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Staring into the Eye’s hypnotic depths, Ashburn flinched, sensing great evil again. But Violet’s safety outweighed any danger to himself and the whole world. Despite a wave of terror washing over him, Ashburn stretched his hand and touched the Eye of Time.

Lucienne gasped as a firestorm appeared, a vortex encircling Ashburn and the Eye, guarding the being and imprisoning the human boy. A skeletal bolt of lightning erupted from the Eye and pierced Ashburn.

Lucienne felt the burning sensation sear through her veins just as Ashburn must have felt it. With a cry, Ashburn struggled to yank away, but he was bound to the force. Ancient, alien music, a mix of inhuman whispers and mechanical noises, blasted inside Ashburn’s head. While he tried to exorcize the horrible sounds with shouts and punches in the air, millions of human voices speaking in different languages joined the invasion, forcing their way into the front of his skull. The cacophony echoed relentlessly in his ears.

Ashburn cursed the Eye and begged it to turn off the sounds.

As the excruciating noise marched inside Ashburn’s head, millions of images, graphic and grotesque, squeezed into his head like an army of African cannibal ants. “I’m burning.” Ashburn screamed. “You’re killing me!”

“It is data-overloading, Destined One. You will survive. Your brain is superior,”the Eye of Timesaid dispassionately. “Five more minutesand it will be done . . . immortal in flesh . . . You’ll end the era . . . end the time . . . as designed . . .”

Ashburn’s free hand grabbed the wand from his wheelchair and hacked at his finger held captive by the Eye, ready to cut off his own flesh to break free. Before the weapon smashed his finger, a black lightning formed in his fingertips and fired at the Eye.

“Nooo!” the Eye of Time cried.

Ashburn jerked back, breaking free, but the impact threw him from his wheelchair. He crashed to the ground. With labored breathing, Ashburn crawled toward his chair, but it was outside the range of the flame that still confined him. Before he reached the perimeter of the fire, the Eye’s power pulled him backward again, like wild wind sweeping a thin trash bag.

Ashburn roared in fury. Power and energy poured out of him, more forceful than a hurricane. Trembling, Lucienne smothered her ears with her hands, bent over with a cry, trying to shield herself from Ashburn’s rage.

An ocean of liquid light gushed out of the silvery gate like a mighty waterfall.

“Take me away,” Ashburn commanded. “Far away.”

The torrent of light scooped Ashburn up like he was a tealeaf and lifted him high into the sky. He looked down as Nirvana zoomed out, then the continents and the oceans shrank away, and then the Earth rolled back at the speed of light and became a speck.

Whisking away into space, Ashburn roared again in horror, but it was too late . . . .

The images and the scream faded in Lucienne’s mind and she was back in Ashburn’s bedroom. Complete silence devoured her while waves of vertigo assaulted her.

Ashburn’s hands slid along the arches of her burning cheekbones before they left her face. “That’s how the Eye of Time implanted its terrible purpose inside of me,” he said.

Though she had walked through pain, fire, and lightning, as Ashburn had, Lucienne felt only privileged. As her dizziness faded, she looked up at Ashburn, her whole face brightening like the first sunshine. Ashburn gazed at her, lost in her beauty. Despite the horror he had just relived, he reached to trace her cheek with his knuckles. When she didn’t pull away, he gently outlined her long, thick lashes. Lucienne half closed her eyes with parted lips, amazed at how a touch could be so lush and dreamy.

“I’ve never met anyone like you,” Ashburn sighed.

“If you go to the outside world, you’ll see plenty of girls like me,” she said. “I’m just a small fish in the ocean.”

“I possess almost everyone’s memories. Lucienne, you’re anything but a small fish.”

As Ashburn’s hand moved to the curve of her lips, Lucienne’s heart hesitated. She remembered Vladimir and pulled away. “Who are you really, Ash?” she asked in a quiet breath, concealing the rapid rhythm of her heartbeat.

“I don’t know,” he said, his eyes shifting to steel gray.

“I know Clement and Peder aren’t your biological parents,” she said, watching him, “and you know that, too.”

“I’ve searched my databank,” Ashburn said, “and I can’t find any records.”

“You broke free before the full upload. Do you think the secret of your heritage is still with the Eye of Time?”

“Maybe.”

“When Peder found you as a baby crying in a basket in the inner garden, Clement had just given birth to a stillborn. They buried the secret of your birth with the dead baby.”

Ashburn narrowed his eyes. “You read her mind.”

“I want to know more about you. I need to know who you are.”

“Any conclusions?”