Meredith McCardle - The Eighth Guardian

But the words stay firmly entrenched in my mind, never making it to my lips. Because deep down, this is wrong. It feels all wrong. I can try to pass off my motives as being for the good of the world, but they’re not. They’re purely selfish. I’m doing this because I want my dad back. I want to grow up with a father. And a mother who’s not sick. I want a normal life.

But no matter how much I may want and wish for that, I can’t have it.

“There’s been a mistake.” It comes out barely louder than a whisper. “You’re not who I’m looking for.”

But my dad doesn’t turn away. “I’m sorry, but you look really familiar. You sure I don’t know you?”

I’m about ten seconds away from losing it. “I—” My voice cracks. “I don’t know you.” I whip around and fly down the stairs toward Yellow, and there is the absence of everything. No sound. The scene before me goes fuzzy. I can’t even remember why I’m here.

Then a door slams, and I’m brought back.

“Julian!” my dad calls in a loud, happy voice.

“Hey, Mitch, who was that?” another male voice says from behind me.

“I don’t know,” my dad says. “Some girl named Iris.”

Yellow’s eyes get big, and I look over my shoulder. She gasps. I gasp. Because my dad is standing there talking to a teenage Alpha. An Alpha who apparently went to Peel. And an Alpha whose memories now include a weird teenage girl named Iris showing up at school one day with something important to say to my dad.

“Iris!” Yellow yells, and my head snaps to her.

I race toward her. “Project!” I yell. “Now! This is going to be an ambush!”

We don’t even get the chance to pull out the watches.

POP!

POP!

POP!

“No!” Yellow screams. We bump into each other as we run. Run away from Orange and Green and Violet.

POP!

POP!

POP!

Three more forms appear in front of us. Blue. Indigo. And who’s that? A male form is crouched on the ground, his hands over his ears and his head ducked. It’s someone new? They added a new member? And then I stop running.

I know who it is. My heart leaps up into the clouds and dances on air because I didn’t destroy his future. He’s here. Alive. But then it falls crashing back to earth because now I know they’ve got him.

Before I can make a move, we’re surrounded.

Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click!

Six gun barrels being locked. Not tasers. Not paintball guns. Real guns.

“Oh, what, you’re going to shoot us?” Yellow screams as she throws her hands in the air. “You’re all being lied to! Every one of you!”

I’m looking at Orange, but I pivot around on my heel to find Abe. His eyes are waiting for mine; and the moment they meet, he lowers his weapon, and my heart soars.

“Abe!” My feet leap forward, and before I know it, I’m running to him.

Abe raises the gun again. “Iris, stop!”

I skid to a halt. He called me Iris. And his eyes are distant. As if they see through me, not at me. Alpha’s got him. I blow out a breath, blow out my shock. Somehow Alpha got to Abe. Did he threaten him? With what?

“Abe, talk to me! Say something!”

He doesn’t look at me. He’s still looking through me.

“Abraham!” I yell. “I know you. I know about Ariel.”

I start toward him again, but he raises the gun higher with his right hand, so I stop.

“I didn’t,” he says in barely more than a whisper. There’s hurt and bitterness emanating from those two simple, hushed words, and my heart aches. I want to hold him, kiss him, tell him that we’ll figure it out together. But then Abe’s face changes. It contorts into anger. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Because I didn’t know either!” I yell. “Abe, why are you here?” I hold up my hands and take short, easy steps toward him.

“Iris, what are you doing?” Yellow shouts. “You’re going to blow this.”

I turn around. Yellow’s panting and sweating and staring at me with big, scared eyes. She runs toward me, and then a million little things happen at once, and I don’t know how to process it all. Yellow opens her watch face as she runs. She turns the dials. Orange leaps at her. Everyone else runs. Green grabs my arm and yanks it back. But then.

But then.

A deafening blast fills the air. A gunshot. Just one.

And a scream.

“Yellow!” I shout. Green lets go of my arm and gasps. There’s chaos. Everywhere. I can disappear now. I can close the watch face lid and disappear.

Except Yellow is lying on the ground, bleeding from her abdomen, and my boyfriend is standing there watching it all.

I’m not going anywhere.

Indigo pushes past me. “Oh my God!” He drops to her side. “Elizabeth! Oh my God! No! Who did this?”

For a second we all forget that we’re no longer allies. We glance around. And all our eyes lock on Blue—on Tyler Fertig—who still has the gun raised and both hands gripping the handle.

But then he drops his hands. Only for a second. He lifts his right again and brings the gun to his temple.

“No!” I shout. I don’t think. I leap at him and pull the gun down and away before he can do it. But he squeezes the trigger as we fall, and another shot rings out over the trees.

Blue and I thud to the ground. He looks at me, and I look at him, and then his head ducks into his chin and rises and falls as he lets it out. All of it. His failed hopes of escaping his fate. His mother. I reach and touch his shoulder, but he bats my hand away and sinks lower into the ground as if he’s willing it to open up and swallow him whole.

“Elizabeth!” Indigo screams again. “We need to help her.”

No one moves. “The mission was to kill or capture,” Orange says. His voice is empty, methodical. What the hell did Alpha do to everyone?

“She’s my sister,” Indigo yells. “ Our teammate. She needs help!”

Two shots have gone off on Peel’s campus now, and the doors to the dining hall swing open. Teachers run out first, but students are right behind. I don’t try to look for my dad.

Chaos erupts again. I jump up and back as Violet scrambles toward Blue and everyone else rushes to Yellow. Abe doesn’t move. His eyes lock on mine.

“Back to the present!” Orange yells. “Everyone!”

But I’ve already set my watch. And I have no intention of going back to the present. I know what I have to do. I doubt anyone is manning the trackers back at Annum Hall right now. I take a running start and slam my watch face shut. But as I do, I jump at Abe and grab his wrist.

And then the two of us are torn through space and time, and I’m taking the pain for both of us. High-pitched shrieking invades my ears and burns my head. I scream as I’m shot up. All of my weight pushes to my heart. The pressure. I can’t take the—

I land on the ground in a heap. I’m shaking and crying, and I think I might be dead.

“What the hell?” Abe yells. “How did I get here?”

I open my eyes and make myself breathe.

“You brought me here?” There’s astonished awe in his voice as he whips around, looking everywhere. “How did you do that?”

I push up and suck in my breath. This isn’t the present. This is the date I set on my watch. There’s a rickety wooden tower in the corner of campus, overlooking a plywood maze that was slapped together just last night. I can’t see it, but I know there’s a dropping device set up over the pool. And inside the government building there’s a fake detention room with a faulty sprinkler system.

“This is Testing Day,” Abe says. “You brought me to our Testing Day.”