“Kissing, Allura?” he tsks. “I thought you would’ve learned your lesson by now.”

Blaise and I jerk back at the same time. I start to spin around, but Blaise seizes me by the waist, practically lifts me up, and deposits me on the ground behind him.

“Stay away from her,” he snarls with his arms expanded at his sides.

“You act like I’m here to harm her.” Amusement dances in the stranger’s tone. “Yet, you know nothing about me.”

“You’re a stranger in a strange world filled with death,” Blaise snaps, the veins in his arms bulging. “That’s all I need to know.”

I stand on my tiptoes and peer over Blaise’s shoulder to look at the guy’s face, which has been a mystery to me both times we’ve crossed paths.

He’s casually leaning against one of the over-sized trucks with his arms folded across his chest. His black jeans blend in with his black boots, hoodie, and gloves. With the hood drawn over his head and the collar of his jacket pulled over his mouth, I can’t see his face, only the shadow of his eyes and nose.

“And how do you know I did it?” I can feel the guy’s eyes shift to me. “There you are. I’ve been waiting for you to show up here again. Although, I figured you’d be alone like you always are. Looks like you learned something new since the last time I killed you.”

“Killed?” Blaise bites out the word, stepping forward to charge at the stranger.

“No, don’t.” I latch onto a belt loop in his jeans and dig my heels into the ground, but Blaise throws his weight forward, and I trip, stumbling after him.

The stranger laughs as we near him. “Relax, Blaise, I’m not going to hurt her right now.”

Blaise screeches to an abrupt stop, causing me to plow into him. My cheek smacks against his back, and my palms splay his sides as I steady my balance. Blaise hardly notices the contact, his muscles barely spasm.

“How do you know my name?” he asks. When the guy doesn’t answer, his fingers curl into fists at his sides. “Who are you?”

“Why don’t you ask Allura?” the stranger taunts. “I bet she’s dying to tell you.”

I move up next to Blaise with my shoulders squared, but my stomach clenches with trepidation. “I don’t know who you are, either.”

He mumbles, “Must we go through this every single time?”

Blaise glances at me with his brows furrowed and mouths, “What’s going on?”

I shrug. I want to tell him about how I saw the guy twice in my memories, but I’m unsure if I should say this in front of the stranger.

As if sensing my need for secrecy, Blaise presses two fingers to the corner of my eye, keeping his gaze secured on the stranger.

Okay, what’s going on? he asks. Who is this guy?

I’m not sure. I glance at the stranger from the corner of my eye and find him observing us with curiosity. I’ve seen him in my memories twice. Once he was dragging me to my death, and the other, he … I bottle down my nerves. He killed me.

Blaise snarls with anger flaring in his eyes.

He knew I’d come back to life, I quickly add. He said he killed me a ton of times, but I always came back … And that the Grim couldn’t get ahold of me. Then lives and worlds would be destroyed.

But they’ve already gotten ahold of you.

I know … And maybe that’s why your world was destroyed. The thought throat punches me from out of nowhere, and I suck in a startled breath. Oh, my God, I think I ruined your planet.

Blaise hastily shakes his head. No, there’s no way. It happened way before you or I were born.

I steal a glance at the guy, questioning if he can somehow hear our conversation. Go ahead, his body posture teases. Tell him.

I return my focus back on Blaise, guilt clutching my throat. Can I do it? Can I tell him what I heard the guy say in the memory?

Allura, you can tell me anything, Blaise says, reminding me that he can hear every single one of my thoughts. I won’t judge you. I’d be a hypocrite if I did.

With my lips smashed together, I suck in a steady breath through my nose. In one of my memories, the guy said he hadn’t seen me for over a century, which would make me much older than I look. Maybe old enough to have been around when the Grim ruined your planet.

How can that be possible? Blaise keeps a neutral expression, but I can feel his pulse thundering in his fingertips.

I shrug. Maybe it has something to do with my rapid healing rate. Maybe it makes me age slower, too.

I didn’t mean your age. I meant, how can the Grim getting ahold of you ruin our planet, especially since, when they had you, all they did was lock you in a cell and let the occasional visitor feed off you? He shakes his head. No, I’m not buying it. This guy … He glares at the stranger. He’s lying.

“You think so?” the guy questions with a hint of hilarity.

The air electrifies with piercing tension as reality slaps me hard across the face.

He could hear our entire telepathic conversation?

