Tair paused when the hallway came to a T-junction. “Let’s head toward the reading library.” He stepped left, and as I followed, I realized something unfortunate about my powers. It had been a long time since I’d gone anywhere outside my everyday routine. Like… Two years?

I’d forgotten what that meant.

With every step forward, the newness of the space sucked me in.

Doctor Nagi strides past, dictating notes to the entourage of underlings trailing after him; Marco crawls on hands and knees, muttering, “I don’t want to see it. Make it stop. Make her stop.”; Tair and I sprint this way, hand in hand as smoke billows down the hall.

I scrunched my eyes shut and tried to filter, but images kept slithering past my mental blocks. Everything that had ever happened here layered on top of everything that could ever happen with all the matching voices and sound effects.

I couldn’t see anything helpful in all the flashes of color and sound. The timeghosts hung so thick that shivery blue light bathed the hall and walking forward felt like punching through invisible sheets of paper.

Hugging my arms to my body, I tried to stay in the present. Block it out. Focus.

“Are you sure you’re all right?” Tair’s present voice cut through the chaos of noises.

Nope. Not really.

But we needed to keep exploring on the off chance that I saw something worthwhile. I just couldn’t walk when I couldn’t see my feet underneath the layers of ghosts. Keeping my eyes closed tight, I reached toward where I knew he was standing. “Let me hold your sleeve.”

I didn’t dare touch his ski—

Tair grabbed my hand.

Clarity seared through my head. The timeghosts burned off like fog in the sunlight as Tair’s gentle touch guided my fingertips to rest on his arm. For the first time in longer than I could remember I sensed the present in a single clear image from the corridor’s walls of frosted glass to the warmth of Tair’s skin and the concern furrowing his brow.

As soon as I had a firm grip on the cloth of his lab coat, Tair broke our contact.

The ghosts rebounded back into place so hard I lost my breath and staggered. Darren passes a file folder to Akua. “Did you order her weekly meals?”; Tair ducks behind a blurry mass, panting, sweat dripping from his temples; I trip over a body and then turn to find Tair, lifeless on the ground. I fall to my knees, tears rolling down my cheeks—

“Quanta.” Tair gripped my arm, pulling me upright. His fingers brushed my wrist.

As soon as our skin touched, my vision cleared. Chest heaving, I snatched his hand and twined our fingers together. “Do not let go of me.”