The men scrambled back to their feet and started to fight, fists colliding with stomachs and elbows with jaws. Hiram tripped on a coil of rope lying on the catwalk, and Meridian Eliver kicked a wooden box at him. The collision knocked him back as pieces of wood splintered and shattered from the impact and clattered to the ground.
Hiram shook his head, his expression dazed. Meridian Eliver turned his back again. He limped a few steps in my direction, but Hiram grabbed his shirt and the two wrestled once more. Hiram threw him to the ground, but it was impossible to cheer for the momentary victory, knowing what was coming.
The badge thumped again.
The catwalk groaned again, then it snapped. The metal broke in two and caved inwards, and Hiram lurched forward, toppling over the edge.
“Hiram!” I screamed uselessly and climbed a few steps closer.
He caught himself on the railing, holding onto the thin metal desperately.
Thump.
Meridian Eliver used the railings to climb to his feet. He looked back at Hiram, who was struggling to pull himself to safety, then turned and limped toward me. No, not toward me. Toward the gun that materialized near my feet.
Thump.
All too clearly, I could see what was about to happen. Meridian Eliver would retrieve the gun and shoot Hiram, who would tumble to the ground floors below, where I’d find him taking his last breaths.
Thump.
Meridian Eliver approached, his footsteps a loud, solemn echo.
I couldn’t live with myself if I let Hiram die again. No matter what happened to me as a result of tinkering with the past, I had to do something.
I reached for the gun, but my hands grasped air.
Thump.
The catwalk groaned again as Hiram tried to pull himself up.
Help me, please, I pleaded with a glance at Mamá’s ring. I reached again. My fingers brushed cool metal before going through it and my breath quickened.
“Thank you for your service.” Meridian Eliver reached for the gun I was so close to grabbing, his mask not fully concealing the vindictive gleam in his eyes.
I focused every ounce of willpower on the gun as I reached out with a trembling hand.
Thump.
My fingers connected with the barrel, and I pushed it away on reflex.
Thump.
“How in the—” Meridian Eliver’s eyes widened, and he dove for it as it slid by but missed.
The gun scraped across the floor, then fell over the edge.
Around me, the world turned into blurred shapes and colors, but all I could do was stare at my hands. I’d interfered with the past—not just bringing a note back from it or touching something briefly but possibly changing what was going to happen.
Hope pounded a painful rhythm in my chest, and the world around me continued to dissolve. All I could do was wait to return to the present and see if Hiram was there. If he was alive.
The shapes started to bubble and morph, like acid was eating away at the past.
Lightning streaked across the sky, then turned and headed right for me.
I ran, but it struck me in the back, knocking me forward so I fell into nothingness. My body burned hot and cold, and the world around me drained of color until all that was left was a blinding white. It felt like I was being pulled in a hundred different directions. My body was going to crack under the pressure.
I screamed and tried to raise my hands to my head to keep it from splitting open, but I couldn’t move. An intense wind pulled at my hair and clothes. It slammed into me, incessantly. Unforgivingly. Tears streamed down my face, only to be snatched away by the wind.
I’d known there would be consequences, but I hadn’t anticipated something so severe. I’d interfered and now I was paying for it. Maybe with my life. Despite the pain and the very real chance that I was dying, I couldn’t bring myself to regret my decision if it meant I’d saved Hiram. He helped people every day and was one of the best men I knew.
The wind ripped the badge from my left hand. The pain grew more intense. Pinpricks of agony enveloped my entire body, and a sob shook me. At any moment now I’d be torn apart, as if the past and the present were both pulling on me, and my body was trying to go to both places at once.
The wind came again, this time tearing off my hat and my left glove.
A blinding flash of light surrounded me, wrapping me in a cocoon. It protected me from the storm, and finally I could breathe again through the pain. I raised a hand to shield my eyes.
The pain abated as the light increased. It came from Mamá’s ring. The light surrounded me, covering everything until I could no longer see.
“Oh, dearheart, you meddled with time,” a soft voice came from the bright nothingness around me. A voice I hadn’t heard in over ten years.
“Mamá?” I choked on the word.
“This is what happens when one tries to change the past.”
“I’m sorry. I had to. I couldn’t let him die.”
The light around me dimmed slightly, and Mamá’s voice softened. “So my little girl has fallen in love.”
“Mamá, I—”
“Hush now. There’s not much time left. You’ve already used some of the chrono-energy I stored in my ring, and the remainder is waning. You need to return to the present before it’s too late.”
The light dimmed again, enough that I could lower my hand and stop squinting. But I still couldn’t see Mamá.
“Promise me you won’t do this again,” Mamá said. “You’ll only be forgiven for your first offense.”
“Forgiven by whom?”
“Promise me.”
“All right, I promise.”
“My love is more—”
The light guttered, and I fell back into my body. I slumped forward, catching myself on the ground with my hands and stared at the ground. Sweat beaded on my forehead and my breaths came shakily.
But I was alive. Miraculously alive.