Seconds Before Sunrise (The Timely Death Trilogy) (4 page)

“And I’m your friend, too,” I pointed out, and Robb paused. I turned on my heel, realizing I had glared at him, and I rubbed my eyes. “Sorry,” I muttered. “I haven’t been sleeping well.”

“What’s going on?” he asked, but I didn’t answer. He leaned over and tapped my arm. “Come on, Jess.”

I started walking, trying to prevent myself from speaking, but I couldn’t stop myself for long. “I’ve been having nightmares.”

A frown consumed
his smile. “I knew we shouldn’t have taken you to that forest.”

“It wasn’t the forest—”

“Wasn’t it?” he asked, and I didn’t respond because he was right. He exhaled, placing a hand on the nape of his neck. “Just ignore them, Jess. It’s not a big deal.”

I wanted to argue,
to tell him how surreal they were, how much they had been affecting me, but he didn’t understand. Clearly.

W
hen we entered homeroom, Robb took his seat next to Crystal. My assigned seat was across the room, which was probably a good thing considering I would spend the entire hour talking if I could.

I fell into my seat, and the period bell rang as my partner walked in. He kept his headphones on until he made it to his seat, and he hung them loosely on hi
s neck when he took them off. I had known Eric Welborn for eight months now, but we didn’t talk. Instead, we stayed to our sides of the table, and I often fought the urge to look at him.

He wasn’t a bad looking guy, but his attitude was awful, and I didn’t want to push it if I didn’t have to. Zac, however, was beyond handsome. His thick
, black hair shadowed his dark eyes and tanned skin like the midnight sky. He was taller than Robb, but cockier, and he had been pursuing me more since the summer. On top of that, Robb was his wingman, and he was trying to convince me to accept his friend.

As my teacher, Ms. Hinkel, began talking, I pulled out my notebook and drew a line straight down the middle. I’d make a pros
-and-cons list if I had to. I doodled Zac’s name at the top and froze when Eric shifted in his seat.

H
is stare locked onto my paper until I met his eyes. His emerald irises sliced through me like the cold wind from last night’s dream.

“Thought you were taking notes,” he grumbled, turning away as he yanked a pen out of his pocket and positioned his shoulders to me.

The air left my lungs, but I was filled with the urge to scream at the partial stranger. He didn’t know me, and he had no right to read over my things whether I was taking notes or not. But his glare wasn’t just aggravating. It was confusing. He seemed upset, and I doubted it was over note-taking. His emotional response was the only reason I could hold back. Between Jonathon and him, I’d suddenly turned into a softy over night, and the nightmares didn’t help. I couldn’t even stand up for myself, and I had no idea why.

Eric

I wasn’t going to visit Jessica, but I couldn’t stop myself after everything that happened in class.

Robb talked
her into going out with friends, including Zac, and I dwelled on her doodles. She’d written his name down, and the notion struck a maddening match in my heart.

Once the sun set,
I walked most of the way to her house and carefully transported into her bedroom. Nothing had moved. Her bed was against the far wall, and her blinds were pulled up, allowing moonlight in. The silver coloring stretched across her torso, and her dark eyelashes moved when she dreamt. At a distance, I watched her flip over, and I held my breath as her curly hair moved across her pillow. I wanted to wake her up, but I knew I couldn’t. Seconds were enough for me. I had to leave.

I melted into the shadows,
but a hand grabbed my arm and pushed me against the wall. Jessica’s desk shook, and I froze as a boy sprung up from the shadows, his hair as wild as his green eyes. It was Pierce.

Our eyes locked
. “What are you doing here?” we hissed simultaneously.

I tilted my head toward Jessica. “Are you joking?”

As the words left my mouth, Jessica mumbled in her sleep and curled up in her blankets. We watched her, holding our breath, but she didn’t wake up. We looked back at each other.

“Outside, Shoman.
” Pierce’s breath seethed between his teeth. “Now.”

“Fine.”

He disappeared, but I lingered, glancing at Jessica one last time. Her back rose, and a part of me hoped she would awaken. Another stronger part of me understood that would be the worst scenario.

I left.

My body reformed with mist and grace, and I shook my arms in front of myself. Black and blue droplets splattered across the front lawn, and I stared at the unusual scene, remembering how Jessica showed it to me months ago. I still hadn’t figured out how to control the power.

“I’m up here,” Pierce said, snapping his fingers to gain my attention.

“I know why I was here.” I waited for his excuse. He was my best friend, but I wasn’t going to trust the fact that he was in my girlfriend’s bedroom.

The veins on his arms pushed against his skin. “Let’s walk,” he said, jabbing his thumb over his shoulder. Without my consent, he walked aw
ay, and I was forced to follow.

He crossed the lawn
, dipped past the sidewalk, and walked onto a trail that led to our school. His pupils radiated in blackness, and I had to look away from him to keep myself from searching his eyes for something I didn’t want to see. Our silence was heavy, aside from the tapping of our shoes as we strode yards away from Jessica’s house. The tapping was so deafening, it seemed to affect my heartbeat.

“I’m her guard,” he said
. Pierce had taken two steps before he realized I had frozen.

“What?” I asked, remembering how I’d already heard the informat
ion. I knew she was getting one, but I never suspected Pierce.

H
e pushed at his nose as if his glasses were still in place. “I was assigned to keep an eye on her since I can in both worlds. We have class together—”

“Why does she need a guard?”

She was safe, wasn’t she? That was the entire point of erasing her memory − so she couldn’t activate her powers and figure out the situation. She would be entirely human, and Darthon would have no one to chase. It had been the perfect plan, but Pierce’s responsibilities insinuated a flaw.

