Free Eternity Crux by Jamie Canosa

 
    T ime is not a line, but a royal pain in the butt.
    “When are we now, Auralia?”
    “I don’t know.” And I really couldn’t care less. That last jump had left me winded. “Does it really matter? They’re still coming after us.”
    “Duck!”
    A flash of blue light hit the wall directly behind me, whirling into an unfathomable vortex. They were coming.
    “How did they find us so fast?” This was getting out of control. They’d been nipping at our heels for close to three months—or three decades—depending on how you looked at it.
    “Doesn’t matter. We have to keep moving.” Sayer reached for his eternity crux—an hourglass pendant embedded in an eternity knot hanging around his neck. It held the power to bend the space-time continuum. Sounds impressive, but considering how common they are where we came from . . . not so much.
    It’s not like they go around handing them out to just anybody, but every member of the Legion had one, and considering that’s who we were running from, they weren’t all that useful. They could follow us anywhere—any when?—we went. And they had been. Ever since we went rogue. Not our finest hour.
    “No.” I snagged his wrist before he could send us hurtling through space and time again. “No more jumping. Not yet. Please?”
    “Auralia, we can’t stay here.”
    “I know that. We do have feet, Say. Did you forget how to use them?” The aqua blue faded to navy as the vortex deepened. We didn’t have time to debate the finer points of evasion. “Run!”
    We hightailed it across the deserted street, past several darkened store fronts, and ducked into a litter strewn alley. The whooshing sound from the portal reached a crescendo before blipping into oblivion with a soft pop . They were here.
    Warm breath coated the back of my neck. “Stay down.”
    As though I were planning to stroll out onto Main Street and greet the new arrivals.
    Deep, menacing laughter of the highly creeptastic variety floated through the silent night.
    “You think you can hide? From us ? You think we will not hunt traitors down to the ends of the Earth? To the ends of infinity? There is nowhere to hide. You will be ours. And you will be punished for your crimes.” Galen—the league’s top hunter—didn’t need to shout to be heard. His voice had this quality, this pitch that could be heard no matter how loudly he spoke. And when he spoke, people listened.
    “Shh.” I hadn’t even realized my body was trembling until Sayer’s arm wrapped around my middle, anchoring my back against his chest.
    The steady thump of his heart against my spine went a long way toward steadying me, but it was the solid body that encased it that I blamed for this entire predicament. If he hadn’t been so freaking good looking, I never would have listened to him. This was entirely my stupid hormones’ fault.
    Out on the street, the rhythmic slap of a half dozen pairs of boots falling into formation diminished in the opposite direction. They were hunting us, but for the moment we were safe. All of the tension and adrenaline I’d been existing on drained out of me and I slumped back against Sayer.
    “It’s alright, Aura. It’s gonna be okay. I promise. You don’t have to be afraid.”
    “I’m not afraid. I’m exhausted.” The truth laid somewhere in the middle of those two statements.
    “I know. Me, too.” He sighed and helped me to my feet. I went grudgingly. “We can’t keep going like this. If we don’t find somewhere to rest soon, we’ll get sloppy.”
    Sloppy was definitely one thing Galen never was and thus we couldn’t afford to be, either. The man was a machine. As far as I could tell, he never slept, ate, or went to the flippin’ bathroom. He was assigned a target, and he hunted that target until he caught it. Nothing else. Impressive if you were his employer. Not so much if you were his prey.
     
    ><><><><
     
    For a jumper, cold hard cash is the way to go. Imperial coins had only been