Chapter 12 Mariella #2
“If you’re not going to help me then shut up, Parker,” Rose snaps in his direction and turns back to me. “I can’t prove it to you—you’ll just need to trust me.”
Trust her? What reason have either of them given me to trust them? Rose, with her spiteful glances, and Parker… He’s frowning, eyes downcast. I want to trust him. My heart tells me I can, but I’m smarter than that. I straighten in my chair. “I want you to leave.”
Parker’s head shoots up, his golden eyes alight. “Wait. There might be a way we can convince you.” He’s speaking to me, but his eyes are fixed on Rose. She shakes her head. “Her sub-t,” he says.
What the hell is going on?
“Yes.” Rose’s eyes widen. “Parker, you’re a genius.”
“I know,” he says, tucking his hands into his pockets. Rose scoffs.
“You two are impossible,” I say.
Parker turns to me and my breath hitches in my throat. His gaze scours my face. “You’re probably time traveling already, but you aren’t aware of it.” He rubs the back of his neck and stares down at the table. “You told me last night you’ve seen me in your dreams, right?”
Nerves shoot through me, and I curse my past self.
“Sometimes we time travel in our sleep,” Rose says.
“We call it subconscious traveling. An untrained traveler will mistake it for a dream, but you can tell the difference because when you time travel, you get this sensation, like—warmth in your body. Tingling.” She turns toward Parker.
“Are you just going to stand there? Help me out.”
“Electricity,” Parker murmurs, a distant look sweeping across his face. “She always described it like electricity.”
“Thank you,” Rose says, jabbing her hand toward Parker. “It’s like electricity. Running through your body. Have you ever experienced anything like that after you’ve woken from a dream?”
The blood drains from my face, and I lean back in my chair. This can’t be real.
“Tell me about a dream with us in it,” Rose says.
I glance at Parker and avert my stare, but Rose misses nothing.
“Jesus Christ,” she mutters, rolling her eyes.
“Or specifically, Parker.” Heat rushes to my cheeks.
“That wasn’t a dream, but a glimpse into your future.
Why don’t you tell us how it starts, and Parker can tell you what happens next? ”
I turn to face Parker. His intense, honey-hued eyes are focused on me, his mouth drawn into a straight line.
A glimpse into my future. His fingers wrapped around my wrist, pulling me toward him. The taste of his lips. Our bodies pressed together.
The heat in my face intensifies. She wants me to recount my intimate dream with Parker. Out loud.
“Anything you can remember,” Rose says.
This is ridiculous, but what if Rose is telling the truth? Wouldn’t it explain the familiarity I feel toward Parker and the reason behind my fiery dream? I shut my eyes and force the words out. “I have a dream, and in it I’m holding a flask.”
“A matte black flask?” Rose asks. My eyes snap open and I nod. “That’s Parker’s flask. Were there any other people around? Any buildings or landmarks?”
“No. We’re outside. We might be in a garden or a park. I’m not sure. I can never see past the wall of white.”
“That’s okay. What else can you remember?” Rose asks.
I curl the fabric of my jumper around my fingers.
“Well, I’m there with Parker.” My stomach churns.
He’s now frowning at his large hands, the muscles in his neck tense.
Why is he nervous? It’s not like it’s his subconscious sex dream.
“I have the flask in my hand, and as I pass it to Parker, I say—”
“Did Nickol kick you out again?” Parker says.
My head snaps up, my hands falling to my sides. I search his face, his dilated pupils boring into mine.
This can’t be real.
“Holy shit, Jimmy.” Rose smacks the tabletop. “How do you even remember that?” She leans forward, resting her forearms on the table. “What happened next?”
Parker’s eyes are glued to mine, stripping me bare. Is he, too, remembering the events that transpired? I’ve experienced this dream every night for the past two weeks.
“Do you know how long I’ve waited to be alone with you?”
His hand on my jaw, his tongue slipping into my mouth…
He looks away and shrugs, leaning back against the wall with his hands tucked into his pockets. “Nothing memorable.”
I flinch at the sting of his words. Is Parker embarrassed about what happened between us? Maybe it was a one-time thing? Of course it was.
“So, you’re saying every time I wake up with electricity in my body, I’ve been… time traveling?” I ask.
“Subconscious traveling. It’s a form of time travel.
You’re there as an observer, and the people you’re observing don’t know you’re there.
Think of it like watching a movie of yourself while dreaming.
Your body stays where it is, but your mind travels to another place and time.
It’s always within a personal experience, normally from your past.”
“And when you aren’t subconsciously traveling, can you go further back or forward than your own life?”
“No,” Rose says. “I mean, I did once by accident, but no one’s done it since.”
“How many different types of time travel are there?” I ask.
“Two,” says Rose.
My gaze slides between her and Parker. “Are you both asleep right now, in your own time?”
“No. Of course not. You can’t communicate with people in your sleep.
” She gestures to her chest. “This is communicative travel, because you can see and hear us—” She cuts herself off and clicks her tongue.
“It doesn’t fucking matter. There are two different types of time travel, the intricacies of which you’ll learn when you get recruited. ”
The void in my stomach deepens. When I get recruited.
I swallow the lump in my throat, but it’s as stubborn as the information Rose is asking me to digest.
Time travel.
I don’t want this. I refuse to believe it. I don’t need another thing that makes me different. Something else impeding the ordinary life I’m fighting to build. The life my mother never had.
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 can you not 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 and drops 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 to stay 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.