I wanted to scream or cry or punch a fist through the fake window. Altair’s timeghosts had latched on and no matter how hard I shook my head, I couldn’t shake them off. The pages of time strobed in front of me like someone was holding a flip-book to my nose.

Altair screams as a shock lance connects with his chest; he lifts me onto his back, both of us laughing; I snuggle against his side as he absently strokes my hair; I scream as group of geneticists strap me to a table and warriors drag him away.

Who was Altair?

I’d gone from too little info to a tidal wave of it and I couldn’t find the tidbits I needed in the chaos. Flickering blue timeghosts blotted floated so thick in the air I couldn’t see the present. And someone I’d just met should never have this much power over me.

Screw it.

Chucking off my blanket, I crawled toward the shower. I had to dig my fingers into the carpet just to keep hold of what was really real.

Kisses and sprays of blood. Whispers and screams.

Everything overlapping.

My hands and knees hit cool tile and then my head butted the glass shower door. I didn’t bother stripping off my clothes. Somehow, my fingers bumped the temperature dial and I cranked it to the highest setting.

Curling in the corner, I clapped my hands to my ears.

The scalding water stung, but it brought me back to reality as droplets beat against my head like drums. I shook my head until the last of the images disappeared.

Finally.

Fricking Altair Orpheus.

How dare he?

I was making a difference here. Tallying small victories. Rescuing a Red here and a Raven there. Avoiding catastrophes.

Saving the day from the shadows and stuff.

Who was he to come in to my life and destroy the status quo? If he screwed up my future—

My future.

I jerked so hard I knocked my head on the tile, but the pain barely registered as I flexed my mental muscles, tearing at the layers of possibility.

My future was back.

Kisses. Some groping. More death than ever.

My future mirrored Altair’s until I couldn’t tell whose was whose anymore. I almost gagged to think it, but…

Our futures were linked.

Future after future after future ended in red haze until I could taste the potential blood at the back of my throat. I ground my hands to my temples so hard that stars burst behind my eyes.

Why? Why would I start a romance with this guy knowing it ended with us shot? Tortured. Gassed. Electrocuted.

There was even a hazy one where we fell into a pool of acid together. Thank God that one was too unlikely to smell. I was not sizzling to death for this guy.