Read Online Earth & Sky (The Earth & Sky Trilogy) by Megan Crewe - Free Book Online Page B

“shifted” to distract the Enforcers, and he chose to save us.
    That could change, couldn’t it? At any moment, without warning. A chill prickles over me. He said there were other Travelers. All it would take is one little tweak from someone else, somewhere out there, to set off a new chain of events in which I no longer exist. Any of us—me, Angela, my parents—could just disappear in the blink of an eye, without anyone knowing the difference.
    “You okay?” Angela asks, and I snap out of it. She’s watching me with that crease on her forehead, and I know it’s for me this time.
    “Yeah,” I say, too quickly. “Here. There’s this whole thing about the significance of the play within the play . . .”
    I sit down next to her, rattling off the points I jotted down, but I’m only half there. The other half is picturing Win in that tacky motel, worrying about his friends, trying to make his own plans. Whoever he is, whatever he’s really doing, he’s the only one I know who has the slightest chance of protecting us. Of stopping these shifts.
    And he thinks I can help him.
    When I walk with Angela to the door an hour later, I only have a vague idea what we’ve decided on. I can’t help glancing up at the sky as she heads down the street—at the few stars bright enough to pierce the city’s glow. And maybe a satellite full of scientists from some distant planet poking at our world like we really are fish in a bowl. My chest clenches.
    I’m scared it might all be true. I’m scared of what’ll happen to us next if it is. Win took a risk on me, he said, because this supposed mission could be the most important thing he does in his whole life. If it’s real, I can’t think of anything more important that could happen in mine.
    I have to go back and talk to him again tomorrow. For the first time ever, I might have the chance to set the wrong ness right.

8.
     
    I duck out the door at a quarter past seven the next morning. “Have a good run!” Dad calls from the kitchen.
    I do, but not to the park for cross-country practice. I fall into a measured lope halfway down the block, letting the rhythm of my strides untangle my thoughts as I weave through the streets to the Garden Inn.
    In the crisp dawn light, everything looks perfectly ordinary. Dry leaves drift across lawns; cars putter along the roads. I register the details automatically: blue sedan, gold sports car, gray truck with a ridge of rust along the back bumper. A folk tune tinkles from the open door of a cafe; a plane trails exhaust across the sky.
    By the time I make it to the hotel, I half expect to discover it was all a dream. Then the front door opens and Win steps out onto the sidewalk. My gut lurches as the reality of the situation snaps back into place.
    Win’s hair is rumpled and his face looks worn, as if he’s had as much trouble sleeping as I did. I told him I might come sometime today. Was he planning on waiting by the doors the whole time?
    He wasn’t kidding about how important this is to him, that much is obvious.
    He smiles at me, relief shining through the weariness in his eyes, and I’m suddenly struck by how young he appears to be. He can’t be more than a year or two older than I am. I can’t imagine what it’s like being on his side of this equation, stranded in time with vicious teched-up soldiers hunting him down.
    “Thank you for coming,” he says. “I’m sorry I upset you yesterday.”
    “It was a lot to take in,” I say. “I’m still kind of freaked out.”
    “But you’ll help?”
    “I . . .” He doesn’t beat around the bush, does he? “Look, I don’t know how much of this to believe. I just know if people are messing with time, with what’s happened in our lives, I want that to stop.”
    “And we’ll stop it,” Win says. His gaze darts up and down the street. “Do you trust me enough to come in now? We shouldn’t risk anyone overhearing.”
    Right. Because even I’m not supposed to know.
    He