by Lola Dodge
I’d stolen the clone’s reset point. I was the survivor.
But my head was splitting with pain. Was I…
Not surviving?
Tair’s grip tightened. His mouth moved, but I couldn’t hear the words.
And then I couldn’t see the light.
I gasped and jerked upright.
I was in a big fluffy bed in a big white room. I was…
Patting myself with shaking hands, I tried to reconnect with reality.
I survived?
A few timeghosts flickered in and out, but they disappeared as soon as I told them to. Even though a baby headache hummed at the base of my skull, it was nothing to fuss over. Nothing like what I was used to.
The room wasn’t mine, exactly. But I was me.
Kind of.
Instead of a big sweater and leggings, I wore the coral sundress of doom. I gulped. I’m still me.
I think I’m still me.
Pulling together all the courage I could muster, I held up my hands.
No coral nail polish. Instead, charcoal was mushed into my nail beds, and a Shadow Raven tattoo shimmered between my thumb and forefinger.
I’d written myself into the clone’s save file, but I was still the same Quanta—the original one. I let out a shaking breath of relief.
The clone was gone. She’d ricocheted out into the flow of time, and there was no way she’d survived.
A tinge of dizziness washed over me as I swung my legs out of the bed, but it passed almost immediately. I should feel more ragged than I did. If anything…
I felt clear. So much clearer than I’d felt in a long, long time.
The timeghosts stayed quiet, but I could sense them waiting for me. They’d come when I called. I tried not to smile, but giddiness bubbled through me for about half a second.
Then I saw the scan pad mounted next to the bedroom door.
Because I was still in prison. I needed to find Tair and see about getting us both out of here.
Barefoot, I padded across the eerily familiar carpet. Before I could put my hand to the scanner, the door whooshed open.
I stared at the open doorway. What was with that?
Stepping into the living room, my body locked down. It was my living room. Just like Alpha Citadel. The same place where—
No.
It wasn’t. I tried to breathe through the anxiety that had me shaking. This wasn’t my prison cell. Just a scary copy.
Now was now.
And it was different, when I finally gathered the courage to look around. The kitchen had legit appliances, and a second door was set in the wall across from me. Before I could decide which door to try first, the main one whooshed open.
A man in a white coat strode through. My throat tightened at the Green Helix embroidered on his lapel pocket.
“How are you feeling?” he asked.
“How… Good.” Pushing past my surprise, I smiled at him. “Great, actually.”
“We were worried about you.” He returned my smile and tapped some data into his portacomp.
Was this a parallel reality?
Because my Greens had never been close to kind. It had always been clear I was their lab rat. A dangerous test subject who was Not To Be Trusted.
The clone obviously had a different situation. I could work with that.
I started to run my fingers through my hair, and the nest of snarls comforted me. “Where’s Tair?”
“Altair?”
“That one.” His full name sounded wrong. “It wasn’t his fault I…”
“Passed out?” The man made a few more taps, then tucked the comp into his pocket. “You were down for a few hours, but there’s nothing medical to worry you. We’re running some other analyses, though.”
“You didn’t punish him or anything?” And why was the guy being so upfront with the info?
“In his room.” The man nodded toward the secondary door. “Doctor Nagi’s planning to call you both when you’re back in action. Should I tell him you’re available?”
Definitely not. But at least that meant Nagi wasn’t in the building. I could fool random Greens who’d never met the real Quanta before, but I’d never be able to trick Nagi if he saw me. “I still have a headache.”
“I’ll give you an hour,” he said. “Get some more rest.”
Rest? No way.
As soon as he left, I headed straight for the second doorway. It whooshed open for me.
Tair sat on a sofa with his head between his knees. His glasses rested on the coffee table in front of him. My breath caught.
He was okay. He was alive.
We were both alive.
He shot up, eyes widening. “It’s you.”
“It’s me.” Except that I’d been so anxious to get to him, I hadn’t thought through what came next.
I could pass for the clone for a while, but the Seligo would spot the differences eventually. The less I acted crazy out of character for the cams, the more time we’d have to escape.
As much as I wanted to run into Tair’s arms, I couldn’t. Not yet.
But Tair already knew who I was. “Take me for a walk?”
The barest smile tilted his lips and my chest fluttered. He knew exactly who I was.
Tair slipped his glasses into place. “Now? You’ve recovered?”
“Yup. I want to get some fresh air before Doctor Nagi calls.”
“When is he calling?” Tair asked, sounding completely natural. He was a good actor.
“An hour or so.” I crossed the carpet to the other doorway. We had an hour to escape, and there were a few things that needed to happen before then. When the main door didn’t slide open, I lifted my hand to the scan pad.
Lunging, Tair grabbed my wrist.
What are you doing? I asked.
He frowned and didn’t answer.
What are you doing? I asked again, trying to put some force in my mental voice, but…
It wasn’t there.
It was gone.
Burned off? Lost?
I let out a shaking breath. Apparently I hadn’t come out of our battle as unscathed as I thought. I tried to lean into Tair’s senses, but they didn’t bleed into mine the way they had before.
For better or worse, I was stuck in my own head.
