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Violet walked down a rickety bridge that connected the cliff to a mountain. Her face was wet. It was hard to tell where her tears started and where the rain ended. The girl stared down at the wild river running beneath. “You broke your legs to save me three years ago, Ash. I’m coming to you today.” She leapt from the bridge and plunged into the river.

Then the video paused.

“Ziyi!” Lucienne snapped.

“Sorry. I just want to make a quick comment before you see the rest. What happens next is mind-bending.” Ziyi unfroze the frame of Violet’s free fall into the rapids below. “When the dark-matter outburst erupted, like what happened at Hell Gate, our new software immediately picked it up, and we found Ashburn Fury just in time.”

Lucienne’s eyes widened as she saw Ashburn materialize in midair, catch Violet, and fall into the river with her. Lucienne marched forward, her fingers gliding on the screen, replaying the moment when Ashburn materialized.

Ashburn’s image appeared beside Lucienne’s captivated face.

“Computer,” Lucienne commanded. “Analyze the coordinates. Is it a portal to an alternative universe?”

“No portal found,” the computer said. “But sensors detect gamma rays as interacting massive particles collide.”

“Our technology can’t detect time-space yet,” Vladimir reminded Lucienne.

“Time and space must have split for a second at those coordinates and Ashburn must have broken through the barrier,” Lucienne said, switching off the footage.

On the vast main screen, the satellite continued the live feed.

Lucienne gasped as she saw Ashburn stand with Violet on the shore. Did it just happen—Ashburn Fury broke through spacetime and was at once healed?

“Aren’t his legs—” Ziyi found her voice.

Clinging to Ashburn, Violet was laughing and crying. He was a head taller than Violet. He might be six-feet four inches, Lucienne estimated. Violet reached out to touch her friend’s handsome face. Ashburn shifted his attention from the girl, his icy-blue eyes on alert as if he sensed they were being watched.

“Have the team ready,” Lucienne said. “I’m flying BL7 in five minutes.”

“Lucia?” Ziyi looked at Lucienne enthusiastically.

“I need you here,” Lucienne said. “Vladimir Blazek will be in charge in my absence.”

Vladimir wasn’t happy with the arrangement, but he accepted it. One of them—Vladimir, Kian, or Lucienne—should stay on Sphinxes unless an emergency required all three of them to venture off.

Lucienne had her own reason to leave Vladimir behind. Putting certain physical distance between them could do them both good. If the heat between them grew more intense, neither of them could be trusted.

“Be safe,” Vladimir said gently and longingly.

Lucienne smiled and left the lab.

~

When BL7 gained altitude, Lucienne called Kian from her encrypted Eidolon.

“Blazek filled me in when my men were packing up,” Kian answered.

“Unpack. Contain the target.”

“I’m already on the way to the Fury house.”

“I’ll be there in seventeen minutes.”

“Happy flying, kid.”

Lucienne hung up. She let her hand move to the joystick, willing BL7 faster.

On the monitor above the control panel, a video played with clear audio. The three hidden cameras in the Fury house implanted byKian’s team while installing basic electricity for the household had paid off.