That look on Calix’s face.
A spark I hadn’t seen since Valentina broke him. Something faint, fragile… but real. It had been five long years, and now it was back.
I was about to crush it with my own hands.
The realization sat heavy in my chest, sour and unwelcome.
Get it together, Rack.
Don’t disappoint Ezra. Don’t fail the Syndicate. Don’t make a mockery of your parents’ sacrifice.
I dragged in a deep breath, then pulled out my phone and typed a message to the few people I trusted most.
Find everything on Olivia Savin. I want it by tonight.
***
“Oh shit! Did you see that, Rack!?”
Calix’s voice cracked through the lab as a fireball burst from the tiny mounted cannon, slamming into the far wall. Heat rippled outward, licking across the makeshift course he’d built. Boxes buckled, a blanket caught fire, and the painted bullseye blackened under a fresh scorch mark.
His eyes were wide, just like a kid in a candy store, as he pointed at the fireball his revamped remote-controlled humvee had just thrown.
After I went to the office, worked a little, and made sure everyone in training and development was situated, I stopped by Jacob’s desk to make sure he had everything he needed before he went into full human breakdown mode.
When I came home, I found Calix in his personal lab, playing with his old inventions and making modifications.
He was already halfway out of his seat, moving around like a kid who’d just discovered sugar for the first time, eyes blown wide and bright.
I stepped closer, glancing over the damage. “Hard to miss,” I said, nodding toward the wall. “You hit dead center.”
The lab looked like a war zone. Cardboard towers sagged, puddles reflected flickering light, and scraps of metal and fabric had been arranged into a chaotic obstacle course that snaked across the floor. The humvee, small, matte black, and now far more dangerous than it had any right to be, buzzed through it all, climbing, dipping, seamlessly adjusting to the uneven terrain.
He’d already made the changes—Olivia’s changes.
While he sent it tearing over a pile of scrap, I moved to his desk and slid open the top drawer. Eight orange fire cores. Four blue for air. Not enough for the pace he was burning through them.
I shut it and crouched at the lower drawer, pulling out the white casting box. The interior clicked as my hand slid inside. I pushed a thread of fire through my palm, steady and controlled. The mechanism answered with a soft lock, then released a small orange sphere popping up into the slot above.
I repeated it. Again. Again.
Each time the box answered, filling his supply while he tore through another test run behind me.
“Nice!” Calix barked out a laugh as the humvee launched off a tilted plank, landed clean, then fired again—this time catching two targets in a row. The second hit knocked an entire stack of boxes flat, sending debris skidding across the floor.
He doubled over with laughter, shoulders shaking as smoke curled around him.
Ash clung to his clothes, but he didn't seem to notice or care. He never did when he got like this.
He darted forward, scooped the humvee off the ground, and bolted for the side table. Tools clattered as he shoved things aside, grabbing what he needed without looking, already tearing into the chassis.
“She was right,” he said, the words tumbling out fast, breath uneven with excitement. “Every damn thing she said—” He shook his head, a grin pulling at his mouth as his fingers moved. “And she’s been right under our noses this whole time!”
Metal clicked. A panel snapped into place, and he still didn’t look up.
“We need her,” he continued, already halfway into the next thought. “We steal her from Manshu, offer her more money, so much that she would drop him in a second, then bring her into the human division of FangTech. She’d kill it there.” A pause, then sharper, more certain. “Lock her under contract before anyone else realizes, ensuring she is protected under us.”
My hand stilled inside the box. The next fire core didn’t form. My now silent phone pressed heavy against my side, but earlier today, it had buzzed with report after report.