Pierce remained silent, and an owl’s hoot echoed through the trail. I tore my eyes away from my friend and searched the branches for the bird. It was nowhere to be seen.

“You’re supposed to stay away from her, Shoman,” Pierce said.

“She was doodling Za
c’s name in her notebook today.” Now that I was confessing it aloud, my actions felt selfishly ridiculous.

“Ouch.”

“I know it’s a stupid excuse—” I began, but Pierce waved his hands in the air.

“I’m not reporting you, Shoman,” he said. “I’m just reminding you of your duties.” His lip pulled into a smirk on his right cheek. “I was kind of expecting you to show up one of these nights.”

I chuckled. “That obvious?”

He nodded, but he didn’t have to
. “I need to show you something.”

He pulled out his cell phone and the sc
reen blinded my eyes. I blinked, and he turned the brightness down, tilting it my way. “Look familiar to you?” he asked.

L
ightly drawn over a canvas was a sketch of Hayworth from the sky. I recognized it immediately as the night Jessica flew for the first time. I reached up to grab it, but Pierce pulled it away.

“Where’d you get that?” I asked
.

“Class.” He returned the phone to his pocket.
“It’s Jessica’s work.”

I sucked in breath, and my ribs pushed against my lungs. “She remembers?”

“No,” he corrected. “She’s having dreams.”

“She’s dreaming a
bout me?”

Pierce swayed from foot to foot. “I’m not sure,” he admitted. “She didn’t tell me much.”

“You talked to her?”

“I’m her guard,” he
said with a hardened voice. “And we have class together.”

I tried to picture Jonathon Stone approaching Jessica Taylor in painting, b
ut I couldn’t. The timing was too perfect.

“Luthicer tweaked
my schedule,” Pierce added.

I folded my arms. “Maybe if Luthicer’s memory swipe worked
, he wouldn’t have to do that.”

“It technically worked, Sho
man,” he said. “She’s not aware it’s a memory or she’d be right in front of us.”

I kicked the crumbling pavement. “Why didn’t you tell me earlier?”

“Why do you think?” He tapped his forehead. “You blocked me, remember?”

I
did now since he brought it up, and I rubbed my temples, ridding myself of the heavy barrier I’d put up days before. “Sorry about that,” I muttered.

Pierce whistled low.
“You forgot, didn’t you?”

I refused to respond
because the truth wasn’t worth hearing. “Do the elders know about this?” I asked, studying Pierce’s reaction. He didn’t flinch, and I knew the elders were aware. “Of course they know.”

“They thought
it would be better if you didn’t.”

“And look at the success their decisions have had,” I spat
.

“Exactly why
I’m telling you now,” he said.

“You’re telling me
because I broke the rules.”

“Which is something I enjoy advocating,” he agreed, adjusting his stance. “But you can’t
see Jess again,” he said. “You have to trust in her safety, especially with me around.”

I craved an argument
but held back. “You have her bedroom sealed?” I knew how he found me. I used the same spell to keep Noah out of my things.

He
folded his arms across his chest in response. “Can we go now?” he asked, jumping up and down. “It’s starting to get cold.”

“Sure, princess,” I joked, unable to feel the chill from the upcoming winter. It was only August
, and nighttime still felt nice out to me. But it didn’t to Pierce, and that was enough to remind me of the upcoming battle ahead. I didn’t have time to worry about Jessica’s personal life. I had to concentrate on defeating Darthon − killing him. Even if I didn’t want to, he had to die, and I was the only one who could do it.

Jessica

I couldn’t get their words out of my head.

What are you doing here
?

The two boys were in my bedroom, and then they were shadows, disappearing
into a black vortex of misty ash. When I woke up, I could barely breathe, and I still couldn’t, even though it’d been hours. I was in homeroom, and the dream owned my every thought. My mind was about to burst.

“You okay?”

The sudden whisper couldn’t tear me from my thoughts, but I did freeze when I realized who was speaking to me. Eric Welborn.

“What?”
I asked.

He gestured to the pen in my hands. Ink splattered over my notebook, and I realized I’d been tapping it. I tore the ruined page out. Pieces of paper sprawled across the desk, and I swiped them off. “I’m fine,” I
said, but my voice shook.

“You seem
a little jumpy,” he continued.

We were in study hall, and our teacher was gone. Everyon
e was talking, including the guy who’d hardly talked to me since the semester started.

“How was your summer?” Eric
changed the topic. He looked different, more rested, and his stare was concentrated on me.

“It was good,” I stuttered through my surprise. I wasn’t expecting him to talk to me at all. “It went by too fast.”

“It did,” he agreed, pushing his long sleeves up. “Go out of town or anything?”

“No.” I swallowed my nerves. I’d spent most of the summer looking for more information
on my biological parents, but I couldn’t even find where they were buried. “Did you?” I followed the script of back-to-school talk.

“We always stay in town.”

Our conversation halted, and I turned back to my notebook. As much as I wanted more friends, I wasn’t sure what else to say. He sat next to me, but he didn’t seem to be the socializing type, and I doubted he would talk to me again.

“That’s really anno
ying, you know,” Eric said.

I glanced back at him. For the second time, he gestured to my
hand, and I realized I had done it again. My pen was emptying out on my paper. I sighed, apologized, and flipped the page over. I didn’t need to fill up our desk with ripped up pieces.

“What’s going o
n with you, Jessica?” he asked.

A
blush rose to my cheeks. No one used my full name, but he said it in a way that comforted me. It felt personal.

“Rough night
, I guess.” I pushed my seat back. I would not touch my pen again.