Silence crashed into the room. Calix’s head slowly turned toward me, and I stared right back at him. His expression went flat.
“Bring her to my office,” he said evenly. “We’ll talk there.” Then he vanished.
Air magic surged beneath my feet, propelling me forward with Olivia clutched tightly against my chest as I followed him through the hallways.
By the time I crossed the threshold into his office, Calix already had the door open. The second we entered, he slammed it shut and locked it.
Click.
The glass walls shimmered black immediately, looking mirrored from the outside. No one would see in.
I carefully lowered Olivia onto the couch. The color she’d regained earlier had vanished again. Her skin looked pale beneath the office lighting while her stare drifted somewhere far beyond the room.
She wasn’t looking at me or Calix, but at something only she could see.
“Hey.” I crouched in front of her. Nothing.
Her breathing sharpened. Quick inhales and uneven exhales. Every breath looked painful. Fear crept across her face as her shoulders tightened higher and higher.
My hands started shaking.
I clenched them hard enough, trying to steady myself while watching my Flame unravel in front of me. Every muscle in her body looked locked tight, like she was holding herself together by force alone, and I couldn’t reach her. Couldn’t stop whatever memory was tearing through her head.
The helplessness nearly split me open.
“Look at me,” I tried again, softer this time.
Carefully, I moved closer and slid my hands along her arms, rubbing warmth into them because I knew she liked my heat against her skin.
That finally broke through. Her eyes flickered to life, and that focused energy turned to Calix.
He stood near the desk gripping his own forearms so hard blood slid between his fingers unnoticed.
“Manshu,” she whispered. The name hit the room like a gunshot. “He was the one who shot me.”
Calix moved instantly. Within a single second, he was at the door, hand already on the handle, ready to kill.
“Wait!”
Olivia lurched forward off the couch fast enough to stop him short.
“That’s not what you need to worry about right now!”
He froze. Slowly, his head turned toward her. No humor. No charm. No easygoing Calix. Just the Syndicate boss of the Winstale clan. The version people feared.
Olivia roughly dragged both hands down her face before forcing herself to continue.
“He met with someone. I don’t know who.” Her breathing hitched again. “Older. Human, I think… but something felt wrong about him.”
I carefully placed my hand over hers, testing, giving her the choice, and for one terrifying second, I thought she’d pull away.
Instead, her fingers turned and locked around mine tightly. The simple gesture hit me harder than it should have.
“They were talking about you,” she said, staring at Calix now. “About how hard you are to kill.”
Calix’s eyes narrowed.
“What kind of weapon?”
