I couldn’t see whatever was headed at us, because it was engulfed in a tsunami of spray from the speed it was kicking up. But then, I didn’t have to. There weren’t a lot of things—I assumed—hanging around in the space between moments.

And if there were, I didn’t want to meet them, either.

I shifted, which was harder here, maybe because we were already in the middle of one. But that was Gertie’s and this was mine, and she’d been right. Shifting really was my best thing.

That was lucky, because the ball of Thames’ water followed me, turning on a dime and refocusing on the opposite shore, where I’d landed.

I was still in transition thanks to Gertie’s spell, which meant that time was on rewind, but not so fast so that I couldn’t see what was going on around me. Just to the side a warehouse was being constructed in reverse. Bricks in a wall plinked out of view, one by one; shadowy figures of workmen flowed here and there, not stopping long enough for me to get a good look at them; and piles of building materials appeared magically on open ground.

Yeah.

That’d do.

Because I wasn’t convinced that this was Zeus. For one thing, if he’d somehow found a way back to Earth, would hunting me down really be job one? The Silver Circle, the Vampire Senates—any of them—our fey allies, the covens… there was a whole list of people who’d be more of a priority. Especially if Zeus could time travel, which negated my one big advantage, didn’t it?

For another, if he could time travel, why weren’t we all dead already? Or never born in the first place? He could go back to ancient Greece and kill Artemis before she even tried her coup.

So, maybe this wasn’t Zeus. Which would mean that it was some mortal who’d acquired power he shouldn’t have, and was mucking about in the time stream. And that meant his ass was mine.

And, man, had he picked the worst possible venue for said ass-kicking.

As demonstrated when my power grabbed him, even before I could clearly see a body, and threw him at the half-built warehouse. Then reversed time around it, so that the structure threw up a wall that hadn’t been there a second ago. A wall on which some asshole went splat.