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As if he knows what I’m thinking, his hand finds my knee under the edge of the coffee table, his thumb tracing circles on my skin.

I don’t look at him. I can’t.

So, I stay focused on Ruby as she tells me about Ambrogio’s resurrection. And honestly… my brain stops following after that. Because these people are trusting me with so much, and they don’t know they’re sharing pizza with the enemy.

No. Enemies. Plural. I’ve been lying to them from the moment I met them, which I’m pretty sure means we’re not on the same side.

“Can I ask you something?” Connor says when Ruby’s done, but he’s not looking at me—he’s looking at Logan.

“Of course,” Logan says, easy and relaxed. The mask is flawless. If I didn’t know him, I’d believe it.

“Ruby’s my fated mate.” Connor’s tone shifts into something careful and deliberate. “But I’m also the alpha of this pack. Amber’s husband Damien is the vampire king of New York. Sapphire’s husband Riven—as insufferable as he is—is the fae prince of the Winter Court.” He pauses, letting the list build. “Every star touched champion has ended up with someone who isn’t just powerful—they’re the most powerful of their kind. An alpha. A king. A prince.” His dark eyes settle on Logan with an intensity that makes my electricity crackle beneath my skin. “So tell me, Logan Ashford—what are you?”

13

JADE

My electricity detonates under my skin.

It’s a full surge that races up my spine and floods my fingers, and I shove my hands under my thighs. If Connor sees, he’ll know his question hit a nerve. Then he’s going to ask why it hit a nerve, and we’re all going to have a very bad night.

He knows about Logan. He can smell it, or sense it, or whatever wolves do, and the token didn’t work, and⁠—

“I can travel through time,” Logan says without a second thought.

My brain stalls.

Connor’s weight shifts forward, and he’s looking at Logan like he rearranged the ground beneath his feet. Which honestly isn’t far off, given that Logan can rearrange the entire space-time continuum around himself.

Then he blinks and looks at Ruby.

“He’s telling the truth,” Connor says simply.

I stare at him. “He literally just said the words. How do you already⁠—”

“He proved it to me.” Connor runs a hand through his hair and leans back against his chair. “Just now. Or… not just now. A few minutes ago. At least, a few minutes ago for me.”

Ruby lowers her mug. “What are you talking about?”

Connor looks at Logan again. Logan gives him a small nod, and there’s definitely an understanding between them that wasn’t there twenty seconds ago.

“It’s short jumps,” Connor explains, and my stomach flips, because he’s describing Logan’s power for him, and he shouldn’t know any of this. “Minutes, sometimes longer. He took me back about five minutes—to this point right now. From my side, the conversation that’s about to happen already happened.”

“What conversation?” Ruby asks. “He said one sentence.”

“No.” Connor sits forward, his eyes wild. “In the timeline I came from, he said a lot more than one sentence. He explained his power. Jade confirmed it. She told us she’d traveled with him, and that it’s like being turned inside out while black fire swallows everything, and that her organs rearrange themselves, and that she doesn’t recommend it on a full stomach.” He glances at me. “Your words.”

My electricity sparks under my thighs. Because yeah, that’s something I would say. It’s what I was probably about to say before Connor skipped ahead of me by an entire conversation I haven’t had yet.

“I told him that the only way I’d believe him is if he took me with him,” Connor continues. “So, he took me back to this moment right now, when I was sitting in this chair, hearing him say I can travel through time for the second time.”

Ruby looks between the three of us with the expression of someone who walked into the middle of a movie and missed the first act.

“Okay.” She sets her mug down with exaggerated care. “I need someone to explain this like I didn’t just hear the most insane thing anyone’s ever said to me in my life. Keep in mind that a moon goddess once touched my forehead, changed my eye color, gave me the ability to create illusions, and told me I was going to play an important role in saving the world from the original vampire, who was being resurrected from the Underworld by a cult of blood witches. So, the bar for insane is pretty high right now.”

Connor takes a breath, gives her the smallest of smiles, then begins.

“Logan told us about his time travel, we had an entire conversation about it, and he proved it by taking me back to right after he said he could travel through time. So, everything that originally happened after that moment—his explanation, the questions you asked, Jade giving dramatic details of what happens when the time traveling occurs—all of it happened in a timeline that doesn’t exist anymore.”