Elara's POV - Present Day
The hospital roof smells like rain and death.
I stand at the edge, looking down at the city lights. Behind me, Agent Kade Ashford—the man who should be arresting me—locks the roof door. The click sounds like a trap closing.
"Are you going to kill me?" I ask without turning around.
"If I wanted you dead, you'd be dead." His voice is rough. Tired. "Sit down, Dr. Chen. We need to talk."
I don't sit. Don't move. "Three people died because of me. You said so yourself. Why aren't I in handcuffs?"
"Because you're not the real monster." He walks past me to the ledge. Up close, he looks older than I thought. Maybe thirty-something, with gray eyes that have seen too much. "The people who made you desperate enough to steal time—they're the ones I want."
My heart pounds. "I don't know what you're talking about."
"Don't lie to me." Kade pulls out a tablet, showing me a video. It's surveillance footage from Chronos Corporation. Me, breaking in. Me, activating the Engine. Me, stealing that hour. "I've been watching you for three months, Elara. Waiting to see if you'd snap."
The betrayal stings worse than handcuffs. "You've been watching me?"
"Investigating." He swipes to another video. This one shows my old mentor, Dr. Victor Kane, in a secret laboratory. Around him are tanks. Not animal tanks. People tanks. Living humans, hooked up to machines, their bodies glowing as something is pulled from them. "Recognize this?"
I can't breathe. "What is he doing?"
"Harvesting them." Kade's jaw tightens. "Victor Kane doesn't just let people die from temporal disease. He creates the disease. Infects poor people on purpose. Then drains their remaining years to sell to rich people who want to live forever."
The world spins. "That's impossible. Victor would never—"
"Victor stole your research three years ago. Did you really think he just wanted credit?" Kade zooms in on one of the tanks. Inside is a woman, maybe forty years old, screaming silently as her body flickers and fades. "He's been using your Chronos Engine to commit murder. Thousands of murders. And making billions doing it."
I grab the ledge to steady myself. "Show me proof."
He hands me the tablet. I scroll through files. Documents. Financial records. Lists of names—poor people from the Borrowed Quarters who "died" from temporal disease. Except they didn't die naturally. They were harvested.
Mira's name is on the list.
"He infected my sister on purpose," I whisper.
"Yes."
"Why?"
Kade takes the tablet back. "Because you refused to sell him your research three years ago. So he destroyed you, took everything, and infected Mira to keep you desperate and broken. He's been waiting for you to activate the Engine. Waiting to see if it actually works."
Rage burns through my chest. "I'm going to kill him."
"Get in line." Kade's voice drops to something dangerous. "Eight years ago, Victor killed my wife and unborn child. They died in a temporal accident he caused to cover up his experiments. Only I remember they existed. Everyone else forgot they were ever born."
I look at him—really look. Behind the cold agent mask, I see the same grief that's been eating me alive. The same helpless fury. We're not enemies.
We're mirrors.
"Why are you telling me this?" I ask.
"Because I need your help." He faces me fully. "Victor has agents inside the TRA. Every time I get close to evidence, it disappears. Every witness dies. Every trail goes cold. I can't stop him alone."
"What do you want from me?"
"You built the Chronos Engine. You understand how it works better than anyone alive." Kade's gray eyes pin me in place. "Help me infiltrate Chronos Corporation. Help me expose what Victor's doing. Help me destroy him."
"And if I say no?"
"Then I arrest you. You spend the rest of your life in temporal prison while Victor keeps killing thousands. Your sister dies. Victor wins." He steps closer. "Or you help me, and we take him down together."
It's not really a choice. But something doesn't add up. "Why would you trust me? I killed three people yesterday."
"No." Kade's voice softens slightly. "The system killed them. Victor's system. You're just one more victim he manipulated." He pauses. "And because I know exactly what you're willing to do for someone you love. I did the same thing for my wife—tried to save her by breaking every rule. Failed anyway. So I understand."
For the first time since Mira got sick, someone actually understands.
"What's your plan?" I ask.
