Page 171 of Illusory

“Trust me, the Transfer Bind works. I wouldn’t risk it if I wasn’t sure. I’d never riskher,” said Trace and then turned his steadfast gaze to mine. “But I still agree with Goldilocks. We need to go through this a few times before even attempting the real thing. It would be stupid not to.”

“Very stupid,” I agreed and then looked over at Gabriel to see if we’d swayed him enough to give in.

His jaw clenched as though he were grinding the crap out of his teeth. “Fine,” he finally conceded, though the apprehension in his eyes never let up. “But she doesn’t step foot anywhere near Temple today. And I mean it. Not a single foot.”

57. THROUGH THE DARKFOLD

“So, how does it work?” I asked, angling my body toward Trace on the sofa and schooling my expression. The last thingI wanted was to appeartoo eagerand give Gabriel any more reason to doubt my readiness than he already did.

“It basically works the same way as porting without it. We still need to be touching for me to get you where you want to go, and you’ll have to picture the place in your mind,” explained Trace, leaning forward and resting his elbows on his knees. “The only difference is that the Transfer Bind will keep me grounded here while you port. As long as we’re each holding our end, the tether keeps us bound together.”

I chewed my lip, processing that. “And how do I get back here afterward?”

“The same way you got there.”

Excitement punched through my gut, and I couldn’t help but smile. Any second now, I was going to magically beam myself to some random time and place on Earth, and I was going to take this trip completely by myself. If someone had told me a year ago that this was something I’d be doing today, I would have laughed in their face and told them to go back to the psych ward.

“You think you can handle that?” asked Trace, cocking his eyebrow at me.

“Damn straight I can.”

He chuckled, the sound all deep and completely sexy.

“Okay, so which end do I grab?” I asked, staring down at the rope dangling from his fingers like a piece of forbidden fruit.

“Hold on just a minute,” interrupted Gabriel before Trace could answer me. “You’re not going anywhere until we figure out all the details here.”

“Isn’t that what we just did?” I asked, legitimately confused.

His expression pinched at my question. “For starters, we need to know exactly where you’ll be porting to and whatyou’re going to do when you get there. Secondly, we need a set timeframe for how long you’re permitted to be there before you have to port yourself back. And lastly, but most importantly, you need to be damn sure you know how to get back here—and what to do should anything go wrong.”

“Why would anything go wrong? It’s a simple practice run,” I pointed out, hating that he was putting a damper on my cool new experience.

“Why does anything ever go wrong?” he snapped back. “Anything could happen, and we need to make sure we have an emergency plan in place should anything go awry.”

“Right.” I nodded, knowing it was better to be safe than sorry. I looked at Trace, a nugget of doubt settling into my stomach. “WhatdoI do if I can’t get back for some reason?”

Trace rubbed his hand along his jaw as he thought about it. “That shouldn’t be a problem. As long as you stay on this Timeline, and we know where you are, we can easily come and get you if something goes wrong.”

“Okay.” I nodded, feeling my anxiety ebb with his easy solution. “Problem solved then.”

“Now that we have that sorted out, have you decided where you’d like to go, angel?” asked Dominic.

I needed to pick somewhere safe. Somewhere close. Somewhere with the least amount of risk and witnesses. “How about Starry beach?” I suggested, thinking back to the place I’d visited during Spring Carnival. It was still light out and since it was the middle of the week, most people who liked to hang out there would probably be at work or at school. “I can set a timer on my phone so that I know when to port back.”

“Good idea,” said Gabriel as each of us pulled out our cell phones. “What time are we setting the timer for?”

I shrugged. “Five minutes?”

“Try again, angel.”

I furrowed my brows at Dominic.

“Five minutes is a very long time to sit around and wonder if everything is going as expected. Your first port should be shorter. One minute at most.”

Right. Couldn’t argue with him on that one. “Okay, one minute then,” I said as I programmed the new timer in my clock app and then looked up at Gabriel. “I’ll port to Starry Beach, take in the sights for sixty seconds, and then port myself back when the timer goes off. Does that work?”

He nodded, though he still didn’t look happy about it. Then again, Gabriel wasn’t usually happy about anything that even remotely put me at risk.

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