Out of Time Read online

  “Oh, yeah? I’ve not seen you here before. Who sent you?”

  “Margo.”

  An aquantance from class. She’d bragged about coming to Marty’s last semester in one of my classes. So here was hoping she wasn’t lying.

  “You can’t work a spell, can you?”

  “No.”

  Heat rose in my cheeks. My chin jutted out.

  “I’ll need something ready to use.”

  “What do you need?”

  “I need to sleep.”

  “Forever?”

  Was that a real question or a test?

  “No. But I need something that’s just on this side of forever.”

  “Wait right here.” He disappeared in the back.

  I waited. No sound came from the back except the mindless drone of a tv. I leaned against the counter and tapped my foot. The urge to leave overcame me again. I ignored it.

  I’d been waiting for ages. I yanked my phone out of my pocket. It’s only been three minutes.

  “Cool it, Blair,” I muttered to myself.

  The man returned, this time with a small pouch. He handed it to me and I stuck it in the pocket of my jacket as fast as I could.

  “Fifty dollars.”

  I thrust a $50 bill at him. I grabbed my pop and candy bar and turned to go. The bell chimed again. Wait. I turned back to see him watching me.

  “Um—how does it work?”

  “Mix it with water. Wait ten minutes and then make sure you drink it all. Good luck. It’s a toss up how it affects people without magic.”

  I resisted the urge to run once I got out of the store. I pulled my hood back up against the rain and walked back to my apartment. My phone buzzed in my purse, but I ignored it.

  Cassandra had been trying to call me all day. I didn’t want to talk to her. She’d made it clear she didn’t believe me. I wasn’t interested in wasting energy on people who wouldn’t help me find Soren.

  Once I was back at my apartment, I locked the door behind me. After making sure my roommate wasn’t home, I grabbed a glass of water and a spoon and locked myself in my bedroom. I sat the glass of water on my nightstand. With shaking hands, I pulled out the packet. Light blue power filled the inside.

  With shaking hands, I dumped the powder in the glass and stirred it until the powder had dissolved. The water was now a deep blue color and foamed at the top. I sniffed it. Lavender and something else with a warm, relaxing note in it. I set a timer on my phone for ten minutes.

  I sat with my legs crossed and my chin resting on my hands as I watched the timer count back toward zero. Someone rattled the door to the apartment, but I ignored it. My roommate and I were always coming in and out without talking to one another. Her footsteps came down the hall. The timer was getting close. Just thirty seconds now. I wanted to grab the potion and get it over with, but I waited. A cold sweat started on my forehead as the timer got closer and closer to zero.

  The timer buzzed and someone knocked at my bedroom door at the same time. I jumped up off the bed and grabbed for my phone, coming close to knocking off the glass. A deep breath centered me again.

  “Yeah?” I called. “Who is it?”

  “Blair, it’s Cassie. Let me in.”

  “Crap.” What was she doing here? I picked up the glass off my nightstand. I needed to drink the potion, but I couldn’t with Cassandra standing outside my door.

  “What do you want?”

  “Blair, what’s going on? Your roommate called me because she said you didn’t go to classes today and you’re acting weird. Why is your door locked? Let me in.”

  My doorknob rattled as Cassie tried to get in on the other side.

  “I’m fine, Cassie. Go home. I don’t want to talk to you.”

  “Blair, let me in right now. I know you went to Marty’s. What did you get? What are you trying to do?”

  “Leave me alone!”

  I was running out of time. I lifted the glass to my lips.

  My door exploded with a crash. The reverberation knocked me onto the bed. I barely managed to keep the glass upright. I threw my head back and tried to gulp the drink before the dust settled.

  Cassie yelled, and the liquid disappeared just as the glass touched my lips. The glass in my hands was empty. Anguish unlike anything I had ever known welled up inside me. I threw the glass at Cassandra. She dodged, and it shattered against the wall.

  “What do you think you’re doing?”

  Cassie yelled as she picked her way through the debris of my former door.

  “Don’t you dare come any closer!”

  Cassandra paused. I wrapped my arms around my middle and sunk to the floor.

  “That was my last chance!” My screamed matched the frantic voice in my head. “That was my last chance to find Soren. You’ve ruined it1”

  I grabbed a piece of wood from the floor and threw it at her. It didn’t even come close to hitting her.

  “You don’t even know what was in that, Blair. Have you gone crazy? You could have died.”

  “What do you care if I did, Cassie? What do I care if I did? Soren is out there, and no one will listen. No one will believe me.”

  The despairing sadness that had become my friend these past few weeks was creeping through my rage. Tears welled up in my eyes again. The pain and anger fought for control.

  “How do you know I went to Marty’s?”

  “I tracked you, Blair. You weren’t answering my phone calls, and then when your roommate called me, I got worried about you.”

  “You tracked me? What do you think you’re doing placing a tracking spell on me without my permission? That’s illegal, Cass.”

  Cassie threw up her hands and sat down on the chair in the corner.

  “You’re right, Blair. I shouldn’t have tracked you. That was wrong. I’m sorry. I tried to find you at the hospital and saw they quarantined it and they weren’t letting in visitors. I was worried. What was I supposed to do?”

