Darren hovered too close, caressing my hair instead of just moving it out of the way to get the cords hooked in. My knuckles whitened on my chair arms. Our shared past flickered along with a few scenes from his life’s highlight reel, but I blacked out the pictures, biting my cheeks until the pain made them disappear.

I couldn’t let him get to me. Not here. Not now.

Just being in the holo room made timeghosts clamor in front of me, strobing and whispering, showing flashes of all the times I’d been here before. I could barely see Darren through the layers of bluish figures flickering across my vision.

Focus.

If I didn’t control it now, I’d slip something I shouldn’t and then I’d have problems so much bigger than creepy Darren. Forcing myself to look past his lab coat, I concentrated on the matte-black wall and the sound of my breath.

Even if my future was still a blank there were plenty of other people I could screw over if I projected something I shouldn’t. I kept biting the inside of my cheek until it bled and the jab of pain kept me anchored. The whispers and ghosts never totally went away, but I managed to get them more or less on mute. Under control…ish.

Darren finally stepped away when the last clip was in, leaving me alone, wrists strapped to the dentist-style chair in the middle of the room. I hated having him hover behind me, doing who knew what, but at least when he was out of sight I could focus on the walls.

Soft light glowed as the simulation system kicked on. Now whatever layer of time I focused on could be projected.

And recorded.

Blank mind. Blank mind. Don’t let anything slip.

Darren had to be after something serious if it got him to break my house arrest and that thought lifted the hairs on the back of my neck. He wouldn’t drag me here just so I’d tell tomorrow’s weather.

“Emma Jean Boyd.” Darren’s voice made me jump, and the name called up the girl’s image in my mind. A matching hologram sprang to life—a pale, freckled girl with hair dyed brilliant blue, a lip ring, and dusting of other piercings and tattoos. I’d been asked to hunt her down so many times, I already had a bookmark in her volume of the universe.

This time, she sat in front of a comp unit, illuminated by the glow. The light blotted out the subtle shimmer of the Shadow Raven tattoo between her thumb and forefinger.

Son of a nutcracker.

I froze my thought before more of the space could render.

Showing even this much was a mistake.

“Also known as Cipher.” Darren walked around the projection, sizing up the girl in the hologram. “Is this past or future?”