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“But there’s no ground,” said Lucienne.

“You just can’t see it.” The giant reached to grab Lucienne’s wrist. She was taken aback, but her surprise didn’t affect her reflexes. She chopped down his hand before it could touch her. Also amazingly fast, the man stepped back, holding his hands in the air in a gesture of surrender. “My apologies, Siren. I was trying to help you off theplatform.” Chortling, he stepped off the invisible elevator and walked around in endless space.

Holding her breath, Lucienne stepped forward. It felt as if she descended a staircase that wasn’t there. She moved forward, and the hollowness extended. Her eyes couldn’t see ground, yet she stood on it. The place was dark like space, yet she could see the giant standing several feet away, watching her. The laws of physics were at odds with her perception of reality in this realm.

“No signal can reach here, and nothing goes out,” he said. “Here, Ashburn can have the golden silence in his head. Only here is he not subjected to billions of strangers’ memories. This is his escape. The Rabbit Hole was built for him a million years ago.”

“Before he was born?” Lucienne raised an eyebrow in skepticism.

“We knew he was coming,” he said. “Haven’t you read the inscription in the scrolls?”

“Don’t you know I don’t have the last scroll, Mr. Know-It-All?” Lucienne said, suspecting he must also know one-third of the first scroll remained undecipherable without the third to cross-reference.

“It could be right under your nose.”

“More specifically?”

“You’ll have to figure it out yourself, Siren. Aren’t you a pro at solving puzzles? Almost as good as Niahm?” The man laughed, but there was no warmth or humor in it.

Lucienne felt the chill again at the man’s menace when he hissed Niahm’s name.

“The Eye of Time was never meant for you. You Sirens have always believed that you’re the chosen ones of the Earth, but you’re just pawns. Does it sting to see reality as it really is?”

The man had just confirmed her suspicion—there was a third power at play. Warnings from her mark flared inside Lucienne. This stranger could be more dangerous than she thought, and she was in the enemy’s lair, unable to call for backup.Lucienne darted her eyes around, looking for Ashburn while stalking the man. “Then how do you fit into this grand design?”

“I’m here to put an end to the game. My job is to take out the other equations, but keep the one true bloodline safe.”

He meant to kill her, Lucienne realized. Her hand moved to the whip coiled around her wrist, her body in battle mode.

“You’re more lethal than I realized, but Ashburn can’t see that,” the man said. “He’s quite taken with you, just as the TimeDust intended. When he flew to see you, just to see where you live, I had already known he would never fight you. I’ll have to clean up for him.”

“If you’re so hell bent on killing me,” Lucienne said, “at least let me know who you are.” She drew back a few more steps and swept her gaze over the unnerving infiniteness.Is Ashburn in a secret invisible room in this deep hole?

“I’m as ancient as Niamh, the first of your line. You’re her atom split,” the man said, approaching Lucienne with menacing light dancing in his obsidian eyes.

“Ashburn?” Lucienne called, then louder. “Ashburn!”

“He can’t hear you.” The man continued his advance on Lucienne.

Measuring the giant’s size and his bulged muscles on his bare torso, Lucienne changed her mind about deploying her whip. She pulled out her Armatix handgun and trained it on the man. “Mister, I prefer you stay where you are,” she said, cocking the weapon. “One step closer, and I’ll shoot. I never miss.”

The man pounced, and Lucienne squeezed the trigger.

The bullet bounced off his bare chest. He grabbed Lucienne as if she were a rag doll and tossed her into the air. Lucienne snapped her whip, but there was nothing in the void to anchor it. She flew backwards and smashed onto the unseen ground. The force knocked the air out of her lungs. Her handgun fell from her hand.

Struggling to inhale, Lucienne raised her head to look for her gun, but the man was already advancing toward her with purposeful steps, cornering his prey. He leapt into the air to stomp on her.

Lucienne rolled, a second pistol already in her hand. “Take this!” Still lying on the ground, she lifted her torso and fired. The bullet hit the man’s left eye.

Again, it didn’t penetrate his flesh but dropped to the ground, like a small rock sinking into the sea in silence.

“You gotta be kidding me,” Lucienne cursed. “Damn robot!”

“Wrong again, little Siren. I’m more advanced than any robot or human.”

With a snarl, Lucienne slashed her whip toward the giant. It wrapped tight around his thick neck. Lucienne yanked the whip, intending to break his neck, but he grabbed the whip and hauled, pulling her toward him.

Lucienne reacted faster than her twisted whip. As she flew toward her enemy, she yanked a combat knife from her boot and plunged the blade into his heart.