Game hunting was hypothetically entertaining, but I hated moving around holographic bushes and trees. Seeing through the timeghosts in my line of vision already added plenty to the degree of difficulty.

A few programs had human targets, but the thought made me cringe. No thanks. The zombie game was even less appealing. Holographic corpse rot looked schnasty.

Instead, I queued up skeet shooting and changed the target setting from clay disks to randomly generated objects. An oldie but goodie. Few things made me happier than vaporizing glass figurines.

I aimed at START. As holos glowed to life, a smile plastered my face.

Ten minutes later, I’d dusted 98 of 100 targets.

I was a lot sweatier, but still grinning as I leaned down to catch my breath. Unless Akua came to drag me to my room, I planned to keep playing until I collapsed. Now that I was making her cash, she’d probably let me go a few rounds.

As I lifted my gun to hit RESTART, the door slid open. “I want to—”

The words choked off.

Altair Orpheus stood in the doorway.

Crap. I’d totally gotten caught up in the game.

“I heard you sent me a challenge?” He stripped off his white coat and tossed it to the ground.

My jaw dropped. That was one way to throw down a gauntlet. “I heard you weren’t allowed to contact me.”

“I didn’t. Technically.” Altair swung his arms, getting loose. As he pulled an arm across his chest to stretch, he shot me a considering look that made me want to shiver.

But I didn’t. Somehow.

I glanced away. “You sure you’re up for this? You look like more of an indoor guy.” At least, he did if I went by the glasses—they had to be some kind of wearable tech or I couldn’t imagine why he’d keep them on his face. But I’d seen him sparring, and the hard lines of him said plenty now that he’d stripped down to a dark T-shirt.

Altair Orpheus could handle himself.

He took a toy gun from the weapon wall. “I can beat that last score.”

Well, well. Really?

This was working out so much better than planned. I still couldn’t talk to him, but kicking his ass was going to make me feel a lot happier about our current situation. And that was super childish, but I couldn’t think of a better way to assert dominance.

Yet. I’d work on that, though.

“Two minute speed round. Most targets wins.” I shot the menu, queuing up the new program. “Ready?”

“Always.” His voice had a warm, melty tone, even when he was throwing out a challenge. I shot the start button, but my gaze stuck with Altair as the time counted down. His dark hair and T were rumpled like he’d been sleeping rough—if at all—but he looked relaxed.

Confident.