  All the fight left me. I leaned back against my bed. Cassie moved from the chair to floor beside me and stroked my hair. The vice grip of pain in my chest was never going to let me go.

  “What am I going to do Cassie?”

  “It’s okay, Blair. You’ll get through it. I’ll help you get through it.”

  “You don’t understand, Cassie. I can’t get through it. Soren is lost. He’s not here, but he’s somewhere. And I can’t find him. I try and I try, and I don’t know what to do now. I just don’t know what to do.”

  Cassie remained quiet for a moment, then she stood.

  “Come with me.”

  “Where are we going?”

  “To find Soren.”

  I shook with her, my knees shaky.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Come with me, I’ll tell you on the way.”

  The city’s street lights cast the sidewalks in front of us in an odd yellow glow. For once, the streets were almost deserted. Cassandra grabbed my head and tugged me along. We’d gone a few streets before I realized the direction we were walking in.

  “Cassie, why are we going to the hospital? We can’t get in. I don’t want to go. It’s too hard.”

  Cassandra just shook her head and kept going.

  “Please, Blair, just trust me.”

  I stayed quiet, but the dread of seeing the hospital without being able to see Soren stayed with me. Once we got there, Cassandra didn’t stop at the front doors. Instead, she went down an alleyway that beside the building. At a back door and knocked three times.

  Someone on the other side opened the door a crack, and Cassandra whispered to them. The door shut again. I wanted to tell her it was no use; they would not let us in. But as soon as I opened my mouth, she pressed her finger to her lips.

  Minutes passed before the door opened again. A male nurse stood there and motioned us in. Once inside, he took us through a door on the left into a supply closet.

  “Here.” He thrust two pairs of dark green nurse scrubs towards us.
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  “No outsiders are supposed to be here so they’re not locking any of the doors inside the hospital. You don’t have to worry about having a pass card. Don’t stop and talk to anyone. or you’ll be found out. Just walk fast and act like you’ve got somewhere to be. If you get caught, you’re on your own.”

  He stopped and started hard at me..

  “Is this her?” He looked past me to Cassandra.

  “Yes.”

  “Good luck.”

  He left.

  “What was that about?” I asked.

  “I’ll explain in a minute. Let’s hurry and get changed.”

  Once we were dressed as nurses, Cassandra made sure we were in the clear before we headed down the hallway. We didn’t see anyone before making it to the stairs. On Soren’s floor I spotted one of his doctors in a group of people walking in our direction.

  “Cass, she’ll recognize me.” We couldn’t get stopped now, not when we were so close.

  Cassandra grabbed my arm and drug me into a nearby closet. Never had I been so happy to see a closet. The footsteps on the other side of the door grew louder as they approached. I held my breath as the footsteps stopped outside the closet.

  “So, you’re telling me no one can find her?”

  That was the doctor’s voice.

  “No. She hasn’t been to classes today, and she wasn’t in her apartment when we checked. Her roommate said she hasn’t seen her. However, her door looks like it—exploded. We don’t know what happened, but there were no signs of injury.”

  Cassie squeezed my arms, her nails biting in my flesh. They were talking about me.

  “Has no one placed a tracking spell on this girl? She’s not magical. She can’t be that hard to find.”

  “Well, we tried but there’s been a spell of protection placed on her. None of us have been able to get through.”

  “Just great. Find her! I want her taken care of before the end of the night.”

  The footsteps disappeared down the hall. When it had been silent for a few minutes I whipped around and looked at Cassandra.

  “What were they talking about?” I whispered.

  Cassandra just shook her head. She peeked out the door to make sure the hallway was deserted before pulling me out. We made our way to Soren’s room as quickly as possible without drawing attention to ourselves. It took everything in me to not full out sprint the rest of the way there.

  Cassandra locked the door behind us as I turned to Soren. I gasped. He looked terrible. His skin was sallow, his hair dull. And in just a day he’d lost a significant amount of weight. It wasn’t possible. I ran to his bedside and grabbed his hand.

  “What in the world is going on, Cassandra?” I demanded. “Why does he look so bad? What were those people talking about? They were looking for me, weren’t they?”

  “Yes.”

  Cassandra stood with her back against the door, her face lost in shadows.

  “Why?”

  “Because you were right all along, Blair. Soren is still out there somewhere, and you’re the only one that can find him.”

  I felt no joy about being right. Just more anger.

  “Why would no one help me, then? Why did everyone treat me like I was going crazy? That includes you.”

  “Blair, I’m sorry. When I left here the other day, I felt terrible, but there was no other explanation for what was happening. I’m sorry, I really thought Soren was gone, and you hadn’t accepted it yet. But then someone showed up at my apartment looking for you. They told me there were more cases of people just like Soren’s popping up. They said they needed you to make sure you weren’t sick. But it didn’t feel right.”

  “How did they know where to find me?”

  “We, me and some higher witches in my coven, we think they somehow found out we cast the spell in my apartment the other day.”

  “How would they have known?”

  “The only way is if they were somehow tracking it from Soren’s end.”

  “But that means—”

  “Yes, Blair. It means you really are connecting with Soren somehow. It means you aren’t just dreaming.”

