then he’s above me again.

“You see, we project back in time and tweak the past to improve the present.”

“That’s ridiculous,” I practically spit. “No one can travel—project—whatever the hell you call it—back in time. It’s physically impossible.”

“Oh, but it’s not. You’ll see.”

I suck in my breath. “I’m going to give you ten seconds to let me out of here or else—”

“What?” the man interrupts. “Just what do you plan to do? Scream? Go ahead. But I think I’ve already proven that you’re stuck here until I let you out.” His fingers wrap around one of the leather straps holding down my ankles, and he tugs it for good measure.

“Who are you?” I hear my voice starting to crack. Not good. I need to pull it together.

“I’ve already told you that. You can call me Alpha. I run Annum Guard. We project back in time to—”

“Stop lying to me! How did you get me out of the school? There are cameras and gates everywhere. You couldn’t have just drugged me and carried me out.”

“Unless I had the express permission of your headmaster,” Alpha says. “Which I received the second I told him I had chosen you to graduate and join Annum Guard. Then you became mine.”

“What did you put in my arm?”

“A tracker. I need to know your location at all times.”

A tracker. There is a tracker in my arm. My head spins as I try to process this, but then the door opens again. I don’t bother to turn this time. I can’t see behind me.

“It’s ready,” the same female voice says.

What’s ready? My heart is pounding.

Alpha clears his throat. “Thank you.” A few seconds later he appears over me, holding something. He opens his hand and brings a round bronze pendant of some sort toward my face. I don’t flinch. But then the pendant stops, an inch or so above my nose, and I can finally see it. It’s a pendant on a chain. A necklace. As it swings back and forth in front of my face, I focus on it. It has an owl etched into it. The same owl that was on the wax seal back at school.

“What is that?” It comes out as a whisper.

“This is what gives us the ability to project back in time.”

“It’s a necklace.”

“Very good. No one can ever say you lack intelligence.” Is he mocking me?

“Are you telling me that a necklace gives human beings the ability to travel back in time?”

Alpha nods.

“And you expect me to believe that?”

“I do. But not just any human beings, Iris, only those who have been chosen. And you have been chosen.”

“Why?”

“Does it matter?”

“Yes.” I don’t believe him. He’s insane. People can’t travel back in time. That’s a physical impossibility. I mean, I’m not a physics genius or anything, but you can’t do that. This man has stolen me for some reason, and I need to figure out why.

“Because I recognized qualities you exhibited during Testing Day, qualities that will make you a good fit with Annum Guard.”

“I don’t understand,” I say. “I didn’t finish the water challenge.”

“That doesn’t matter to me.”

He’s giving me nothing to go on here. Absolutely nothing.

“And what about the other challenges?” I ask.

“You showed intelligence in the detention challenge. Most of your classmates sat there until the men came back and then tried to overpower them. You didn’t even consider that as an option. You were proactive. I didn’t care about the final challenge after that.”

His tone hasn’t wavered once, and his answer is intentionally vague. Damn, he’s good. He isn’t giving anything away.

“Are you ready for me to prove to you that time travel exists?” he asks.

I don’t respond for a few seconds. Things are changing. He’s going to untie me. I know the door is behind me and that he’s the only person in this room. Alpha’s bigger than me, but I’ll have the element of surprise. I can do this. One step at a time. First I get out of this room. Then out of the building. Then back to Peel. Back to Abe.

“Sure,” I say, my voice slow.

Alpha nods his head once. He unties my hands, and I leave them by my side. No use wasting energy when my legs are still tied to the table. He fiddles with the left strap, then the right. Here we go.

I spring off the table and launch myself at Alpha, ready to attack, but he’s quicker. He anticipated this. Shit. I don’t have time to respond. All I know is that my hands are behind my back, and Alpha has slammed me to the floor. The side of my face rests against the cool concrete. Alpha’s knee is pressing into my back, between my shoulder blades. I can’t move.

“Honestly now,” he says. “You didn’t think that move was a little obvious? That’s disappointing. I thought we were going to be able to do this the easy way, but I guess not.” There’s a metal click-click as a pair of handcuffs are slapped onto my wrists.

Alpha pulls me up. He marches me forward, out through the doorway and into a blindingly white hallway. I have to squint because the fluorescent bulbs overhead make my eyes water. The walls are white and the floor is white, which only magnifies the light. I feel as if I’m stumbling around inside a solar flare.

Alpha leads me to the end of the hallway. There’s a door straight ahead and a girl standing outside of it. She can’t be much older than me. She has straight hair that falls to her shoulders in a bob. And it’s purple. Bright purple. It really pops against her light-brown skin. There’s a gold-plated plaque hanging above the door. It reads:

ENHANCEMENT, NOT ALTERATION

“Here.” The girl holds out a plain black knapsack to Alpha. He takes it. I recognize her voice as the one from the room before. I think back to my training. See everything . I try to take in her voice, the smell of this hallway, the lighting, Enhancement, Not Alteration . My eyes scan the walls for identifying marks. But there are none. And it’s all happening too fast.

Alpha lets go of me with one hand and slips the necklace around my neck. The owl pendant falls to my chest with a thump. My heart rate picks up. This is not good. Something is about to happen here. I need to make a break for it now.

But before I can move, Alpha is back on me. His elbow loops around my neck, and he’s got me in a choke hold. He’s had some serious combat training. I can’t move. My heart is thumping so loudly that the two of them have to hear it.