Unremembered (Unremembered #1)(65)

If this be error and upon me proved,

I never writ, nor no man ever loved.’





When he finishes I close my eyes and bask in the warmth of his voice and Shakespeare’s lyrics, wishing that it would never end. That it would always stay this warm.

But I know that is impossible.

Because soon he will leave. Like he does every day. And I will be cold again.

‘Shakespeare couldn’t have written that poem today,’ I resolve after a moment of mutual silence.

Zen has put down the book and resumed stroking my hair. ‘Why not?’

‘Because love like that can’t exist today.’ The sad reality of that truth scoops out a large chunk of me and leaves me feeling hollow.

‘That’s not true.’ Zen bends down and kisses my forehead. ‘What about us?’ he whispers in my ear. ‘You are my ever-fixèd mark. Just like in the poem.’

I feel the tears glistening in my eyes as I hold my wrist in front of my face and trace the thin black line with my fingertip. ‘We will always be kept apart. As long as we’re here, we can never be together. They’ll never let us.’

I gaze up into Zen’s eyes and I can see the sorrow that shadows them. Like a cloud. He knows I’m right. Even if he refuses to admit it.

I push myself up to my knees and face him. ‘Shakespeare was lucky,’ I go on. ‘He was born in a time before computers and brain scans and DNA sequencers. Love could survive because technology wasn’t around to destroy it. Science wasn’t powerful enough to ruin people’s lives.’

Zen doesn’t agree with me, but he doesn’t argue with me either. He stays very silent. Pensive. His eyes fixed on something far in the distance.

‘That’s the only place we can be together,’ I say, reaching out and resting my palm against his cheek.

He blinks, as if breaking from a trance and refocuses on me. ‘Where?’

I smile. ‘1609.’

I expect him to laugh. I wait for it. Because I know the notion is ludicrous. A fantasy. The kind of adventure you only read about in books.

But he doesn’t laugh.

His eyes glaze over again and he continues staring out at that far-off point in the distance.

‘Zen?’ I turn his head back to me.

‘Hmmm?’ he replies distractedly.

I lean forward and press my lips against his. He kisses me back, reaching up to hold my face between his hands and then wrapping them around the back of my head and pulling me closer.

His kiss is delicious.

Just as it always is.

But something is different this time. I can sense it.

His mind is elsewhere. His thoughts are far away. And I don’t know why.

When the kiss is over, Zen rises to his feet and then offers his hand to help me up.

‘What are you doing?’ I ask.

‘I-I-I . . .’ he stammers. ‘I need to go.’

‘But it’s not time yet,’ I insist. ‘We still have another thirty minutes before Rio comes home.’

Zen struggles visibly, torn between the idea of staying and whatever else is competing for his attention. ‘I know. But there’s something I have to do.’

I bite my lip. ‘OK,’ I say softly.

He studies my expression and smiles, wrapping his arms around me and drawing me into him. ‘Don’t worry,’ he tells me. ‘I’ll be back tomorrow.’

Then he pulls me close and whispers in my ear, ‘Close your eyes.’

I do. But not willingly. Because I know what it means. It means he’s leaving me and the bitter cold is near.

But I also know it’s better than the alternative: watching him go.

His lips brush delicately against mine and then I hear the all-too-familiar heart-wrenching sound of his footsteps retreating, the scraping of his shoes against the concrete as he hoists himself to the top of the wall and the soft thump of his feet as he lands on the other side.

I wait, shivering slightly as I count slowly to fifty like I always do.

It’s just enough time for the sound of his footsteps to completely disappear. A calculation I once had to make and have despised ever since.

48 . . . 49 . . . 50.

When I open my eyes, my ever-fixèd mark has vanished.





39


TEMPORAL


I wake up to the feeling of the cold hard ground beneath me.

The room is small and dark. There are no windows and no doors. A single lamp illuminates the tiny space. It takes me a moment to realize that I’m lying on a cement floor. I turn my head to the left and see Cody lying beside me, still unconscious.

What happened?

I try to remember how I got here. Or even where here is.

I remember getting into the car with a woman who claimed to be Maxxer. She said she didn’t think we were being followed but that you can never be too careful. We stopped at a red light, and before I could react she turned and deactivated both of us.

Then I was . . .

Where was I?

I seem to remember being with Zen. Yes, we were back on the Diotech compound. We were reading poetry on my front lawn. Sonnet 116. My favourite poem. Everything was wonderful. Then he started acting very strange and he left.

But wait. Did that really happen?

It couldn’t have happened. Zen was captured. I saw it.