The inside of Venom was nothing like it would someday become. Now, it was nothing more than a bare warehouse of a room with a couple long tables in the middle.

Azure dropped Rend on a pile of folded curtains in the corner and met me in the center of the room.

“I don’t suppose there’s any way to wake him up early, is there?” I asked. “I don’t mean to be a pain, but I’m kind of on a tight deadline here.”

“Why is that?” she asked, sitting down at the table and pulling over a stack of folders.

“It’s a long story.”

I sat down next to her, glancing at the contents of the folders as she opened them. It looked like construction plans. Blueprints for Venom.

“We’ve got some time,” she said, glancing at Rend. “And no, there’s no good way to wake him up early. Not without making him angry. Well, angrier.”

She smiled as she said it, and I wondered again what their history really was all about.

“Tell me what you’re really doing here,” she said. “We’ll fill him in when he wakes up.”

I glanced over at Rend and sighed. This wasn’t exactly what I had been hoping for, but at least I was alive. And as far as I knew, Azure was just as likely to be near Jackson right now in the future as Rend was.

“You guys are obviously familiar with the Order of Shadows, right?” I asked.

She gave me a look like I was stupid.

“Okay, then,” I muttered. “You’re familiar. Well, the emerald priestess kidnapped me and tortured me. She brought me to this hospital here in the past, and she kept me there for months. I didn’t remember who I was for the most part, but no matter what she did, I kept having flashbacks and memories of my real life. Anyway, long story short, she couldn’t break me, so she tried to lobotomize me.”

Azure stopped thumbing through her plans. “She what?”

“She tried to basically put an icepick-shaped instrument through my brain,” I said, making a stabbing motion toward my eye.

“I know what it is,” she said. “I just can’t believe she would do that to you. Why even keep you alive if she hates you that much?”

“I don’t know, honestly,” I said. “She seemed to have a thing for turning girls into a living doll collection. That or convincing them they were her daughters.”

“Good Lord,” she said, cringing. “How did you get out of that?”

“I killed her,” I said.

Azure laughed and leaned back in her chair. “You killed a priestess of the Order of Shadows?” she asked. “I have to admit, I was starting to believe you there for a second. No one can kill those witches. Besides, one dies, and her oldest daughter takes over. The next priestess is probably already being initiated as we speak.”

I sat back in my chair. Oh, right. They didn’t yet understand how the Order and its five main priestesses worked.

As far as Azure knew, a new priestess came into power when her mother died. No one back in this time understood that the reigning priestesses were over two hundred years old and living off the power stolen from those they had killed or consumed.

I wasn’t sure how much I should tell her. In the end, I needed to be sure that nothing I said or did here in the past would change the future, but I was planning on asking them to forget all of this before I left, anyway.

I decided to err on the side of caution for now. I may have already said too much by telling her a priestess was dead, but I needed for her to believe me.

“I can’t tell you everything, but just know that she’s dead,” I said. “That’s part of why I’m here. She was the only one who could get me home. I didn’t realize I was stuck in the past until after I’d killed her.”

“Well, if you’re looking for someone to cast a portal to send you home, you’re out of luck,” she said. “I can manipulate time and space to some degree, like I did with that doorway, but I don’t know anyone powerful enough to open a portal into the future.”

“I didn’t come for that,” I said. “There are two things I need from Rend. One is help creating a potion that will restore the memories of the other girls who were trapped in that hospital with me. Most of them come from the future, like me, and most of them have no idea who they really are.”

“How many girls?” Azure asked.

“Eighty or so,” I said.

She shook her head, but she didn’t speak. I could tell from the expression on her face that she was sad for those girls. And so was I. I wasn’t even sure I’d be able to get them all home at this point. The least I could do was try to restore their memories and help them move on.

“Listen,” I started, but someone opened a door on the far side of the room and floated in, her wings shimmering behind her. This woman’s wings were much brighter than Azure’s had been, and I stood when I saw her, amazed at her strange beauty.

“I think I’m finished for the day,” the fairy said, stopping as soon as she saw Rend lying on the floor, unconscious. She glanced from him to Azure, and finally, to me. She gave me a very curious look. “Well, what have we here?”

“Sabine, leave her alone,” Azure said.

But the fairy didn’t look as though she had any intention of leaving me alone. She circled me, as if studying every inch of my body. She ran her pale fingers down my arms, touching the scars the priestess had left.

“You have great love in your life,” she said. She placed her hand near my forehead. “May I?”

I had no idea what she was asking, so I looked to Azure, who shrugged.

“I don’t understand what you want to do,” I said.

Sabine laughed, and the sound seemed to disperse through the room as if it had come from a hundred voices, rather than just one. “I just want to see,” she said.

“You might as well let her do it,” Azure said. “Otherwise, she’ll never leave you alone. But just this one thing, Sabine. Then you go. We have business here.”

Sabine smiled at me, her eyes wide and child-like as she asked again. “May I?”

“Okay,” I said, my heart racing.

She placed her hand on my head, and my eyes immediately fell closed. Memories passed through my mind like pictures. The fire that killed my step-father. Being brought to Shadowford. My tattoo. It all passed by so quickly, it made me dizzy.

But all of a sudden, the image stopped on Jackson. He sat at the table in my chambers, drawing. I smiled. I’d spent many nights watching him from the balcony as he drew, some of the visions pleasant. Others horrifying.

God, I missed him.

Sabine held me there for a long moment before she pulled away, something sparkling deep in her opal eyes.

“This love of yours,” she said. “He sees visions of the future?”

I nodded. “Sometimes.”

“A very interesting gift,” she said. “Very interesting, indeed.”

“Aunt Sabine is very interested in all things relating to time,” Azure said.

“Aunt?” I asked, laughing.

“Great-great-aunt,” Sabine said, smiling. “But we don’t need to get into all of that.”

My eyes widened. I wasn’t sure how old Azure was since she hadn’t seemed to change at all over the decades, but I could only guess that meant Sabine was ancient. I could certainly feel the power radiating from her. She was no hybrid. Sabine was pure fae, and a strong one.

“You’re interested in time?” I asked. “Do you know anyone who could open a portal into the future?”

Sabine shook her head. “No, I’m afraid that is not an ability anyone seems to possess, though it would be quite fun to see the future,” she said. “If you’ll excuse me, I do need to get going. Please give my regards to poor Rend over there when he wakes up.”

Sabine blew kisses toward Azure, then closed her palm tightly. When she opened it again, a bright, white light appeared. Sabine threw the light into the air, and a portal opened. It was too bright for me to see where it led, but I could see lush-green grass and red roses growing in the distance.

“Goodbye, Harper,” she said, and I was surprised she knew my name. Had she seen it when she’d reached into my mind? “I hope I’ll see you again someday. And Azure? You should trust her. In her mind, I have seen more of the future than I ever dreamed.”

She giggled and stepped into the portal. A moment later, the light blinked out.