by Lola Dodge
Especially if it ended up breaking me into a few billion pieces.
“It’s just…” I hugged my baggy sweater closer. At some point, I was going to have to decide if I fully trusted her or not and pick a path. I wasn’t ready to go all-in yet, but I could definitely use some help. I pushed a toe through the dirt and tried to scan the near future to see how the conversation would go, but I was still dealing with too much interference to get anything specific. I didn’t dare ease down my mental walls to dig for it.
Oh well. Testing the water was the only way to shake something loose. “Tair helps… Everything… But without him I feel…” I swallowed, trying to find the word. Then it came to me. “I feel weak.”
It rang true as soon as it was out of my mouth. I feel weak.
“There’s a difference between feeling weak and being weak.” Eva stared like there was something she wanted to pick out of me, but for whatever reason I wasn’t scared. “Tair functions as a buffer—a helper to stabilize you as needed—but the ability to see has always been yours.”
That was…
True.
Not a magic fix, but true. If I could learn to do it all myself—to quiet my head, to find what I needed instead of drowning in ghosts, and maybe even reset time without him…
I’d be crazy powerful. Not that power was what I wanted, but control would mean I could help people instead of just watching them die. That was the goal.
The thought made me tingle with hope for the first time in a long time, but reality kept me from getting too carried away. I had a lot of days to survive before I got there.
But it was a good reminder. It was my power. It had always been my power. I just had to learn how to control it better.
Eva smiled. “It looks like you’ve figured something out.”
“Maybe.” And I was returning the smile before I could think about it too much. “I’ll let you know.”
“I’d like that.”
Huh. Well, that did shake things loose, didn’t it?
She let me go without trying to get any more secrets out of me, which was good because more people were stirring around the compound, and timeghosts were popping up like weeds. Before I lost it again, I scurried the last few steps to Tair’s container lab.
The fingerprint thing let me in right away, but I still couldn’t get used to it. A door that actually opened and I could go wherever I wanted.
“Tair?” I peeked inside before stepping across the threshold. Just because I could go in didn’t mean I should pop in whenever. I didn’t want to disturb his science or whatever he was working on these days.
“That didn’t take long.” Tair pushed aside a drop-down monitor and met me at the door. “Everything okay?”
My fingers twitched. I wanted to reach out to him, but I gripped my sweater to stop myself. “I’m good.” Just his presence quieted things down—I had to learn to do the rest myself. For a second, my attention drifted to the sketchy future ghost blurring the space between us—Tair extends a hand, and I curl around him like a minx, slipping my hands around his waist as I arch in for a kiss.
I winced and the blue haze faded like mist. This was Tair’s lab, but it was still a lab, and all the white surfaces and chemical smells sent my thoughts far away from playful. I had work to do. “Are you busy? I want to try focusing my powers.” As much as I wanted to be able to do that on my own, it was easier with Tair’s help, and we needed to find our spy sooner than later.
“I was just running through your data,” Tair said.
“What data?”
“Telepathy scores from the tests we ran yesterday. The numbers are improving.”
“Huh.” Telepathy had never been my main thing. I only had a little bit of it, and it had almost nothing to do with seeing back and forth through time, but strengthening my mental muscles couldn’t be a bad thing. “Can I keep practicing that?”
“I think that you should.” Tair gestured to the rickety folding table propped up against the wall. “Do you want to set a new reset point first?”
I pondered as I settled onto a stool. So far, I could only rewind time to the points I “fixed” in time. It worked like going back to the save on a VR game, but setting a new point wrote over the old one. The problem was, we weren’t sure how far back I could turn the clock. Every second I had to pull back made it that much harder, but I still wanted to know the limit.
A day? A week? Or would that split my brain in half? We hadn’t tested it beyond hours, and even that was painful and crazy exhausting.
Then again, setting a new reset point wasn’t the workout. The actual rewinding killed.
So did the telepathy stuff. I had a feeling I was going to want to tear my hair out within the next ten minutes. Better to conserve mental energy. “Let’s reset after practice. I don’t want to get my mental wires crossed.”
“Fair enough.” Tair sat on the creaky stool across from me.
I fidgeted as soon as we were both in place. Sitting across from him—staring right at him—felt two thousand percent more awkward than it should. Like a blind date instead of a training session. “What now?”
Tair extended a hand, palm up. “Let’s practice talking normally.”
Okay. That I could handle. I touched fingertips to his skin and tried to ignore the pleasant ripple that ran down my arm. This was business. Not playtime. I reached for my mental voice. Easy enough.
Now we try stretching your broadcast range. With his free hand, Tair moved my fingers, placing them a hair’s breadth away from touching him. Then he let go all the way. “Try sending me a thought.”
Without touching?
It had never worked before, but that didn’t mean it couldn’t if we pushed. If I could amp up my range, we’d be much more flexible. As it was, we were both screwed if we got physically separated.
Which would be the first thing that happened if we ever got captured.
So, training.
I could still feel the heat from Tair’s fingertips, so this wasn’t even testing our limits that far. Can you hear me? “Anything?”
“Not yet,” Tair said.
