“Dose her,” Darren said. Just his voice made me twitch.

I blinked, and for a moment, the specters cleared.

A white room. White coats. Glowing tech junk.

Tubes. Sensors. Sticky things pulling against my skin.

If this was reality, I didn’t want it.

“Her pulse is—”

“I can see the reading,” Darren spat the words.

I couldn’t tell the past from the future anymore. Not in any coherent way.

My head hurt too much for that and I was still paying for what I’d done. I might be paying for a while.

I couldn’t last much longer. What with the drugs.

I let out a breath and tried to feel where I was. The table bed hard against my back. Soft beeps. A scratchy patch on my ankle.

I should just accept that it was almost over.

Just die already.

But I don’t want to.

You want to live like this? My body jerked, shaking the table.

No. I wanted the other future. The one I’d seen with Tair. The one with a sky and colors that didn’t start with W.

Hot tears built in the corners of my eyes.

I wouldn’t give up.

If Darren came closer…

A new wave of drugs washed into me, and everything blurred harder.

My game board was almost cleared, but if I had to go out, I was going to take him with me.

I couldn’t see if that was possible anymore, but it was all I had.

A little vengeance to get me through.

A spectral Tair floated into my mind.

He curls into himself, glasses resting on the sheet beside him, his hair dark and damp. He reads a book, his golden brown eyes staring at the page, but not moving along the lines.

Thinking. Maybe about me?

Or not.

My ribs ached. Breathing hurt.

Tair was free. He’d do his science thing. Save lots of Reds.

Weren’t they lucky.

But it was better that way.

Better…

Gods, my lungs hurt.

Tick. Tock.

Crick. Crack.

It was almost time for me to go.

Chapter Thirty-Two

Chapter Thirty-Two

ALTAIR

Setting down my book, I fell back on the bed, utterly restless. Nothing was jogging my memory of the lost time. I’d been using Cassie’s encrypted channels to do research, but Quanta was a ghost.

Talked about in whispers, even by the few Ravens who’d known her as a child.

And I couldn’t remember. The hairs stood on my arms.

Whatever I’d lost, I wanted it back.

A string of curses from the kitchen broke my daze. I let out a breath and headed toward the clanking noises. Cass stood in front of the printing unit, punching buttons and scowling.

“You’re cooking?” I asked as I slid into a seat at the breakfast bar.