“Easy.” Lips nibble my ear. “I’m not going to kill you just yet.”

My body shudders at the eerily familiar tone.

The time traveler.

I open my mouth to let out a scream, but he smashes his hand against my mouth.

I writhe my body and kick my legs, but his arm secured around my waist never wavers.

“Scream all you want,” he whispers, dragging me farther and farther away from Blaise and Zander. “They’ve already forgotten you.”

Letting my body go limp, I attempt to get him to drop me, but he continues moving, hauling me backward down the tunnel until we emerge inside the cell at the end. Soft moonlight filters through the barred window and into the room, casting shadows all over the walls. At least, I think they’re shadows until the shadows begin to move, dancing around on the bronzed walls.

“Scary, aren’t they?” The time traveler releases me and shoves me forward with enough force that I crash into the wall.

My cheek and forehead smack against the metal and stars spot my vision … Or maybe they’re just in the sky outside … The sky …

Peering through the bars, I spot a full moon and thousands of countless twinkling stars in the black sky.

“This sky … It doesn’t belong to the red sky world …” The bars singe to dust in front of me and float down the rocky ledge I’m standing on. “What’s happening?”

“What’s happening is that I’m reminding you of what I can do.” The time traveler steps up beside me, pulling his hoodie higher over his head to shield his face. “Don’t forget, Allura, you may erase everything, but I control everything—create—which is so much more.”

I turn sideways to face him, the breeze rising from the cliffs gusting my hair into my face. “Who are you?”

He stares ahead at the cliffs and stars stretching before us. “I already told you, I’m a time traveler.”

“No, I know you.” I curl my fingers inward and slowly start to reach for him to draw down his hood. “And well. That’s why you purposefully keep your face hidden.”

“Perhaps you’re right, but it doesn’t really matter, because you’ll never know.” He snaps his head in my direction, and his hand follows, seizing my arm. “Did you really think I’d make this easy for you?”

I wrench my arm back, but his fingernails pierce into my flesh. “Make what easy on me?”

“Bringing Blaise back.” He faces me full-on and tugs on my arm until I stumble into him. “He’s going to stay where I put him and live the worst moments of his life over and over again until he goes mad.”

“No.” I flatten my palms against his chest and push back. “I’m going to save him.”

“Save him?” He leans forward, laughing in my face. “And how are you going to do that when you can’t even save yourself?”

“I’ll find a way. I always do.” The words leave my lips under no control of my own, and a long forgotten memory surfaces. “I’ve said that before.”

“Yes, you have.” The time traveler blows out a frustrated exhale. “I guess it’s time to reset.”

“Reset—”

He seizes both my wrists before I can finish. With one swift tug, he whips me around and lines my back to his chest. Then he slips his arm around my waist and rests his other hand at the base of my throat as he turns us toward the edge of the cliff.

“Do you remember this part?” he whispers in my ear with a hint of remorse.

“You kill me.” My hollow voice doesn’t even sound like it belongs to me.

“So, you do remember?”

“Sort of.” Not really. The truth is, my body feels possessed, as if I’m a puppet someone is controlling.

“And do you remember why?”

“No.”

He positions his mouth beside my ear. “Because you erase everything—time, people, memories. It’s what you are, Allura.”

My knees begin to tremble as memories pinprick my brain. “A time eraser?”

“A time manipulator,” he whispers. “Which makes you very dangerous if you fall into the wrong hands.”

“You mean the Grim?”

“I mean everything like the Grim.”

My head pulsates as more memories attack me. “But the Grim already had me. And technically, I am part of them.”

“Is that what you think?” He laughs, his fingertips stabbing into my throat, choking me. “Despite what a lot of people believe, the Grim aren’t very bright. Well, at least not when compared to you and me. When you were brought to the channels that day, that stupid moron didn’t even know what he had. They locked you away, knowing you were different. They fed off you while trying to tap into your brain to see what you really are. But since you couldn’t remember, they couldn’t figure it out. Now they know. And like they’ve always done before, they’re going to chase you and chase you and chase you, ruining everything in their path. Planets, colonies, families—everything until they lose you again and this whole painful process repeats itself.”

“Why do they want me?” I gasp out, gripping his arm as he lifts me upward until my feet no longer touch the ground.

“Because you’re basically the end of the world.” He presses a soft kiss to my ear. “Don’t worry; in just a few seconds, you’ll forget everything.”

“No!” I scream as the wind kicks up, funneling dirt and leaves around us.

I can’t forget everything. I can’t forget Blaise, Ryder, and Reece. I can’t forget the pain. What I am. Who I need to save.

The scream dissolves in my throat as he snaps my neck and drops me to the ground, to forget everything good that ever happened to me.