  A weight lifted off my chest. I squeezed Soren’s hand.

  “I knew it, Cassie. I knew I wasn’t dreaming. But if I’m not dreaming then where am I going?”

  “That’s what we don’t know. We couldn’t get any readings while you were in the apartment. It’s like some weird limbo.”

  “Blair, every other person who has come down with this is magical. I found out there are reports just like yours of people hearing their loved ones in their dreams, but as soon as they try to find them they get the illness too. I don’t think it’s an illness, Blair. I—and my coven—we think it’s a spell. We think someone is using it to drain the magic and the life from other people.”

  The sound of footsteps hurrying down the hallway made me jump. Cassandra stopped talking, and we both stared at the door, but the footsteps drew near and then faded as someone walked past the door and on down the hallway. I turned away and stared in disbelief at Soren. Under a spell?

  “How would that happen? How would he get under a spell?”

  “We’re trying to find out. But Blair, I think you’re the key to all of this. And as you heard, other people think you can bring Soren back.”

  “How, Cassie? I’ll try anything.”

  “We’re going to try here. With you both in the same room.”

  “What if we get caught?” Even as I spoke, I knew it didn’t matter. I would do anything to bring Soren back.

  “We won’t. No one will come in. I’ve cast a spell of protection over this room. Once anyone finds out what is happening, we will already be gone.”

  “I guess you were the one that cast a spell of protection over me too?”

  “Yeah—” Cassandra shrugged “—forgive me?”

  “Just this once.”

  “Ok, now here, take this.”

  She removed her necklace. At the end was a crystal pendant in the shape of a teardrop. She placed the necklace over my head. The warmth of the pendant comforted me.

  “What is it?”

  “It's a light pendant. If I’m right, it goes wherever you are, so you’ll have it with you when you dream. Bring him back to the light, Blair.”

  I nodded. Cassandra pulled something else out of her bag.

  “This is a pure sleeping potion. My coven created it. Unlike that cheap crap you bought on the street, this will give you a deep sleep with none of the unpleasant side effects. Now, lay down and drink it. We don’t have much time.”

  I crawled into the bed with Soren. Taking his hand in one of my, I drank the potion in two big gulps. Peace flowed from my core to my limbs. I was going to find Soren. And this time I wasn’t leaving without him.

  One second, I was in the hospital bed next to Soren. And the next, I’d descended into the now familiar darkness. It greeted me like an old friend. I grasped at my neck. The necklace was there. I drew it out of my shirt and held the crystal in my palm. It was still dark. How was this supposed to work?

  Just when I was about to give up, the crystal lit up in a flash, blinding me. As my vision cleared, the light of the crystal cast a small glow a few feet into the darkness in front of me. Well, that was something.

  I turned around to start off into the darkness. To my surprise, the light of the crystal stayed behind me. I turned back towards the light and took a few steps in the same direction. The light moved forward as well. With a gasp that got swallowed up by the surrounding darkness I realized the crystal was guiding my path.

  I took off in the light's direction. The ground I was on was still nothing but the smooth blackness. I walked until I was out of breath. The light of the crystal stayed pointed in the same direction. Just when I was getting ready to walk again, I heard it.

  “Blair.”

  Soren. His voice sounded weak and far away.

  “I’m here. Soren, I’m here.”

  “Blair.”
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br />   I followed the light and his voice. Over and over I heard my name. Almost imperceptibly, his voice became louder. I had to stop again and catch my breath.

  “Soren, where are you?”

  “Here.”

  His voice hit my heart like an arrow.

  “Soren. Come find me, please. I’m taking you back home.”

  I held my breath, trying to listen. Something tapped in the darkness. Footsteps. The crystal in my hand flared and illuminated a large circle around me. There at the edge of the circle he stood.

  “Soren!”

  The crystal dropped from my hand, and the light danced as the pendant hit the end of the chain around my neck. In two seconds that felt like an eternity, I crossed the circle of light and threw myself into his arms.

  His arms circled around me as I grabbed him around the neck. The warmth of his body against mine felt like home. Huge racking sobs overtook me. I couldn’t believe I was holding him again. I held him as tightly as I could with my head buried into his shoulder until I composed myself. Finally, we both quit crying, and it was just us holding each other in the pale light of the crystal.

  I drew back to look at his face. It was the same sweet face I remembered. I brushed his hair out of his eyes.

  “Hi.”

  His voice was music to my ears. His eyes still shone bright with tears.

  “Hi,” I replied with a strangled laugh.

  Soren placed both hands on the side of my face and leaned in for a soft, sweet kiss. I held onto his arms and sighed. This was perfect. What if it really was just a dream? Fear gripped me. I pushed it away. A dream would never feel this real. I leaned into his chest.

  “You found me.” His voice rumbled in my ear.

  “I would follow you anywhere. I promised I’d never quit looking.”

  “I knew you wouldn’t. I knew you were here every time you came.”

  “No one believed me, but I knew it was real.”

  We stood there for another moment in each other’s embrace, my head on his chest, his arms wrapped around me. Then the urgency of what was happening in the world while I slept came rushing back.