She Who Knows Tomorrow: a sci-fi novella (displaced shadows #1)

VI

Probably half of Third's body ached, but she didn't care. It was the familiar ache from deserved manhandling, not from killing zombies or from longing for a hug.

TamLin had touched her. As she trotted along behind him, she felt like beaming or skipping or something. He had touched her, and she didn't even care that he'd left bruises behind.

She was aware that there was something very wrong about that.

"Your mods the same as Janni's?" he tossed at her over his shoulder.

As far as Third knew, yes, but Janni didn't have the "Governor chip."

He let out a quiet curse. "Boundaries?"

"Everything but merging, pretty much." She could Jump through the chip's limitations, but not easily. She wasn't a navigator, either, so her precision wasn't the best even when her Jumping wasn't being blocked.

Second was a fantastic navigator.

She sighed and tried not to think about the fact that she would soon be watching Second die. Again.

"How did you survive, back home?"

Third shrugged, but he couldn't see it. "Training."

He nodded once, an acknowledgement that he'd heard. "Reflexes, hand-to-hand, senses, and targeting are overdeveloped, then. Special skills minimal; social skills moderate."

The murmur wasn't intended to be heard, but her 'overdeveloped' senses caught it. He was processing what he'd told her and its implications—and arranging it to help him remember it later.

Did that mean he intended for there to be a later?

Third frowned and smacked her own bruised cheek—just as TamLin turned to face her.

He rocked back a step. "What?"

She shook her head.

"Third."

She didn't want to tell him, but...his reaction could help her quash her misplaced affection. "I like you too much."

Bewilderment flashed through his expression before he schooled it. He paused, processing her words. "I should ask you to clarify," he commented, resuming their walk, "but I get the feeling I don't want to know what you mean by that."

Third let out a sigh as a silent breath. Did he hate Janni that much? Why didn't they dissolve their bonding, then? Or was he just appalled at the thought of an infatuated Nameless?

Even her universe's TamLin had never said, but some details made Third suspect that his father had been one of the Nameless in his mother's keeping. Growing up with his mother being legally required to psychologically and physically abuse his father couldn't have done him any favors, in the 'mental health' department. Might've even been why her TamLin...

In any event, this TamLin was currently Janni's, whether he wanted her or not, and they had to rescue his girl from Third's Nev before Janni, too, paid for First and Second's folly.

A folly that would cost the lives of Second and the baby.

Third looked at her left wrist, wondering if she would end up another fatality from the situation. She had the governor chip for good reason, and nothing she'd seen had promised her she would survive removing it, escaping Nev, or crashing from the aftereffects of both.

Well, if she died, she died. Janni would escape—or so Third chose to believe, since Janni wouldn't be there when Second died—and TamLin could work things out with his bondmate. Third wouldn't have to deal with the desire or temptation to—