Chapter 4

My question stopped Adrian cold.

Sasha was the first to cry.

"Thea, do you really think I'm faking my illness? You grew up with parents who loved you. You're a talented painter. Everyone loves you wherever you go. All I want is to stay alive. Why can't you even let me have that?"

Adrian wiped away her tears without a second thought.

"The report is in the Union medical network. It can't be fake. Thea, you don't understand this era. Stop letting your jealousy get the better of you."

You don't understand this era.

I'd given up everything familiar to me for him, only to wake up in a world I barely knew. Yet somehow, my unfamiliarity with this world became his excuse to dismiss everything I said.

"I'm not jealous." I looked him straight in the eye. "I just want you to take her for a full scan yourself. Don't rely on some old report stored on her terminal. Scan her now."

Sasha's breathing suddenly grew shallow and rapid. Her knees buckled, and she collapsed into Adrian's arms.

"I won't go." She clutched his collar with both hands, sobbing. "Those machines remind me of the chemo I went through back then. I have so little time left, and you want to lock me in a scan pod?"

Adrian held her tighter.

"Enough. She said no. Stop pushing her."

Whatever urge I still had to reason with him died right there.

I said nothing more and placed the last emergency injector into the travel case.

"That's everything. Her medication and clothes are all packed. You can go."

My calm seemed to frustrate Adrian even more. His expression hardened as he picked up the cases.

At the door, he looked back at me.

"We'll talk about the registration again when we get back. Stay home for the next few days and don't wander around. This isn't your century. Without my access, you won't get far."

I asked quietly, "Adrian, what would you do if I really disappeared?"

"Not this again."

Impatience flashed across his face. "Three years ago, you threatened to cut your father out of your life, but you couldn't go through with it, could you? You get upset, then you calm down. By the time I come back, you'll have gotten over this too."

Then he helped Sasha into the flyer.

Before they took off, he lowered the window and called out to me, "Remember to refill the nutrient solution for the blue roses in the sun chamber! Sasha likes them. Don't let them die."

Those were the last words Adrian ever said to me.

I stood by the floor-to-ceiling window and watched the flyer shrink to a silver speck in the distance.

The beacon at the back of my neck buzzed one last time.

"Targeted nerve excision ready."

"Temporal return channel open. Please confirm destination: 2026 CE."

I opened my travel case and took out the sketchbook filled with drawings of Adrian. One by one, I tore out the pages and dropped them into the disposal chute.

The last one was a sketch of him sleeping in my studio.

Three years ago, I'd stood beside a man who had appeared out of nowhere. All my friends had warned me to stay away from him, but I'd believed every impossible thing he told me about the future.

Now, after everything I'd sacrificed for him, I'd asked him to verify a single medical report. His answer was that I didn't understand his world.

As the final page dissolved into tiny specks of light, tears finally slipped down my face.

"Confirm the excision. Confirm the return."

A sharp sting pierced the back of my neck, and a white doorway appeared in front of me.

I hugged my paint box to my chest and stepped into the light.

I would still love sunlight. Grass. Every vibrant color I could put on a canvas.

But I would never love Adrian again.