~ ZEV ~

Sasha gasped and Zev tightened his arm around her when she immediately began to take a step forward. Then he hissed and yanked her back.

"What? Zev?! Don't you see—I wanted to go back, to change it all and it's giving us a chance to do that—

"

"Wait, Sash. Just wait. You don't know what that means. The Gateway is dangerous. They trained us in this. We have to be really careful.

"

"But, Zev, we could stop this whole thing!

" she said, turning to him excitedly.

"Can't you see—

"

"No, Sash, you were too vague. We have no idea what we'd be walking into—just because things would be different, doesn't mean they'd be better. We can't… please, we can't risk it.

"

"But—

"

"You said to a time when you could change everything—but that would still be a time we've already lived. It doesn't mean you could change anything. We could just end up stuck, reliving this hell—

"

"But—

"

The source of this content is n0v

/el

/b

/in.

/net’

"What if it meant we didn't have a son anymore?

"

Sasha froze.

Zev stared at her, hard. This had been pressed on him—and not in the way of the Team trying to control. The first time he'd been taken through the Gateway to Thana he was only a child and they'd been terrified he'd get distracted and get lost. They'd put the fear of God into him—he had to be specific. He had to be focused. He couldn't let his mind stray.

Scientists had tested and researched the Gateways for years, and all of them had either disappeared, or discovered the same thing: The Gateway would find the place that fit your focus, whether it was a good place for you, or not. Whether you would die there, or not.

The Gateway didn't take your safety or intention into consideration. It simple existed.

"I can't… what…

" Sasha licked her lips.

"If he exists, I don't want to be in a world where he doesn't anymore,

" Zev says.

"What if his world doesn't cease to exist just because we go back, Sasha? What if he's still there and we just never get him because we're off in some alternate existence…

"

"But… but I talked to Vayl in different times but the same place. She knew me. She remembered!

"

He shook his head.

"But you're talking about changing everything. The Gateway doesn't lie, Sasha, but it also doesn't think. And we can't know for sure what it's taking us to!

"

Her face crumpled. She bit her lip and nodded.

"You're right. You're right,

" she said a moment later, her voice catching.

"But… why would it take us there and not to him now? Do the humans have a way to block it or something?

"

"I don't know. I don't think so?

"

Zev frowned. Why would it take them to such an incredible place—

good or bad—but not take them to their son. There had to be some kind of barrier, right?

Zev looked around.

By now Lhars and the others had been through and travelled both to the human world, and to the safe place. He hoped. Was it possible they'd raised the alarm somehow and the humans had a way to block it?

"I want to go and make sure Lhars and the others got the females out. I want to see the compound empty after they left.

"

The Gateway flickered, lighting and falling, the path glowing then going dark, like a light when the electricity was shorting out.

Sasha frowned and stared at the Gateway.

"Have you ever seen it do that before?

" she asked breathlessly.

Zev shook his head.

"The only thing that comes close is when I've changed my mind while I've been here, but it doesn't… not with a single destination, it's never done that. Only when the destination was changing—oh.

"

"Oh, what?

" she asked nervously.

Zev swallowed.

"What if some of them are out, and some of them aren't?

" he said.

"I was thinking about Lhars and Skal and Jhon. What if…

" he cleared his throat.

"I want to go to the compound after Skhal go Vayl and the others out.

"

The gateway bloomed with light, blazing again, the path solid and sure.

Sasha heaved a sigh of relief.

"I want to go see them after Lhars got his females out,

" she said confidently.

The Gateway went dark.

Zev cursed under his breath and his heart sank.

"Oh, no,

" Sasha whispered.

"Oh no, oh no, poor Kyelle.

"

"We don't know,

" Zev said.

"We can't know. Maybe it just hasn't happened yet.

"

"But it can go to the future. Zev. If that world is possible to be in, it would take us—unless they've blocked it somehow, right?

"

Something about what she'd scratched at the back of Zev's mind. He frowned harder.

"I want to… I want to go to Thana when I was a child. The day that Skhal was kind to me,

" he said clearly, and the pathway blazed again, immediately. A short journey around a corner.

Zev took a deep breath. But he had to check. He swallowed hard.

"I want to go to my fortieth birthday party… or the celebration that—

"

Once again, the Gateway went black.

"I don't think it can take us to the future, Sash,

" he whispered.

"I think… I think when there's a place that we want to go we have to wait for it to actually exist.

"

"We… what?!

" Sasha cried, looking around frantically.

"But I traveled time!

"

"Yes, but always to things that had happened in the past. You were always going back to things that had already happened. I just tried, Sasha. We tried to go forward and it always doesn't work.

"

Sasha stared, her brows and forehead pinched into lines of anguish.

Zev rubbed her arm with his free hand.

"Sasha, we're going to have to wait. We're going to have to wait until it's been long enough that we know he'll have been delivered. Then we can go back to the time when he was. It's our only choice.

"

Sasha sobbed.

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