“You’re a Forbidden,” Blaise states, his hand falling to his side.

“Nope.” The stranger straightens and takes a deliberate step toward us. “But I do have some of your abilities.”

“How is that possible?” Blaise moves his arm in front of me possessively as the man takes another step closer. “That’s close enough.”

The guy dares another step before pausing. “So protective of her.” His gaze skirts to me. “If you knew her whole story, you might not be.”

“Doubtful.” Blaise doesn’t budge. “Now, are you going to tell us why you’re here and how you know us? Or am I going to have to beat it out of you?”

The guy wags his finger at us. “Such violence. I forgot you were like that.”

“Tell me how you know me,” Blaise says threateningly. “I sure as hell can’t remember you.”

“Oh, that’s because you haven’t met me yet,” he replies simply. “But one day you will.”

Blaise hesitates. “How have we never met, yet you know me?”

“Because I’ve met you already …” He tugs his collar down just far enough that we can see the smirk on his face. “In the future.”

“If you’ve met us in the future, then that would make you a …” Blaise drifts off, struggling for an answer.

“Time traveler.” The answer falls off my tongue absentmindedly. I stand taller, moving around Blaise’s arm. I inch toward the man, but Blaise latches on to the hem of my jacket, forcing me to stay back. “You’re a time traveler, and so am I.”

His smile broadens as he shakes his head. “No, you’re not, sweetheart. And this is a conversation we’ve had many, many times before.”

“Don’t ever call me that.” My icy cold tone startles both the stranger and myself.

“You’re different than the last time I saw you.” He yanks the collar of his shirt back over his mouth, the fabric muffling his voice. “That is going to make things more complicated.”

“What things?” Blaise demands, positioning himself in front of me again. “Answer me or—”

“You’ll make me. I know, I know. We’ve been down this road before, and it never ends well for either of us,” the guy sneers, rolling up his sleeves. “All right, time to move on from this little charade. I have the perfect idea.”

“If you do anything to her, I’ll break every one of your damn fingers,” Blaise warns with his fists balled.

The man opens and flexes his fingers. “Oh, I’m not going to do anything to her. Just you.”

“Go ahead and try,” Blaise retorts. “You won’t get very far.”

“Blaise,” I warn underneath my breath. “Be careful.”

While I don’t know what this man is capable of, I’ve felt the strength of his hands around my neck and breathed in his desire to kill.

“Maybe not then, but I’ve changed a lot since the last time we did this.” The stranger stares at Blaise as he raises his hands to his sides. “It’s a shame you don’t know this part yet, because it’s by far my favorite. Although, not yours.”

Wiggling his fingers, the ground begins to alter beneath us, shaking and rupturing apart like cracked glass. The sky follows, cracking and splintering into uneven squares that shift around and reposition, the stars quickly fading in a wave of red, erasing the night—the world. Then buildings begin to crumble, evaporating into a cloud of dust that glides across the ground and obliterates the asphalt and cars. A dust devil funnels around us at a powerful rate, yet somehow we remain in place.

“You’re sending us back to the red sky world?” I shout at the stranger over the screeching of the violent wind. “Is that how you’re going to kill me this time? Send me back before I’m healed?”

“Healing isn’t what you have to worry about.” He swishes his hands downward and the wind dies, the changing scenery freezing.

I wipe the dust from my eyes. “Then how are you going to kill me this time?”

He draws down the top of his jacket to reveal his smirk. “I wasn’t here for you. Well, not completely. I’ll return when the time is right to destroy you before the Grim get ahold of you, like I always do.”

With a blink of his eyes, he vanishes into nothingness, leaving me standing in the middle of the desert of the red sky world, confounded, lost, and alarmingly on edge

“Now what do we do?” I ask, twisting around toward Blaise. Where he stood a few moments ago is now vacant.

I spin around, shielding my eyes from the glinting redness of the sky. The flat, bare land allows me to see for miles. And nothing. Absolutely nothing is around me, except for the occasional tumbleweed and shallow hill.

Blaise is gone, and the awareness of what the time traveler meant smacks me in the stomach, nearly bringing me to my knees. The stranger wasn’t here for me. He was here for Blaise. Why?

What exactly did he do to him? Send him out of the Oblivion? Send him someplace else?

The worse realization comes next, like a blow to the heart.

Did the traveler kill Blaise?

Is Blaise dead?