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Then again, he’d mated a time mage. This tracked.

Not-Taly cupped her hands to her mouth and shouted across the grassy expanse, “Hey, guess what?” Her voice echoed across the vast space. “We’re going on a field trip!”

“Can I say no?” he called back. One Taly was enough trouble. He didn’t need two.

“Sure,” Not-Taly said, grinning as she sauntered backward. “But then you’re walking home.”

Skye clicked his tongue. Fantastic. This waspreciselyhow he wanted to spend his day.

He looked around. “Where are we?”

“What was that? I can’t hear you.”

He knew for a fact that she damn well could.

She was still walking.

“Taly.”

Still walking.

“Taly!”

Stillwalking.

“You can’t just leave me here!”

But she only turned so that her back was to him. Still walking away. Still… yup, still walking.

Which would leave him… Well, that was the question, wasn’t it?

Where the hell was he?

Skye growled a few choice words and tried to get his bearings. Grassland stretched for miles in every direction, banded by a gray horizon. It would be easy to get lost here. There were no landmarks, no sun to tell him the direction. He had no clue if he was even still on the island, much less how to get home.

The figure of Taly grew smaller, and smaller. She was really going to leave him here. After she’d justpluckedhim from his life…

By every definition, this was kidnapping.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Skye muttered. And then, because he was apparently incapable ofnotfollowing that woman wherever whimsy and madness led, he stomped after her.

Catching up, he fell into step beside her, hands shoved deep into his pockets, his teeth chattering in the wind. “For the record, I knew mating with a time mage would get weird. I even considered that I might run into another version of you. But this? Is this going to be a thing now? You just showing up whenever you want and expecting me to fall in line?”

Not-Taly smirked. “Someone’s surly. What’s wrong? Is other-me not putting out? You’re making that face you always make when you’re all pent up.”

She looked like Taly, talked like Taly. Skye could even feel that same pull between them as they walked. Weaker than with his Taly, like an echo, but still a solid enoughtugthat he could’ve followed her with his eyes closed.

“It was you in the tunnels, wasn’t it?” he said.

“Wow. We must beearlyin the timeline if you’re asking me about that.”

Frustrating. Infuriating. Not quite an answer—but it confirmed his suspicion. “I suppose I should say thank you. I was on the verge of giving up that night. You kept me going.”

“I know,” she said with a small smile.

“I should probably also mention that I’m really pissed off.”

“Oh?”