She repeated the numbers several times then wiped the blade clean.
The monitor on Brandon's end flickered off.
"No, no, no! Come back, Brand!" she whispered frantically and touched the screen. Her brother was in bad shape - but alive.
"Natural!" Charles called from down the hallway.
Ashley's gaze flew up towards the door. She swiped away tears she hadn't felt form and shoved the knife into a pocket. Flipping off the monitor, she stood hastily before Charles had reached the doorway.
"All clear." Her voice was choked.
He peered into the room. "Are you well?"
"Very." She cleared her throat. "Just worried about my brother."
The explanation seemed to satisfy him. His attention went to the darkness of the hallway.
"I checked everything," she told him.
"All right. C'mon."
Ashley steadied herself the best she could and left the office. Her hands trembled, and she had the urge to run or fight or dance or just stand and scream. Brandon needed help, but his mission …
It was crazy for her to feel torn when her brother needed her to act! Why did stabbing Jonny with the knife seem like the worst option she had when Brandon's life depended upon it?
Valon won't free either of us, whispered her instincts. If anything, Jonny was in a position to help her. He was aggressively hunting down the rogues and likely to find Brandon. To risk Brandon's life because she failed to act, however, wasn't an option, even if Jonny found Brandon before sunrise.
"Natural!"
She blinked and realized Charles had been talking to her while they stood in the hallway. "I'm sorry, what?"
He eyed her. "I said, I'm disappointed we didn't find more."
"Yeah."
He shook his head and motioned for her to follow him. She did so woodenly, her emotions all over the place as she considered the choice she had to make. A world without Jonny or one without Brandon? It shouldn't have been hard, and she berated herself over and over for the confusion she experienced when the answer was supposed to be clear.
Brandon. Her choice had to be Brandon. Always Brandon.
Yet it made her start to panic to know Jonny was going to die at the hands of Valon if she followed through with it.
She barely registered the light touch of a Traveler and the world shifting around her. They materialized somewhere other than the location where they'd left from, and she forced her thoughts to the world outside her head as she oriented herself.
They were on the ocean, somewhere warm and humid. Palm trees were framed against the night sky and a dock facing the ocean before her. The mansion behind her was large and white, its property sprawling for more than ten acres and edged by tall walls of concrete.