While Chris is holding him, Trent grabs Adam’s backpack, ripping it off him. “No!” Adam yells, but Chris shoves him away. I know I should help Adam, but a trace of doubt has crept inside me, and I stand there, frozen.
“Let me see that,” Chris says.
Trent hands it over, and Chris yanks the case out before dropping the backpack on the floor. Adam dives for the bag and pulls a gun out of it. He aims it at Chris and Trent, and he’s holding it more confidently than I ever did.
“Drop it!” he yells.
“You—you have a gun,” I blurt out. And not just any gun, but a gun identical to mine. The same type of gun that is going to kill us tomorrow. Does that mean…Is Adam…No. It can’t be.
His eyes flick to me for a second and then back to Chris and Trent. “I don’t want to hurt you guys, but I need that case. Put it down now.”
Chris slides the case across the floor to Adam. “It was you all along,” he growls. “I knew it.”
I don’t want to believe it, but the evidence doesn’t lie. Adam is the only one who is alive in the future. Adam has the gun that is going to kill us. And Adam had an ulterior motive all along.
Was everything he said to me—everything his future self said—a lie? Did he trick me into caring for him just so he could set me up later? My heart twists, but my inner voice says, I told you so. I can’t believe I let my feelings for Adam blind me. I trusted him, against my instincts, against my nature, but I should have known better. The only person I can ever trust is myself.
Adam picks up the case right as a bright light appears. The faint golden dust floats in the air, forming a dome in the center of the room. The aperture!
Sixty seconds starts counting down in my head. Adam keeps the gun pointed at Chris and Trent, but he keeps glancing at the light. Chris looks like he wants to fight, but then he makes a break for the light, and a second later Zoe and Trent follow. All three of them enter the light and vanish.
Adam stuffs the case in his backpack. He steps toward the aperture, but then turns to me. “Elena…” He shakes his head. “I’m sorry.”
He disappears into the light, leaving me alone in the future.
Fifteen seconds left. I should stay here in this time. That was the plan—to protect the others—but everything’s changed now and I don’t know what to believe. Was everything I learned in the last twenty-four hours a lie? Did Adam and Future-Adam plan all of it? Or will I really lose my mind and turn on the others? I still have the gun, so there’s still a small possibility I’m the killer. If I go back, I might murder them all.
But if I’m not really the killer, if Adam and Aether set all of this up, then the others are still in danger.
Ten seconds. I dash toward the aperture, my ankle throbbing and slowing me down, pain shooting through me with each step.
Five seconds. I enter the aperture, and the golden flecks surround me, filling my vision. I’m in the sun, blinded, the white light searing my eyes.
And then, nothing.
Part III
The Present
Thursday
I blink to clear my vision, but for a moment I can only hear distant voices and machinery around me. My body thrums, a slight vibration running through it from the floor. Something loud thuds nearby. Am I back in the present? Did it work?
Slowly, the world comes into focus. Adam, Trent, Zoe, and Chris all stand nearby, looking as dazed as I am. The walls of the metal dome stretch around me, and the door’s already open. That must have been the sound I heard. The others stumble through, and the people outside cheer. Bright-white spots still cover my vision, but I take a step toward the door, legs wobbling.
Outside, scientists in lab coats gather around the accelerator, clapping. In front, Dr. Kapur stares at us with eager eyes, like he’s excited to pick apart our brains. Above him, I spot the giant clock on the wall. Only thirteen minutes have passed since we went to the future. And yet, in those few minutes we were gone, I lived an entire day.
Dr. Walters gives us all a proud smile. “You’re back,” he says, and he sounds relieved. I picture his older self, frail and trapped in his bed, racked by coughing fits and regret. I can’t look at him the same now that I’ve seen the man he becomes.