It wasn’t my first choice, but with options like that, I couldn’t be picky. I’d rather be dead in jars than alive knowing how my visions were being used. Not just my visions anymore. Even my blood was a source of evil these days.

“Is that what you want?” Nagi asked again, his voice scary fierce and filled with something I didn’t understand. “I assure you, there are other choices.”

Ha.

I could see the future, and—

A figure flickered at the corner of my eye.

Well… A lot of figures flickered at the corners of my yes, but this one—

Tair.

He stands in a white room, talking to a screen and gripping the fabric of a brown robe, right over his heart.

The past? The future?

An illusion?

Last time I’d checked, Tair wasn’t a wizard. Elf, maybe. Wizard, no.

I couldn’t tell either way, but it had to be important because the moment stuck in my view. It wasn’t clear who he was talking to or where he was, but his words crossed the distance.

“Just get me in.”

My heart skipped.

No.

The future was teasing me, wasn’t it?

He wasn’t coming. I’d seen that he wasn’t coming.

He shouldn’t be. It wasn’t safe.

But was he?

Monitors squealed as I dug into the future. Or tried to. I had to know.

If I had hope, I had to know.

Without him here to bring my clarity, the pages of time bled together.

Cut me a fricking break for once, universe. Is he coming or not?

Pages and pages and pages flipped in front of me, all Tair, but none showing what I wanted to see. I flipped until I couldn’t see strait, fighting my limits until the monitors started freaking out.

Tair rides in a pod, restless, taping his fingers against his leg while a giant duffle bag rests on the seat across from him; he strides into the senate building; plumes of smoke bloom in the Citadel; Tair sprints, his heels hammering the tiles of a white corridor—

Warmth burned through my body, bringing the feeling back to my drug-numbed fingers and toes.

Tair was coming for me. He shouldn’t do that.

It was reckless. Probably stupid, too.

But screw it.

It was his choice, and I wasn’t going to spit on anything that got me out of this hell hole. A grin plastered my face, and it probably looked crazy. Actually, I knew it looked crazy.

Digging deeper, I scanned every possible future I could grab. Tair was on the way, but he wouldn’t get here easy. Most of the paths still ended with him getting gunned down, dragged off, or blasted.

Not on my flipping watch.

The problem was Nagi. Security doubled when he was in the house.

I had to get rid of him.