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He watched as Terian motioned his hired security back, stopping them in mid-motion as they’d been about to yank Revik off him. Revik waited until they’d backed off a sufficient amount, then he stared down at Terian’s face.

“What the fuck do you want, Terry?” he said.

“I just told you!” he gasped. “I want you to save me, Revi’.” He fought to smile, even as he gasped for breath. Revik’s fingers abruptly tightened, and Terian let out a pained cry. “I want you to take me out of here,” he gasped, still gripping Revik’s hand. “I want you to do it now, before he finds us. I want you to bring Feigran. Before he kills me. Before he kills me for good.”

Revik stared, relaxing his fingers in spite of himself. “Feigran’s here?”

“Yes.”

Still thinking, Revik felt his mouth twist into a frown. “Why the fuck would Shadow want to kill you, Terry?”

Tears filled the amber eyes, startling Revik enough that he let go entirely, releasing him before he knew he meant to. He couldn’t remember ever seeing Terian cry. Feigran, yes?but not Terian. Not once, in the over seventy years he’d known him. Even as he thought it, Revik found himself thinking Allie had been right.

Whatever this thing was, it wasn’t really Terian.

It might not be Feigran either, but it definitely wasn’t Terian.

“He’s going to kill me, Revi’!” the seer said, clasping hold of Revik’s arms.

Revik looked down at where those long fingers held him, feeling that sense of unreality worsen.

“He’s going to kill me, so that he can get toher.”

Revik frowned, clicking. “That doesn’t make any sense. Shadow wanted you and Cass alive. So he could separate me from… from my wife.” He couldn’t quite make himself say her name, not with her on the stage below them. His voice turned harsh. “Why the fuck would he kill you now? Why, Terry?”

“Because he knows what she did.” Terian’s amber eyes grew more desperate as he continued to clutch Revik’s shirt. Revik tried to push off his hands, but the seer only clung to him harder. “He knows what your wife did toyou,Revi’… to the child.”

Revik’s jaw hardened.

Shaking his head, he clicked louder.

“Why the fuck would you tell him that, Terry?” He gritted his teeth. “If you wanted our help, why would you tell Menlim?”

“I don’thaveto tell him! He knows! He knowseverything!You know that!”

Feeling more in those words than the obvious, Revik shook his head.

“Yes, you do!” Terian said, gripping him tighter. “Don’tlieto me, Revi’. He already knew. He knew before I did!”

“So?” Revik said finally. “That doesn’t tell me anything, Terry. You asked Allie to come here before she’d done any of that.”

“But Isawit,” Terian said, his voice imploring. “I saw it, don’t you see? I saw what she would do. And I saw what he would do to me. And then it happened and I knew it wasn’t just pretty pictures, like before. I knew it wasn’t far away. It was close. So very, very close. Like the falling stars and the mother-cunt with the green eyes and you coming here. I knew it wasnow,Revi’. I knew I needed you to come save menow. Not in far away!”

Revik’s indecisiveness worsened.

Being so close to the other male, his light skirted and wove into the other seer’s, without his really willing it. In fact, with the other’s hands on him, his face only a foot or so away, Revik couldn’t really keep him out.

Yet he knew he wouldn’t see anything definitive there, even if he could scan him. Even if they weren’t both in a Dreng construct, Terian’s light didn’t work like that of most seers; it never had. It’s why collars didn’t work on him, why they could split his mind and it didn’t kill him, how he knew the future in more than just dreams.

Whatever happened to him, no matter how fucked up Terian got, that higher part of him always, magically, remained untouched.

It was how Terry was able to see things no other seer could see.

Not even Allie. Not even Kali.

“Revi’, please!” Terian begged, clutching at him again. “Please help me! I will give you all the seers I have from the List. I will give you all the humans. I will give you whatever you want! But youmusthelp me! He will not let me stay alive for much longer. It is a clicking clock, tick-tock, tick-tock. Closer every day. Closer every minute!”

Pausing, he gripped Revik tighter, lowering his voice to a whisper.