Tandem

trust you, Juliana. I’m not leaving you, is that clear?”

I nodded. I wished he would stop calling me “Juli” and “Juliana.” It was a constant reminder of how many lies I’d allowed him to believe. “It doesn’t matter. There’s no way out.”

“Yes, there is.” Callum slipped off his signet ring, the one he’d told me had once belonged to his father, and slammed it, with the stone facing down, onto the little table next to the sofa. Then he did something that filled me with such horror that to my dying day I will never, ever forget it.

Callum picked up his tea and drank it down.

I screamed at him to stop, but by the time the words came out of my mouth he was already setting the empty cup down on the table. He put his ring back on.

“Why did you do that?” I cried.

“Have a little faith,” he said. “Just promise to stick with me, whatever you do.”

It didn’t take long for the poison to take effect. Within a minute, Callum had gone limp and collapsed onto the sofa. I slapped his cheeks, nearly insane with panic.

“Callum! Callum, wake up!” But he didn’t stir.

Kline rushed in, roused from his post by the sound of my shouting. “What’s going on?” he demanded.

“The prince is sick! Get help, now!” I commanded. He turned on his heel, muttering something into his lapel as he left. The rowan pin. Gloria had told me to use it if I ever needed Thomas. Frantic, I cast my eyes around the room for my dress; the pin was still fixed to the bodice. When I found it, I pressed the pin so hard that the needle dug into my thumb, drawing blood.

“Thomas,” I breathed, holding it close to my lips. “I need your help.”

 

THOMAS IN THE TOWER / 5

Thomas stared at the ceiling, twisting his KES ring around and around on his finger in agitation. He was lying on his bed feeling utterly useless. It had been over twenty-four hours since the General had banished him to his quarters, and no one had come to collect him. He still had his KES earpiece in, listening in vain for a summons, but when it came it was from the most unlikely source.

“Thomas, I need your help.” Thomas started at the sound of Sasha’s voice. She was distraught; he could tell just from the way she spoke those five words. Fear flooded through him. Something was wrong. She was in danger, or in pain. He had to get to her.

But how was he going to get out? The LCD screen on the inside of his door was red—no exit. Without thinking, he reared back and punched it so hard the screen broke, stained with blood from his knuckles. He hardly felt the pain. He reached inside the small hole he’d created and pulled out the wiry guts of the console. At least that would disable the lock. Now he had to get the door open.

The towel rack in his bathroom was a thick metal pole that tapered and turned at both ends. He pressed down on it with all his weight, easily dislocating it from the weak plaster, and lodged it into the small space between the door and the jamb that had been created when the vacuum seal released, managing to force it open about an inch. He inserted the fingers of both of his hands into the gap and yanked the door with all his might, opening it wider and wider with every attempt until there was just enough room for him to slip through.

He took off his KES ring and placed it on top of the dresser. After all, it belonged to the KES, not to him, and he didn’t want it anymore, though his finger felt naked without it. Then he disappeared through the gap in the door.

At first it looked like there was nobody around, but the General must have activated the motion sensors, because there was a shuffling at the end of the hallway and a young agent appeared, blocking Thomas’s only exit. Thomas didn’t know the agent very well, but he thought his name was York.

“Agent Mayhew, I must insist that you return to your quarters immediately,” York said.

“Get out of my way,” Thomas growled.

“I’m afraid I can’t do that,” York told him. Thomas was right on top of him now, and it was clear to both parties just how much bigger and more intimidating Thomas was than green, uncertain York. “You must remain in your room. General’s orders.”

Seeing that he had no other option, Thomas did something he never thought he would do—he reared back and punched York in the face. His KES brother fell to the ground, unconscious. Thomas shook out his hand; his knuckles had taken quite a beating tonight.

“Screw the General,” he said. 

THIRTY-FIVE

Everything happened so fast. One second, I watched Callum slump to the floor, and the next, medics rushed in wheeling a gurney as the flashing lights of an ambulance in the gardens illuminated the room with a pulsing red glow that made me sick to my stomach. I scrambled to my feet as the medics hoisted Callum onto the gurney. He landed with a dull thud, and I actually thought I might vomit.

The paramedics were removing Callum from my room. I rushed after them, pausing only for a moment to take my necklace, Twelfth Night, and the Angel Eyes map from the bedside drawer and shove them into my pockets. Whatever Angel Eyes was, the map had been important enough for the king to hide, and I wasn’t going to leave it or my own possessions behind for the General to find.

“I’m coming with you!” I cried, following the medics into the hallway. Just promise to stick with me, whatever you do, Callum had said. I didn’t think he’d said it because he thought he’d need my support. He’d said it because he’d worked something out, and if we were going to escape it was going to be together. I couldn’t let them take him away without me.

It was a huge risk, following Callum into an unseen future. I wasn’t going to be able to get home now, without the General’s help or Dr. Moss’s technological resources. Someday Callum was going to discover that I wasn’t Juliana, and he wouldn’t want anything to do with me. I would be more alone than ever, separated from my home by a quantum veil I couldn’t even hope to cross by myself, and from the boy I truly wanted, who I’d abandoned. But this was my choice. I couldn’t look back now, and I didn’t want to. I couldn’t bear to think of it.

The ambulance was parked haphazardly on the circular driveway outside the Castle’s grand entrance. The medics loaded Callum through the back. “If you’re coming, then get in,” one of them said to me.

I climbed in after the gurney. Just as the medic was about to close the doors, I saw Thomas emerge from the ground floor of the Tower and start running toward the driveway, drawn by all the commotion. My heart leapt into my throat at the sight of him.

“Wait, wait!” I cried, but the medic slammed the doors shut.

“This is an emergency, Your Highness!” she snapped. “We can’t wait.”

Thomas reached us a second too late. He flattened his hand against the window and I did the same, imagining the feel of his skin against mine as the ambulance began to move. I watched him through the window as we drove away; he just stood there for a few seconds, frozen, then took off for the shadows of the gardens, disappearing into the night.

The hospital had to be close. There was no way there wasn’t one near the Citadel, with all of its important residents, royal and otherwise, and it was unlikely that the General would want Callum at a more distant hospital —he would want to keep an eye on him. But I had no idea what Callum’s big escape plan entailed. Was I supposed to be doing something? Surely he would have told me if I was.

My answer came swiftly. We’d only been outside the Castle for about a minute when something slammed