I’d waited so long, painted so many pictures of love and passion, but it had only been a pale representation, aguessof what love truly was. I’d never actually felt anything that powerful for anyone before. Not until now.
Adam was the man I’d been waiting my whole life to find – Iknewhe was.
Little did I know how I’d end up finding him.
“We need to go,” he whispered against my lips. “It’s not safe here.”
“Go where?”
He pulled the sleeve of his coat up so I could see he wore a strange watch with a large face on his left wrist. He fiddled with it for a moment, carefully turning a gear on the side of it.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “It shouldn’t be like this. You shouldn’t have to leave your life behind, but there’s no other way to keep you safe.”
I thought of the friends I wouldn’t see again. They’d be worried and confused about what happened to me. But Adam was right. I couldn’t go back. My life here was over.
“You didn’t answer my question,” I said softly. “Where are we going?”
He brought his arm around my waist. “To the future. Twenty years from now. My time. I know a safe house there for those whowant to escape from the Books of Fate. You won’t be the first who’s taken refuge there.”
The future.
I nodded. My heart ached at the thought of never seeing Anna or my other friends again, but I knew he was right. “OK.”
He seemed surprised I was so agreeable. “You trust me?”
“I do.”
He nodded. “Good.”
I folded the sketch and tucked it back in his pocket.
“It’s worth money, you know,” he said with a grin. “If anyone knew I had a Sophie Shaw original they’d be very jealous.”
“Feel free to sell it.”
“That’s not going to happen.” He looked at his watch, fiddling a little more with it.
“No?” Despite everything, a smile tugged at my lips. “Can’t bear to part with it?”
“That, of course.” Adam shook his head and met my gaze. “But also because I found my name in the Books this morning as well as yours.”
My smile fell away. “But, wait a minute. What does that mean?”
Adam touched my face, stroking his warm fingers over my cheek and bottom lip. “It means I’m going to die very soon – killed by a bullet to my heart, apparently. And there’s nothing I can do about it.”
I heard a sound, a whirring noise, and it filled my ears as white light filled my eyes. Before I could say anything else, demand more answers from him, the world I’d known all my life disappeared forever.
“This is Gloria,” Adam said when a door creaked open on the fifteenth floor of a condo on the Lower East Side.
We’d arrived in the future – as crazy as that sounded – an hour ago. Adam kept checking his watch for some sort of indication that his friends had also come forward with us. He seemed nervous about that, but not because he feared his own impending death. He was so focused on my safety it was driving me seriously crazy.
He also wouldn’t discuss it any more. I asked him questions about how the auditors found people and if there was any way to talk to them rationally, but he just changed the subject. It was very frustrating.
“As I live and breathe.” Gloria’s gaze scanned the length of him. She had dark hair and dark skin and ruby red lips that curled with amusement. “Adam Rizer. Never thought I’d see you here.”
“Didn’t you know I was aware of your secret little operation?”
“Of course, and I knew you wouldn’t tell anyone. But I thought you were a company man. Never go against your uncle for anything.” Her eyes flicked to me. “Ah, I think it’s becoming clearer to me why you’d risk so much tonight.”
