Timepiece

“Kaleb?” Lily waited for an explanation.

“My mistake. It’s okay.” I stayed beside her and scanned the crowd, trying to find someone who was obviously out of place. “The rips don’t see us. It should be easy to find one.”

“Just like it was a second ago, right?”

Doubt. Fear. More like terror.

“I bet she’s a rip.” I pointed to a woman wearing white Reebok high tops with fluorescent pink laces. I called out to her. “Ma’am?”

“Yes?” she answered.

I wasn’t expecting a response. “I like your … shoes.”

She hurried away, eyeing me strangely.

“I didn’t even know they made those anymore,” Lily said, now obviously holding the Skroll in place with her hands, ready to run.

I pushed down a creeping sense of dread. I didn’t want to tell Lily, but I was starting to worry that we were becoming planted more firmly in the crowd of rips than in reality. I wanted to run, too. Problem was, I didn’t know where to go.

“Trying again.” A teenage girl wearing a sweatshirt with the neck cut out was my next target. I could see a shiny spandex leotard underneath. I didn’t bother speaking to her; I just stepped in front of her and held out my hand. She walked into it and dissolved before she reached my body.

“Thank God,” Lily breathed out.

“Don’t relax yet.”

Poe and Teague stood on the steps by the Ramses statue, scanning the crowd.

“Run.”

Chapter 25

“We’re totally not conspicuous,” Lily said as we raced through the crowd.

“Stop running, but walk fast.”

“That I can do.”

We hurried toward the Mud Island monorail and the riverfront, weaving through parked cars. Some of the cobblestones were crumbling. “Be careful.”

“I should probably give this a little extra protection.” She slid her arms out of my shirt and wrapped the Skroll in it. “Oh no. Duck!”

Call it a stress reaction, but I had the strangest thought she’d gone back to the bird fetish thing. “What—”

“Duck! Poe’s boots.”

She dropped to the ground behind a Honda Accord and shoved the wrapped Skroll underneath it. Then she yanked my arm, pulling me down with her. On top of her.

When things like that happen in movies, they always result in a longing look, or an almost kiss. In real life, it translated to Lily’s eyes squeezed shut in pain. She was the only thing between the cobblestones and me.

“Holy crap. You’re like … a … giant.” She smacked at my biceps as she choked the words out. I rolled onto my back with my hands on her hips, pulling her with me. She took a huge gulp of air, but instead of moving, she lifted her upper body and straddled me, craning her neck to get a glimpse of Poe. “I don’t see anyone. Maybe he wasn’t as close as I thought.”

I clenched my jaw and stared at the thin white clouds in the otherwise blue sky.

This was about to get really uncomfortable.

“Lily.”

“Oh hell. He is close. Teague’s with him.” Dropping back down, she pressed her chest against mine. Her hair tickled my neck.

“Lily.” I exhaled through my teeth. A blush of surprise colored her face, but not before a brief second of recognition passed over it. The second when she realized exactly what she was doing to me.

“Sorry.” She grinned.

“I bet.”

Scrambling to her feet, she squatted down behind the car and looked toward the river.

I took a few seconds to recover, and then crept over to the rear bumper of the Honda and peeked around the side. Teague turned back around and headed toward the Pyramid, while Poe moved to the end of the line forming to board the monorail.

We waited, crouched down. The water lapped against the dock, and hungry seagulls cried out for lunch.

“Too bad I don’t have my camera to hide behind,” Lily said, pulling the Skroll out from under the Honda and into her lap. “We could have pretended to be tourists.”

“How long have you been taking pictures?”

“Abi bought me my first camera when I was twelve. It was secondhand, but it had all the bells and whistles. I had a blast learning how to make it work.” A blip of sorrow.

“Why does thinking about it make you sad?”

“I’d started to forget things about my family. The house I lived in when I was little. Abi thought being able to keep a record of my life here would help me. So I’d never have to worry about forgetting anything again, and so I’d have a tangible memory.” She slid a little on a loose stone and I lightly touched my hand to her back to help her keep her balance. “Been taking pics ever since. I have a digital camera now, but I kept the original.”

“Your stuff is really impressive. You could have a gallery showing. Em pointed them out, on the walls at Murphy’s Law. Do you want to pursue photography professionally? When you’re older?”

“I’m pursing it professionally now.” Drive and determination.

“It looks like we’re in the clear,” I said, standing. I reached for Lily’s hand to help her up. “You sense anything?”

“No.” She held the Skroll close to her chest. “But maybe you should sniff around for some despair.”

We made it to the hotel without any further incidents. Neither of us paid attention to the duck parade that was taking place as we hurried through the lobby. We didn’t talk in the elevator.

Lily remembered our room number. We’d left without a key, so I had to knock. Waiting for someone to answer was torture. Finally, Michael opened the door and we stepped inside, barely dodging a flying Emerson.

“You scared us to death,” she said. “What the hell’s going on? Where have you been?”

“Calm down, Em,” I said.

“Don’t tell me to calm down. You take off in a strange town with my best friend and—”

“We’ve been with Teague.” My words made the impact I’d hoped for. Em sat down hard on the edge of the couch.

“Teague?” Michael joined Em.

“On the way back from getting your coffee, we saw Poe and followed him. He led us straight to Teague’s office in the Pyramid, which I’m assuming is also Chronos headquarters.” I pulled two different bottles of soda out of the minibar and held them out to Lily. She picked the non-caffeinated one.

“You randomly saw Poe on the street in downtown Memphis. He led you to an abandoned commercial building, and then you followed him inside?” Michael asked. “It could’ve been a trick.”

“It wasn’t.” I didn’t like the implication that I would’ve put Lily in a situation like that. “I’d have known if he was trying to trick us, and I’d have insisted that Lily come back to the room.”

“He tried to make me come back to the room, anyway, but I didn’t listen.” She untied the sleeves of my shirt and removed the silver rectangle. I took it. It was still warm from her skin. “If I had, we might not have made it out with this.”

“What is that?” Em popped up off the couch and plucked the Skroll from my hands.

“Dr. Turner called it a Skroll.”