I kept straining until my shoulders knotted and little shards of glass stabbed my brain. “Will you wave or something? I can’t tell if I’m getting through.”
Tair’s soft chuckle smoothed away some of the pressure. “You’ll know.”
“Says you.” I squinted harder at our hands, flat on the table, but not quite touching. I should definitely be able to do this. I could stretch. I could control my own mind.
I had to if we were both going to stay alive. Hello? Tair?
No response, and I knew he wouldn’t mess with me. Tair would say if my voice got through as the softest whisper.
I resisted the urge to shift forward in my chair as I focused my mental energy. I had to push my mind through the pain but keep my butt in place. Tair?
Using my mental muscles wasn’t as easy as stretching an arm or a leg. I could feel my face getting all scrunched up and my jaw clenching as I tried everything I could to reach Tair’s mind. A headache radiated from between my eyes with spikes of nausea.
That wasn’t fun. Or normal, per se.
Just to make sure I wasn’t crazy, I touched him for a second. You sure you can hear this way?
Yes. Keep trying. You’ll get it.
I pulled back, leaving the annoying gap between us. Why don’t you do it if it’s so easy? But Tair couldn’t hear my complaints. Might as well keep going with them. I don’t know why you’re so good to me when I make so much trouble. It’s not going to get better, you know.
Well. Hopefully the power part would get better, but I had zero hope that the rest would.
The Seligo would come.
I could see a thousand different ways they might crash the compound, but maybe-futures didn’t help a thing. I just wanted to sit and dig through all the options until I knew exactly what was coming.
Thinking of timeghosts made their edges curl into being,
but I needed to keep my attention on the present even if it made my head pound. I shifted my thoughts to brush the ghosts away, but as soon as I switched gears, the floodgates opened. I grabbed Tair before I could think twice.
The ghosts should’ve cut off at his touch.
Instead, they flowed straight to Tair. Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds, all in a flash. He went rigid, muscles cording.
“Tair!” I pulled away so fast I knocked over my stool.
The timeghosts cut off as a rolling shudder moved through his body. “That…”
“Are you okay?” I wanted to squeeze him in my arms and check, but I didn’t dare touch him again.
“Fine.” He straightened his glasses. “I’m fine.”
“No you’re not.” Sweat beaded on his forehead. He looked so stunned anyone who walked in would think I’d just slapped him.
“I am.” At least his voice sounded a little steadier. “But I saw…” He trailed off and I let him think. I knew exactly how much the timeghosts were to process. Finally, he shook himself. “I’ve only ever seen one at a time when you projected. So many at once… Is that what it’s always like?”
If he was worrying about me, then I hadn’t broken him. Relief washed over me. I straightened my stool and sat back down. “Pretty much.” But as my adrenaline faded, my head spun. I gripped the table. My baby headache was getting full grown, and I definitely couldn’t let myself send that much info to people over brainwaves.
I knew how that played out. I could kill.
I’d killed Darren, overloading him with timeghosts until his brain shut down. He’d deserved that and worse after everything he’d done to me over the years in the lab, but just thinking of it put me halfway back in the moment. I’d been shaking with the need to finally take him down, focusing everything I had to force the images into his mind.
Just now, they’d slipped. Easy as anything, and Tair was only okay because he was Tair. If it had been Eva or Cipher or…
I shivered. I wanted to grow my powers, but not like this. Not at all. That was less control instead of more.
Tair massaged his forehead with the heel of his hand. “This is dark.”
I almost laughed. “Which part?”
“These pasts. And these futures.”
I leaned forward. “You can still see them?” Timeghosts floated around as usual, but I’d barely processed the batch I’d zapped Tair with.
“I wouldn’t say I’m seeing them. It’s more like they’re my own memories. If that makes sense.”
“Maybe.” We were still figuring out what our genetic pairing meant. Both of us had our own version of mental powers. Mine were flashier, but Tair had a super brain of his own, and his clear way of processing reality had unlocked my rewinding power to begin with. We just hadn’t gotten a chance to test the limits of what we could do when we teamed up.
“There’s one image—” Tair’s voice cut off as he squinted at me. “Are you… glowing?”
“What? No.” I looked down. Unless he was seeing something I couldn’t, I looked totally normal. Maybe my skin was a tad blue-tinged, but I always saw the world through ghost-colored glasses.
He lifted his glasses to rub his eyes. “I’m going to need to run some tests.”
I pulled my arms into my sweater. I was used to weirdness, but this was getting a little much even for me. Plus, tests were never a good thing. “Can we focus on the image you saw before we deal with the glowy stuff?”
“Yes. Let’s.” Tair extended his hand back across the table. “I saw ships circling the compound, and a man… I can’t quite picture his face, but something about his stance didn’t sit well. Can you recall that one?”
I reached for his hand, but hesitated. Yes, Tair was pretty much wired at my frequency, thanks to all of Eva’s tinkering, but I wasn’t okay with hurting him. And looking for a specific timeghost wasn’t exactly like pulling up files on a comp. More like digging through my brain with a fork. I might slip again, and even if he could handle it, it obviously stung.
“Last time was a surprise.” Tair grabbed my hand. “Now I’m ready for whatever you can give me.”
