Temporal Shift (Entangled Select Otherworld) by Nina Croft Read Free Book Online

Christ.”
    “—but many of us are sensitive to mood…to feelings.”
    “And are you? Can you tell what I’m feeling?”
    She closed her eyes and he winced, as if he could feel her tapping at the doors of his mind. When her lashes flicked open, he searched her face, almost scared of what he might see.
    “No,” she said.
    He narrowed his eyes on hers. “Liar.”
    She gnawed on her full lower lip and shrugged. “Rage. I feel rage. And grief and loss.”
    Shit. Looked like she was telling the truth, then. That was a pretty accurate assessment of what was going on in his head.
    She held his gaze and a faint wash of violet colored her skin. “And lust. You want me. And you can have me. I’ve been yours since I turned sixteen and first dreamed of you.”
    Devlin ran a hand through his hair and tried to ignore the way his dick responded to her words. He pressed his scalp as he studied her. Did she really believe this crap? Or was it some sort of devious plot to get him to lower his guard and…? And what? He really couldn’t begin to guess what she could be after. Unless it was just a good shag. In which case, she didn’t need to make up this bollocks to get that. All she had to do was ask.
    “And you’re sure of this—this dream stuff? Like 100 percent sure?”
    For the first time, she appeared uncertain, her nose wrinkling as she considered her answer. “Maybe not 100 percent sure.”
    Was that a little stab of disappointment? He raised a brow and she continued, “We don’t understand how the future works. We believe the past is set—at least in this dimension—and what we see is truth. Though maybe there are other parallel dimensions where a different past runs along beside our own. But the present is changing and the future…well, that’s not set and maybe I’m just seeing one possible future or maybe one of those other parallel dimensions.”
    He shook his head—it was enough to make his brain explode. Maybe it was time to get back to the story. “So what you are saying is some of your people inherited this time thing from the Old Ones via the Others?”
    “Yes.”
    “And so there are a whole load of you who see the future.”
    “Not many, but a few, and we mainly see the past.”
    He didn’t see the point in that. Just read the comm flows, though he doubted they existed in this place. “So this rebel group, just what is it you’re rebelling about? Things seem pretty cushy here. You wanted a planet of your own, this might not be it, but it’s a planet.”
    She cast him a look of disbelief, pushed her chair back, and jumped to her feet. After pacing the length of the room, she came back to stand in front of him. “Thorne had this dream of living in freedom and my people still want that dream. They want to govern themselves, devise their own laws. Instead, our lives are controlled by the Old Ones and they hate change, hate technology, hate anything that violates their stupid protocols.” She scowled. “We want to go home, to our Promised Land.”
    “So what’s with this Thorne guy? Shouldn’t he be on the other side?”
    “He was the first they changed and he’s the strongest. He believed there was no hope of returning. His ship, the Espera , vanished—they presumed swept back into the wormhole. There was no option other than to make the best of things and keep his people alive.”
    “And what changed his mind?”
    “Two thousand years ago a time-mancer had a vision and a prophecy was made. One would come who would change the past, the present, and the future—”
    “I thought the past was set.”
    She ignored his comment. “We’re forbidden to speak of it and most didn’t believe. Then five hundred years ago, a huge ship appeared in the sky.”
    “The Trakis One .”
    “We didn’t know its name, but we knew it was part of the prophecy, as was Thorne. We approached him and he became one of us because we showed him a chance to fulfill his quest and take us to the Promised Land.