"We gather evidence. Real, undeniable proof of Victor's harvesting operation. Then we expose it publicly, before he can bury it." Kade pulls up a map on the tablet. "There's a main facility where he does the harvesting. Underground. Heavily guarded. We get in, record everything, get out."
"That's suicide."
"Probably." He almost smiles. "But you're already dying anyway, aren't you? Your sister has maybe two weeks left. You need more hours to save her. And every hour you steal creates more butterfly effects. More innocent people dead. The guilt will destroy you long before Victor does."
He's right. I can already feel it—the weight of those three deaths crushing my chest.
"So what do I get out of this?" I demand. "If I help you, what happens to Mira?"
Kade doesn't answer immediately. He rolls up his left sleeve, showing me his wrist. There's a tattoo there—numbers glowing faintly: 47 years remaining.
Everyone has one. A biological countdown showing how much time you have left. Mine says 52 years. Mira's says 6 days.
"I'll give you my years," Kade says quietly. "However many Mira needs. You won't have to steal from strangers anymore. Won't have to cause butterfly effects. You take from me. Just me."
I stare at him. "You'd die for my sister? Someone you've never met?"
"I'd die to stop Victor. Your sister's just a bonus." But his eyes tell a different story. This man lost everyone he loved. Now he's offering his future to save someone else's family. Maybe because he couldn't save his own.
"That's insane," I whisper.
"So is breaking into Chronos Corporation and activating a doomsday machine." Kade holds out his hand. "Do we have a deal? You help me take down Victor. I help you save Mira. We both get what we want."
I should refuse. Should run. This is obviously a trap or a trick or something worse.
But I think about Mira's fading face. About three dead strangers whose futures I stole. About Victor Kane laughing somewhere while people die in his tanks.
I take Kade's hand. His grip is strong. Certain. Like he's been waiting for this moment his whole life.
"Deal," I say.
"Good." He releases my hand. "We start tomorrow. Meet me at—"
His tablet buzzes. He glances at the screen and goes completely still.
"What?" I ask.
"The truck driver." Kade's voice is ice. "The one whose hour you stole. He just woke up from surgery."
"So?"
"He's giving interviews." Kade turns the tablet toward me. On screen, the truck driver sits in a hospital bed, speaking to news cameras. "He's telling everyone about what happened. About how he was supposed to die but didn't. About feeling time being pulled from him."
My stomach drops. "Victor will see this."
"Victor's already seen this." Kade's jaw clenches. "He knows you activated the Engine. He knows what you can do. And now—" The tablet buzzes again. This time it's a message. Two words: FOUND HER.
Kade grabs my arm. "We need to move. Now."
"What's happening?"
"Victor just sent a kill team to your sister's hospital room."
The world stops.
"Mira—"
"We're ten floors up. It'll take us three minutes to reach her floor." Kade's already moving toward the door. "Victor's team is thirty seconds out. We won't make it in time."
"NO!" I run past him, slamming into the door. It doesn't budge. Locked from the outside. "OPEN IT!"
"Elara, listen to me—"
"OPEN THE DOOR!"
Kade doesn't move. Just watches me with those terrible gray eyes. "There's another way. But you're not going to like it."
"I don't care! Save her!"
"The Chronos Engine isn't just in Victor's lab." He steps closer. "It's in you now. When you activated it, a piece of its power bonded with your DNA. You're carrying temporal energy inside your body."
I don't understand. "What does that mean?"
"It means you can do more than steal time." Kade's voice drops. "You can manipulate it. Bend it. If you focus hard enough, you might be able to teleport yourself directly to Mira's room."
"I've never done that before!"
"Then learn fast. Because in twenty seconds, she's dead."
I close my eyes. Feel for something—anything—inside me. And suddenly I sense it. A humming. A vibration. Like reality is just a curtain I can pull aside.
I think about Mira. About her room. About her face.
The world twists.
When I open my eyes, I'm standing in Mira's hospital room. She's sleeping. And standing over her bed, with a syringe full of black liquid, is my ex-fiancé Marcus.
He looks up. Sees me. Smiles.
"Hello, Elara," Marcus says softly. "I've been waiting for you to come home."