“I’d rather do it myself.” I used my sleeve to wipe a spot of blood off his lenses, and his breath brushed across my cheek. Pleasant tingles rolled down my spine and I couldn’t help noticing the difference between him and Darren. Tair could pretty much do anything he wanted to me and I’d ask for more.

That thought made me recall a few of the handsier futures of us…

My cheeks heated under his hands. Luckily, we didn’t have time to skip down one of those paths. We’ve got ten seconds before Darren’s goons come to scrape him up.

Darren moaned from his puddle on the floor. “Ging… Klllooo, Orfus.”

“Was that English?” I broke away from Tair to nudge Darren with a toe. He yelped, then quieted down.

“I think he’s going to kill me,” Tair said, totally not bothered. And why should he be? He could’ve beaten Darren to death and he hadn’t broken a sweat. Tair was all smooth poreless skin and calm reason now that the monster was down.

“You get any information with that melon?” I asked, trying to sound less fluttery than I felt.

“Thanks for that,” Tair said. “I got us a lift trick. It won’t stop security from coming after us, but it’s a start.”

I shook my head. “I can only put you on the path.” All I’d seen was a flash of him talking with the greenhouse guy and looking pleased about something. “So next time we make a break for the lift?”

“As soon as there’s a chance.” Tair let out a breath. “I know where his lab is. And it sounds like we’re looking at live subjects.”

“Like monkeys? Because if it’s people…” My pulse thumped. I should already know what he was up to. I should be able to see it. But even now, using Tair to help me focus, I couldn’t find the right layers of time. It was blocked from me.

“I’m not sure,” Tair said.

We had to hurry. If there were other Reds in here, I didn’t have to imagine what they were going through because I’d been through the same. It had to stop. “I’ll keep pretending to hate you and we can bicker our way to the lift.”

“Great.” Tair sounded strangely sullen.

“I don’t—” I snapped my jaw shut before I could finish the sentence. He didn’t need to know that I didn’t hate him. How I felt made zero difference in what we had to do.

So why did I feel the need to clarify?

The sound of boot-steps on the horizon kept me from analyzing it. “They’re coming.”

“Can you wind back now?”