Without her.
Blood roars in Dez’s ears.What’s happening?She freaked him out, fine. She needs to clear things up.
He walks ten paces before she gathers her thoughts enough to call his name.
“Asher?”
He stops. He turns, looks around like he wonders who’s talking.
The confusion on his face sends fear ripping through Dez. Whatever’s happening, it’s getting worse.
“I’m sorry,” he says. “Do I know you?”
“Come on, Asher,” she says, her voice trembling. She puts a hand to her heart. “Desdemona. Dez. You know me.”
He gives her a funny look, a pitying look, and shakes his head. “I’d remember you.”
Then Dez realizes …
Rafe.
He must be in Dez’s Lens, changing Asher’s Lifeline, deleting Dez from it.
“Are you okay?” Asher asks.
When she entered back into time, Rafe would have found her gone from her suite. He guessed where she was going. He went to the Vault …
And deleted the scene she altered in Asher’s Lifeline on the beach.
Fine. Dez deserves that.
But now …
“You really don’t know who I am?” she whispers.
He shakes his head. “I wish I did.”
“Asher,” she says, with so much intensity their eyes lock. For a moment, it’s almost like she can reach him. “In a parking lot in Ventura, outside an Irish pub called Dargan’s—do you know it?”
“Of course.”
She walks to him, reaches for him. “You took my hand. Like this.” She’s relieved when he lets her take his hand. Her thumb against his wrist. “You taught me a secret language. Like this.”
Pulse. Pulsepulse. Pulse.
He holds on for a moment longer, then shakes his head and says,“I’m sorry. I hope you find whoever you’re looking for.” He lets their hands drop, turns from her, and begins up the trail alone.
Fucking Rafe. He took out every trace of Dez from Asher’s Lifeline. Has he destroyed the scene of her in Asher’s halo, too?
He deleted their connection. He turned them into strangers.
Oh God.
Because he’s making Asher’s Life Review.
Because Asher is about to die.
“Listen to me,” she says fiercely. And Asher turns around once more. He’s tiring of this game.
