Oh my—
Coldness blooms in my gut. My mother was a time traveler. She must have been. It would explain the incorrect date in her journal.
My head shoots up. “Is this genetic?” I look from Parker to Rose. “Are your parents time travelers?” I demand.
“I don’t know,” Rose says, her lips twitching.
“How can you not know?” I lean forward, and the table digs into my torso.
Rose’s lips pull back into a snarl. “Were your parents time travelers, Ella? How canyounot know?”
“Rose,” Parker warns.
She releases a breath and studies the wall behind me for a moment, picking at her nails. “I’ve never met my biological parents,” she says through her teeth.
“I—I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to pry.”
“It’s fine.” Rose’s head snaps to Parker. “Parker?”
“It’s not genetic,” he says.They must be wrong.
Rose turns back to me. “Not genetic. Happy? Now, is that enough to make you believe us?”
As much as I want to deny what they’re saying, the evidence is there—the tingling in my limbs when I wake, Parker recalling my dream, Rose having my necklace, but…
“Why would I give you my necklace instead of coming back here myself?”
Rose watches Parker as he walks away from the table anddrops onto Silas’s leather sofa. “Interacting with your past self can be messy, so you sent us instead. To find McGregor.”
“Why are you working with Professor McGregor? Is he a time traveler?”
“No.” Rose clears her throat. “Parker can’t time travel anymore. McGregor might be able to help us because in the future, he works at Neurovida. He needs to study the blood of a time traveler. He tried using ours, but because we aren’t from here, the samples are useless.”
“If Parker can’t time travel, then how is he here?” I ask.
“I’m holding him here. Another skill you’ll learn at Neurovida. One I’m obviously shit at.” She hesitates. “It’s also the reason I was so messed up last night. It takes an enormous toll to time travel with another person, and it turns out staying in the wrong time makes it worse. I’m trying to keep it under control, but sometimes… well, you saw.”
She rubs her fingers over the dark rings beneath her eyes, blood caking her nail beds. Is this the effect time travel has on a person?Time travel isn’t real!
I glance between Parker and Rose. “So… you want a sample of my blood?”
“Yeah,” Rose says. “Which is why we have your class schedule in our room. We’ve been trying to catch you alone, but you’re always with Anna or working at the library. We gave up and knocked on your door this morning, and she told us you might be here.”
Explains why they were showing up everywhere I went. “And after I give you my blood, you’ll leave here?”
“Eventually, yes. You won’t see us again until you’re recruited, and our younger selves won’t know we’ve met.” She leans toward me, her onyx eyes narrowing. “It needs tostay that way, Ella. You can’t tell anyone about this. And just tell Anna we needed help with something at the library. Got it?” Her mouth pulls to the side, and she gnaws on the inside of her cheek.
“Why can’t I mention I’ve met you before?” I ask.
“Because Neurovida has rules. Time travelers aren’t allowed to just gallivant around in the past,” Rose says, wringing her hands. Her gaze briefly flickers to Parker.
“What aren’t you telling me?” I turn to stare at the back of Parker’s head. “Parker, how did you lose your ability to time travel?”
“I told you last night I would never lie to you, so please don’t make me now,” he says, face glued to Silas’s blank TV screen. I shudder, the despondence in his tone squeezing my heart like a tight fist.
Rose’s sharp eyes land on mine. “You tell anyone we were here, even our younger selves, and we become traceable. That puts all of us in danger. We’ve told you much more than we ever should have. Just trust us.”
There’s that word again.Trust.
