“I’d been sitting on the matching program for decades,” Eva continued. “I was confident in the science at the genetic level, but pairing personalities proved more difficult. You made me a list of potential matches and it’s served as my guide these last ten years. Without your input, I never would’ve implemented human trials.”

“I…” I didn’t know what to say to her, let alone to myself.

I’d known I had memory gaps, but this was more on the amnesia level. Then again, who remembered what they’d said at three years old? I might’ve told her what I saw, but there was no way I could’ve understood what it meant.

“It’s all worked out for the best, hasn’t it?” Eva folded her hands over her knee, as if that was all that mattered.

“We’ll see.” Tair’s voice was hard.

A shiver of dread ran through me. Was he pissed at me?

If not, I was kind of pissed at me.

Stupid past self.

A soft tone rang through the room, cutting the tension. “They’ll be setting out lunch.” Eva stood and brushed her lapels flat. “Take some time to rest and recover and we’ll reconvene later. I’d like to you meet the rest of the team.”

I slipped away from Tair and would’ve put some space between us—visions or no visions—but he held tight to my hand as his voice echoed in my head. Let’s play along with her for now.

Sure. We could even strategize. I was just glad he wasn’t furious about my manipulative toddler phase.

Eva went back to her work and a guard led us toward the dining hall, not even pretending to stay on task as he kept glancing back at me. I bit back the urge to tell him how he died. At this point, it wouldn’t scare him off. He’d just tell his buddies and then they’d want me to play rebel camp fortuneteller.

Not in this lifetime.

The guard left us at a hodgepodge site of shipping containers converted into kitchens. People streamed in from all the directions, and the shimmering ink from all their Raven tattoos was almost enough to make me dizzy, but that was just the start.

Their pasts crushed down around me in so many layers of timeghosts I couldn’t see my feet anymore.

I gripped Tair’s arm with both hands to put it all on mute, but there were too many images to shut off the flow completely. Tair swept me off my feet and carried me to an empty table, but held me in his arms instead of setting me down. Should we get out of here?