Tair’s gaze flickered, and even if I couldn’t feel him thinking, I knew he was observing and calculating the same as ever. I didn’t dare tell him the truth out loud. Not until we were away from all these cameras.
I cleared my throat. “What are you doing?”
“My mistake.” He gave my wrist one last squeeze before pulling away. I followed his gaze as it flicked between the scan pad and my hand.
The nail polish? Was that—
Oh.
Seconds too slow, I picked up what he wanted to tell me. My hands were mine, and as far as I knew, fingerprints couldn’t be cloned. If I tried to open the door, I’d probably ping every alarm in the building. Or every alarm in the world.
I gave him a little nod, letting him know we were on the same page, but we were really going to have to work on our nonverbal communication if this was permanent. Everything was so much easier when we could talk in each other’s heads.
I faked pressing my hand to the scanner, being careful not to actually touch the plate. Then I put my hands on my hips and glared at the closest camera. “What’s wrong with the door? Let me out.” I put a little whine in my voice, hoping the clone and I used the same acting playbook. A few long seconds ticked by, and I started to sweat.
Had I played it wrong?
Before I could go into a full-on panic, the door opened. I gave the cam a satisfied nod and strolled out, tugging Tair behind me.
Timeghosts layered over the present. I concentrated on the more solid, likely futures. How do we get out of here?
A few options played out. Most got us killed, as expected.
But one thing was unexpected. When I brushed away the unhelpful ghosts, they stayed away.
It let me focus on the images I actually wanted to see.
Tair and I stride down a corridor, both trying not to grin. We head for the roof door—
Following the lead was as easy as flipping the pages of a book, and it felt right for the first time in… Ten years? This was what it used to be like. I asked. The universe answered.
I might as well keep asking.
Where are Kiri and Aliya? A few hazy timeghosts blurred into being, but they felt distant in time and space. The girls had been taken somewhere else. Not here.
If they were alive. I tried to dig for more, but whiffed. Even if it was easier to see, I still couldn’t see everything.
Tair coughed.
I was glowing. Again.
I shut off the light before it got too bright. No one rushed out to tackle us in the present or any futures though, so maybe he was the only one who’d seen.
It was another thing to deal with later.
For now, the possibilities had aligned, and we had a glorious, glorious window of escape. I doubted my third eye would stay this clear for long.
But while it lasted?
I grinned at Tair. “This is going to be fun.”
Chapter Forty-Four
ALTAIR
Quanta grinned like a cat, and the expression loosened every one of my muscles. She was whole and healthy, and I could tell she had a plan in her back pocket—a way out.
The fact that we couldn’t share thoughts hit like a beacon of clarity. I’d test my theory later, but I was almost positive telepathy had been the destabilizing factor.
I’d been the one pushing Quanta to strengthen that part of her powers. For now, I eased off my self-guilt.
Quanta had looked so ill when she collapsed, I’d feared the worst. She might’ve lost her mind. Her senses. Or the clone could’ve survived instead of the real Quanta. As for the clone…
Her life had been as pitiable than her death, but she’d been Doctor Nagi’s puppet to the bone. She couldn’t have been saved.
It was all we could do to save ourselves, and even though the Quanta smiling in front of me was my Quanta, we were hardly in the clear.
She led us toward the end of the hall, looking straight ahead for the first time in as long as I could remember. It helped her move more like the clone, although the bare feet and tangled hair were blatant clues to her identity.
Doctor Nagi would’ve noted the differences. I tensed as we approached the cluster of guards stationed at the lift. Would they notice? I couldn’t take all four and protect Quanta, and sticking together was our only way out of this. We needed to be smart. We could likely timewind again, but not a limitless number of times. Especially after the mental battle Quanta had already endured.
Quanta stepped in front of the closest guard. “I’m going to the roof.”
He nodded and stepped aside, gesturing toward the scan pad.
Quanta scowled at him. “Don’t you open the door for a lady?”
Excellent save.
He ducked his head—armored helmet and all—and pressed his hand to the scanner. The lift opened with a ding.
She gave the men a prim nod as we stepped inside the lift. There were no buttons to push. She simply pointed at the ceiling. “Roof, please.”
The lift whirred into motion. We stood silent and apart. I couldn’t ask what was coming next in front of the cameras, but escaping couldn’t be this smooth to the end.
When we stepped out into the twilight, I didn’t see the plan. The roof was all solar panels except for the landing pads, but no ships were docked.
But I had faith. Quanta had seen a viable window of opportunity, or she wouldn’t put us at risk. She padded to the railing and leaned against it, looking out at the skyscape. “Nice view, right?”
I couldn’t choose “nice” when so many buildings stretched between here and the Citadel’s outer wall. “It’s a big city.”
She grinned, pointing out at the horizon. “What’s over there?”
A helicopter. I’d bet anything it was headed our way. I wasn’t sure how the endgame played out—whether the next step was overpowering guards, or if Quanta could talk us out of a confrontation—but whatever was next, I’d follow her lead.
As long as Quanta had a plan, I’d make it happen.
