Meredith McCardle - The Eighth Guardian

“I know.” I stare at the gun still in his hand.

“My watch is set to present day.”

“Abe, I brought you with me for a reason.”

“My name isn’t Abe anymore, Iris .” He emphasizes the last word, making his point.

“My name is Amanda,” I spit. “Look around. My name is Amanda. Your name is Abe. Right now, you and I are lying with our arms wrapped around each other in a corner of the dining hall. I’m telling you that I have an awful, sinking feeling about tonight. You’re telling me not to sweat it. But I’m freaking out because deep down I know that this might be the last time I lie in your arms for a while. Maybe even forever. Because I know. I know . I’m being drafted tonight.”

Abe doesn’t say anything. He looks straight ahead, and in this moment he’s a stranger to me.

“Abe, talk to me. Tell me why you’re here.”

He keeps his head trained on the maze, but his mouth opens.

“To get you back.”

“Why? Why you? Why are you here, Abe? Why aren’t you—” I wave my hand in the direction of the dorms—“ there ? Sleeping. Right now in the present.”

“They took me.” He wrings his hands in front of his body. “They showed up at Peel and took me. They told me you were committing treason and were hatching a plan to bring down the entire government. They knocked me out, then told me a bunch of crap about how my grandfather—Ariel—could time travel, which meant my dad could do it, which means I can do it, too, and then they threw me back here and told me to go get you.”

I shake my head. No. There’s more. There has to be more. “Have you talked to Ariel?”

“I haven’t seen anyone! I haven’t talked to anyone! I just have to bring you back. I have to bring you back, Iris. I have to.”

I think Abe might cry. His voice is shaking, and his hands are trembling. What did they do to him?

“My name is Amanda,” I tell him. “Stop calling me Iris.”

“Please, it makes it easier.” He squeezes his eyes shut for one brief second, but it’s enough to tell me that he’s completely lost focus.

“I don’t know what they told you, but they’re lying to you, Abey Baby,” I whisper.

Abe lets out a little choke and raises the gun. His face is twisted. Pained. “Please don’t call me that. I have to take you back. Iris.”

They’ve gotten to him. I know they have now. Alpha must have something in his back pocket, but what?

“Please talk to me,” I say. Behind us, a gong sounds. Someone has just finished the maze. “What did they do to make you hold a gun in my face? The Abe I knew would never do that. The Abe I knew would throw himself in front of a gun barrel if he knew I was in danger.”

“I’ve changed.” His voice wavers, just a bit, but enough.

“Bullshit! What did they tell you, Abe? What did they do to you?”

“They took her, okay?” he yells. The gun falls to his side. “They took her, and she’s sick, and she needs to be at home, and they won’t give her back until you’re caught.”

I shake my head. “Took who?” I have no idea what Abe’s talking about. The only female in his family is his mother, and she’s fine. Perfect health. Unless something changed while I was gone. “Are you talking about your mom?”

“Not my mother, my grandmother!”

I shake my head again. “What? Your mom’s mom? But you barely know her. She lives in Israel. How would Alpha have gotten—”

“No!” Abe shouts. “Mona! They took Mona!”

I feel as if I’ve been punched in the gut again. Mona’s dead. She died from lung cancer several years ago, before Abe and I met. But—I suck in my breath—

And then I blink.

I blink again.

I grabbed a cigarette out of Mona’s hand in 1962. Me. I did it. I threw it on the ground. I told her Ariel would never go for her if she smoked. Did she stop after that day? Because of me?

“Abe, does Mona smoke?” I ask.

“What?” His body shakes. “Why are you asking me this? Of course she doesn’t. You know she doesn’t.”

“Did she ever?”

“No! I don’t know! As long as I’ve been alive, I’ve never once seen her with a cigarette.”

I changed the past. I went back and saved Mona’s life. The weight of this realization sinks in, and I feel dizzy.

“She’s sick now?” I ask.

Abe gets a disgusted look on his face. “Really? What, you conveniently forgot that she was diagnosed with Stage IV lymphoma a week before Testing Day? A week before this?” He waves his hand at the maze.

I crane my neck toward the buildings on the other side of campus. Somewhere over there, there’s another version of me. A version of me who knows Mona. Who was heartbroken by the diagnosis. Who’s loving and comforting Abe as best she can.

And somewhere, Alpha is walking around this campus, pretending to evaluate all the students while really just foaming at the mouth because he’s so close to taking me. To using me.

“Abe, we have to talk,” I say. “They’re lying to you.” I look around for Alpha. I don’t see him.

“How do you know?”

“Because they lied to me, too!”

“Why would they lie about my grandmother? That doesn’t make any sense!”

“Because they’re using you! Will you shut up and listen to me? Tell me, who told you about your grandmother?”

“Alpha.”

“Only Alpha? Did anyone else actually confirm that she was taken? Ariel? Your dad? Your mom? Anyone?”

Abe’s face betrays the answer. No. No one. He violated one of the cardinal rules of information, which is to always confirm when the source is shady. He knows better. Dammit, he knows better!

“Abe, Alpha’s corrupt, and he’s using the entire organization to make a quick fortune; and you know who his biggest investor is? Headmaster Vaughn. They’re both the reason my father is dead. I ran because I found out the truth, and the truth is that—”

But then a tree branch cracks behind us. I whip around. Oh God! Please don’t let it be Alpha!

It’s not. It’s Katia Britanova. The sophomore who lives in my dorm. The girl who escorted me to the dining hall after all my testing was completed and who overheard Alpha talking about me.

Katia’s eyes shoot up, then she looks me up and down. “Amanda! What the hell are you wearing? And what are you doing here? I just dropped you off at the dining hall like ten minutes ago.” And then her eyes zero in on the gun Abe’s holding. Abe sees her staring and tucks the gun behind his back. “Why do you have a gun?”

“We were just practicing,” he says. “In case there’s another secret test. They didn’t really emphasize gun work in this one—”

“So you’re cheating.” Katia jerks her neck back and juts her chin in the air.

I raise my hands and take a step forward. “I know this probably looks bad, but I promise you we’re not cheating. At anything. And right now, I need you to turn around and walk back to campus. I need you to pretend you never saw Abe and me here. You don’t understand.”

“You’re cheating,” Katia says. “And you know the honor code. Both of you do. I have to turn you in for this. I have to take you to the headmaster.”

Shit!

Abe whips the gun up and points it at Katia.

Double shit! What is he doing?

And then Katia swoops down and grabs a knife from the holster she always has strapped to her ankle.

Triple shit! Oh, this is not good. This is not good at all.

Katia stares Abe right in the eye. “Go ahead and try.” She tips the knife at him. “I guarantee you I’m faster.”

I step in between Abe and Katia and hold out my hands, one at each of them. “Okay, here’s what we’re going to do.” I turn my head to Katia. “You’re going to drop that knife”—then I look at Abe and give him my best pleading stare—“and you’re going to drop that gun. Now, on the count of three. One. Two. Three.”