Flutters wiggled in my belly. When he said it like that… I squeezed his hand. “Can you show me what you saw?”
He squeezed back. “Can you see what I’m picturing?”
Not one ghost popped into my line of sight. But I wasn’t ready to give up. “Nothing yet. Maybe describe it to me?”
“The big dipper is out and the moon is waxing. There’s dew on the grass…” My jaw didn’t fall, but it was close. That was his vague image? But Tair kept describing his version of the future, and the more he added, the easier it was to follow. A timeghost stirred, and I gave a mental tug, trying to draw out the full scene. “Ropes drop down, and…”
That was it. One image blossomed so vivid it knocked out everything else.
Silent ships hover over the moonlit compound. A soft shik shik shik sounds as warriors slide to the ground on ropes, one after the other. They cover the clearing like predators, and their movements look planned as they slink to specific crates and RVs, circling so fast that no alert sounds.
As one, they snap into violent motion. Doors smash. People and bodies are dragged out.
Some still move. Some don’t.
The Reds fight—a flare of electric blue cuts the night on one side of the compound, a waterspout on the other—but it’s over in a few bursts of choked-off screams
One man is still on his feet. A Raven tattoo shimmers on his hand as he greets what looks like the enemy commander.
The second’s man face stays hidden under his body armor, but his voice rings clear. “Tompkins. You’ve done good work tonight.”
My heart pounded.
Tompkins. A name.
The spy.
I gripped Tair harder. “Did you just see…?”
He didn’t have to answer. He was already sending a message to Eva.
“I want to be there when he’s questioned.” I should’ve found this guy days ago, but now that we had him, I knew I could wheedle some answers out of his past. We needed the info.
“So do I.” Tair jabbed the send button on his com and helped pull me to my feet. “Let’s go.”
Finally.
For all the trouble my powers caused, I was glad I had them. Tompkins didn’t have to say a word. All I needed was time with him.
Then I’d finally know which danger was coming at us next.
Chapter Four
ALTAIR
I was still reeling as we headed for Eva’s lab. I’d glimpsed occasional timeghosts through Quanta before, but seeing a fully fleshed-out version of the future was new and overwhelming. The smells and sounds and colors of futures and pasts twisted together into a deep headache.
Later, I’d try to process the images. For now, it was all I could do to keep walking forward. Without the last glimpse of Tompkins to jolt me into motion, I could’ve sat for hours, just examining the possibilities.
But it was finally time to act. I focused on the image of Tompkins in the moonlight. I didn’t know much about him yet, but that would change.
Soon.
My com buzzed as Quanta and I walked across the grass. I checked Eva’s response. He’s being escorted to my lab.
As we headed for the confrontation, I scanned Quanta. She was moving, but her posture slumped. She looked tight—tense, overstressed, and bordering on exhausted, with shadows deepening under her eyes. I tugged her to a stop past the dining hall. “Are you up for this? We could join after Eva’s had a word with him.”
“Now is better.” Quanta straightened. “I have to do something, or I’ll drive myself crazy with all the thinking.”
“Then we’ll go.” As much as I wanted to make her rest, to make her stop pressuring herself—I could understand the desire to act. The same urge coiled in me.
We’d both been worrying about the enemy in our camp.
I kept her hand tight in mine as we wove through
the maze of shipping containers. “Do you get a sense of what we’re walking into?”
“Not much yet.” She squinted into the ether. “There’s too much interference, but I should be able to see something when I’ve got him in front of me.”
She fell into the silence as we strode the rest of the way across the grass. Tension vibrated between us all the way to Eva’s lab. Her assistants opened the door and flowed past us, clearing the room.
The setup didn’t compare to what Doctor Nagi had underneath the Citadel, or even what I’d had in my labs when I was a rank-and-file Green Helix, but it was the best tech Eva and the Ravens could scrounge, and the glass and stainless surfaces gleamed.
“What do you have on him?” I asked.
Eva pulled a file onto the largest screen. “Nothing out of the ordinary. Tompkins signed on five years ago, and his tech work isn’t quite at the level of a Green, but he’s delivered good results intercepting Seligo data.” She drummed her fingers against a metal lab table. “Nothing in his background strikes me as suspicious.”
“I don’t know if he’s told anyone anything yet,” Quanta said. “It seems like no; otherwise we all would’ve been dead by now.”
I suspected Quanta’s arrival had changed the risks and rewards of selling out. Or we’d seen a potential that had always existed, but never would have come to fruition. I was more concerned about his actions than his motives.
Eva let out a breath. “Regardless, we need to move the compound. I was keeping staff on site to maintain appearances, but I’m assigning all agents to safe houses and new missions until we can transition to the next location.”
“Probably a good idea.” Quanta’s gaze was still distant, searching the ether. “I’ll tell you if we see anything else going wrong.”
“We?” Eva snapped out of her planning to glance between us.
Oops. Quanta’s mental voice rang in my head.
Should we tell her the specifics? I leaned toward keeping the information to ourselves until we understood what was happening. Not because I didn’t trust Eva with it, but because I wasn’t yet sure how to explain. Quanta’s powers—and the way I could interact with them—seemed to change constantly.
