Graymere

“Bye Fenris,” the girl dismissed the servant with a glare and he left after bowing to her, shutting the door behind him. So I was to meet my doom with her. I eyed the singular window, wondering if I could get past her, and then if I could survive the fall.

She walked towards me slowly, coming much closer than I anticipated. She grabbed my left hand and examined my wrist. Her fingers were warm, and part of me wished she wouldn’t let go.

“No,” she muttered to herself. “It isn’t the same.” She looked up at me. “Who are you and where did you get this?”

“Um, I, uh” I tried to say, terrified of the fire and not wanting to die, trying to be a good spy and keeping the organization’s secrets, and also noticing her sapphire eyes for the first time.

“Okay, let’s try this again.” She sat down one of the large chairs in front of the fireplace and motioned for me to do the same. I did. “My name is Sapphire Graymere, but I go by Fire.”

Oh. So the boy was talking about a girl, not a flame. I nearly breathed my sigh of relief out loud, but stopped myself.

“Ophelia Redwood,” I said, borrowing the name from Shakespeare and a tree.

“Classy,” she noted. “And when are you from Leah?” She asked, shortening my name.

“When?” I asked, not sure if I’ve heard her right.

“I’ve seen those bracelets before,” Fire explained in an irritated tone as she got up and walked over towards me. “It may not look exactly the same,” her fingers closed around my wrist, “but I’m guessing that if we pry this off, it’ll do the exact same thing.”

I had not quite yet reached the level of terror that I had been in in the asylum, but I was getting there.

Fire didn’t have a bracelet. Neither did the boy, who was likely her little brother. The Master and the Madame, Fenris had said. Not married, but siblings. How did they know so much about the bracelets, about time travel if they were not time travelers themselves? They must have encountered time travelers before, but-

If we pry this off, it’ll do the exact same thing.

My heart sank when I realized that they had been responsible for Incidents in the past. Or perhaps just one. The third Incident. 1842. No, she wasn’t quite old enough for that. Maybe 16 now. But the first and second Incidents were not from this time period, so she could not have caused them unless she was also a time traveler.

Perhaps she and her brother were part of some greater organization that hunted us, an organization that had been in existence since before the first Incident. But why? And if that were true, why have there only been three Incidents? Have they been covering them up? Replacing lost time travelers with robots or clones so that-

“Leah!” Fire snapped, jerking me away from my insane imagination. “Are you going to tell me what I want to know or will I have to call Mere?”

“Mere?” I asked stupidly. She gave me a devilish grin and drew away from me. It felt like the heat left my body when she moved away from me and towards the window. Fire indeed. I stood up and backed away from her, from the window. Despite the name, Mere didn’t seem like any mere threat.

“Mere!” She called, and the window flew open as a large batlike creature flew inside the room. Its head morphed into that of a wolf’s. The creature knocked me to the ground and climbed on top of me, pinning my arms down with its claws. I could feel blood dripping down the sides of my arms and Fire looked annoyed that her carpets were being stained with my blood.

“I don’t suppose I have to put my threat into words,” she said coldly.

Teeth dug into my shoulder and I screamed. If people outside the household did hear me, they would probably assume that my cries of pain and fear belonged to a deranged patient at the asylum. They would think to themselves how sad it was, but mostly they would be glad that I was locked up, away from them and their family.

I was all alone.

“Stop,” Fire instructed. The wolf opened its mouth, letting go of me and lifted its head to look at her. “Now will you take me to Mortimer?” She asked with the tone of a bored child who just wanted to go home.

I nodded and she smiled. She made a strange clicking noise with her mouth and the wolf climbed off of me. It crawled to the window, became more batlike, and flew away.