Chapter One

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Krydal Starr awoke in a panic no longer the person she intended, but rather merged with the essence of another being; an entity of living light absorbed through the sphere of her body's own aura. Life as she knew it ended, replaced by the awkward world of an old woman; one day blending into the next, as the prospect of continuing her occupation as a temporal assassin abruptly faded. Only the thought of her beloved Indigo remained. She longed for the warmth of his arms, the press of his lips, even the strength of his being. But he was duly departed; plucked from existence. His life renewed in the breath of creation when the sun touched the ground.

Less time passed for Crimson than her new host, Krydal Starr, the blending nothing short of miraculous. Yet, neither the symbiont, nor her host survived the event unscathed. The old woman was fragile; her body weathered; time catching up with itself. No sooner had she emerged from one universe into another than her instinct spawned an uncanny aptitude for self-preservation sending unwarranted entrepreneurs into retirement. There was something different about her. An impression of being a notorious old assassin feeling the unexpected resurgence of a lusty heart, over a man she had never met.

"Who's there?" asked the host. The whisper of another toyed with her thoughts like a ripple of fog beneath her feet. The elder half expected the layers separating one universe from another to collapse, the air itself alluding to one future over the other. But it didn't. It was as if the threshold had simply twitched, spittin