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His eyes shifted to Cori. She’d mentioned she and the keeper had a…complicatedrelationship. Maybe he could work with that.

“For the record, I don’t know that crazy woman. She tricked me into coming here.”

For some reason, that made the keeper laugh. “Lie noted. As for the trickery—yes, that sounds like her.”

Skye blinked. He knew that voice. Or thought he did. There was something about the way it shaped the words—too close to place, too strange to ignore.

“Let me guess,” the keeper went on in that voice skating on the edge of recognition, “she told you just enough to get you through the door but left out the important details? Little things like who I am… who you are… and why this was an objectively stupid thing for her to agree to?”

Skye hesitated. “Actually… yeah. That’sexactlywhat happened.”

“She just makes her own plans and expects you to follow along.”

“Becausesheknows better,” Skye shot back before he could help himself.

“Oh, always. And thenyou’resomehow the bad guy for pointing out when her stupid, half-baked plans sound likely to get somebody killed. And by somebody, usually her.”

Wow, this guygotit. It really was too bad they were on opposite sides of this hostage situation. Otherwise, Skye felt they could’ve been friends.

He knew this wasn’t the best time, but his curiosity got the better of him as he watched Cori’s frozen scowl. “How did you do it—freeze her, I mean?” He’d been trying to sneak up on his Taly for days now. Itneverworked.

“You like that, do you? It’s actually quite simple. Because the trap was built from her own aether, it didn’t register as foreign. It matched her frequency. She’s been coming to visit me for years now. And every time she stepped into the room, I pulled a single drop of aether free—just enough to leave the surface undisturbed. That’s how you beat a time mage, by the way. Patience. They’re not omniscient, no matter what they want you to believe. It’s simply a matter of working beneath their notice.”

“I’m… I’m impressed,” Skye murmured. He even meant it.

“It’s really nothing,” the keeper replied, sounding flattered. “But I’m glad this is going so smoothly. I was worried things would be awkward, hence the restraints...”

Footsteps echoed as he stepped around the table.

Metal creaked. The light shifted overhead flickered as a shadow passed through it.

Then a man leaned over him.

Twin gazes locked.

What. The. Fuck.

Skye blinked, but—yeah. That was stillhisface staring back at him.

Correction: his face with a goatee, which was an… interesting choice. He’d always wanted to give it a try, but he didn’t have the jawline for it. Or the manic frazzle of hair. Or the natural ambiance of this… mad bloodmage’s laboratory?

Skye could feel it in every fiber—the sharp senses monitoring his every move, every flicker of breath. He locked his body down, forced his pulse to remain steady, refusing to give anything away as the mechanical drone of machinery marked the passing seconds.

beep, beep, beep

An alarm sounded. “Ah, just one moment.” The other-him approached the wall of consoles, and then Skye realized—they were trackinghim.

Those werehisvitals,hispulse in real time.

beep, beep, beep

On one screen, the lines spiked with each breath. Another monitor displayed a rotating, translucent model of his body, sections highlighted in crimson, though he had no idea what it was scanning for. A third streamed endless data—his temperature, blood composition, arcane resonance levels, even fluctuations in his aether.

As the keeper silenced the alarm and tapped at the console, Skye noticed more differences between them. His other self was taller, his frame more built out. He had the weight and muscle Skye had always struggled to retain.

And where his shirt sleeves rolled back to reveal muscled forearms, through the gap in his collar—literally on every bit of visible skin beneath his face—thick, mottled patches of scars covered his body.

beepbeepbeep