Chapter Forty-Five
QUANTA
I drummed my fingers against the railing as the helicopter chopped its way to the helipad. We had the teeniest, tiniest little window to escape here, but for once, I felt optimistic instead of doomed.
Mainly because no one knew to be suspicious of us. I was the clone, and Doctor Nagi and everyone else in this flipping building trusted her to death. Part of me wanted to hang around and milk the situation, but then I remembered how insane I’d have to be to volunteer for that. Much better to get out while we still could.
And before Doctor Nagi called.
Wind whipped into us as the chopper landed. Two people in lab coats hopped out and hustled to the roof door, but the pilot stayed parked.
Who’s he waiting for? I peered into the near future.
Timeghosts of the future fluttered. One was almost solid.
A scientist hustles into the copter and it lifts off, headed deeper into the Citadel.
But what if…
Another layer of possibility blurred over the timeghost. I stride for the copter and wave for the pilot’s attention. “Can you take us up? There’s something I want to check.” He radios to someone and then nods. “You’ve got fifteen minutes.”
This was too easy.
Pulling Tair behind me, I headed for the chopper and then waved to get the pilot’s attention. “Can you take me up? There’s something I want to check.”
He picked up his com, and I couldn’t help grinning at Tair. As I dug into the future, I could see all the ways this went wrong, but we only needed to get it right once.
All the options spun out in front of me.
The pilot shouted to us over the chopper noise. “You’ve got fifteen minutes.”
Two guards climbed in with us before the helicopter lifted off, but I could see more than one future where Tair literally kicked them both out.
We strap into parachute backpacks and jump while the pilot screams; Tair overpowers one of the guards and tosses me a gun; the chopper crash-lands into the harbor, exploding in flames; “Drop down low over that building,” I tell the pilot, before Tair and I jump the last few feet out; Tair and I scramble through the rows of boats in the docks; I shoot down one of the drones on our backs as we slip onto the deck of some Seligo’s speedboat—
Hundreds and hundreds of futures blurred into possibility. There was no way to be sure which one we’d get until we lived it. So I didn’t know what happened next, but I did know where we had to go.
Cipher and the others would be waiting in the middle of the ocean. They didn’t know they were waiting—if anything, they were freaking out thinking I’d fallen off the boat and drowned—but I’d explain whenever we made it back to them.
I squeezed Tair’s hand. Tension hummed through him, and while I peeked into the future, I knew he’d keep scanning the present. He might find a door before I found our window, but either way, we were both focused on finding the way out.
With us together, who could stop us?
We had more Reds to save, and I’d had it with Doctor Nagi making our lives miserable. We had to hit back at him.
And I still had no idea what that would look like, but for the first time in a long time, I felt whole. I had Tair. I had my focus.
Just in case, I breathed deep and locked the details in my mind. Soaring over the glittering glass skyline. The steady rhythm of helicopter blades. Tair at my side.
For a dizzy second, my vision doubled. Then the reset point settled in, glowing clear and golden.
No matter what came next, I was ready to fight for my future.
Coming April 25th, 2017 from author Lola Dodge:
Quanta Rewind, Book Four in the Shadow
Ravens Series. Click here to preorder.
With more and more Red Helixes turning up missing or dead, the Shadow Ravens are ready to take their fight to Doctor Nagi himself.
But breaking into Alpha Citadel is no cakewalk, and Quanta isn’t so sure about this whole “teamwork” thing.
If she and the Ravens can’t learn to work together, no amount of rewinding time will save them from the inevitable.
And if the Seligo win, everyone loses.
For updates and more information about the series, subscribe to the Ink Monster Newsletter:
https://confirmsubscription.com/h/i/A0BFC06811C43170
Want to see how the Shadow Ravens began?
Don’t forget to read Book One,
Cipher by Aileen Erin
For more information about the series, go to:
http://inkmonster.net/books/shadow-ravens
Also from Ink Monster: Becoming Alpha, Book One in the Alpha Girl Series by Aileen Erin
The Alpha Girl Series:
Becoming Alpha, Avoiding Alpha, Alpha Divided, Bruja, and Alpha Unleashed
Meredith’s story, Shattered Pack, releases November 2016!
For more information about the series, go to:
http://inkmonster.net/books/alpha-girl-series
For the Readers
Thank you for sticking with this series : )
Some of you have been with us since Cipher released in 2014 (where has the time gone?!) and we’re so grateful for your support and encouragement.
You may have noticed that the Shadow Ravens series has been a bit of an experiment. We originally planned for several novellas written by rotating authors, and a big co-written book (or three) that would tie all the plots and characters together.
Clearly, that hasn’t panned out!
Based on feedback from you guys, we’ve leaned toward longer books and continuing on with the characters you already love. Quanta’s trilogy will finish out with Quanta Rewind in Spring 2017, and after that…?
It’s kind of up to you all.
Our fearless leader, Aileen Erin, is busily writing werewolves and romance-driven scifi stories, but we all have a soft spot for her character, Cipher, and would love to see her return in her own book. Right now, we’ve pushed aside our plans to introduce the third heroine that was supposed to make an appearance, but that doesn’t mean we’re ready to say goodbye to our Ravens.
