Page 20 of GlitchBorn Heart

Monitors and screens are shimmering, threads of glitch-light twitching across them. Someone didn’t just fight back. This was a pretty powerful U21 anomaly that attacked.

It wasn’t random, more like intentional power and precision.

Interesting. I swallow.

Whoever did this, I need to find them before Vikktor does. They’ll need to be thoroughly studied.

Ember’s scanner pings, and my stomach sinks when I see why.

Fuck...of course

Ash is leaning against a table casually, like he didn’t just light up the corporate anomaly grid like a damn fireworks show. His guitar case hangs from one hand; he’s packing up his stall with the calm of a man folding laundry, not someone who just set off half the corporate alarms in the city. He’s grinning at me, wicked and wild, the look he gets when he knows he’s done something reckless and is painfully proud of it.

I run a hand down my face. “I knew it.”

Ash spots us and whistles low. “Well, well, if it isn’t Daddy Vikk’s favorite lapdog! Oh, wait.” He puts up his free hand. “Not anymore after tonight, huh?”

“Really?” I sigh.

Ember huffs a small laugh. “You always know when it’s him.” Like all the other women in this city, she’s way too happy to see him. “You two know each other so well.”

I groan, rubbing my temples. “Since we were kids. He’s...complicated.” We walk closer to the booth. “I always suspect that he’s involved the second the grid spikes.” I gesture to the ruined drones. “This has Ash written all over it: loud, messy, and entirely unnecessary.”

Ash smiles wider, glancing over at Ember. “Complicated? Maybe. But definitely entertaining. And you, Red, look beautiful tonight. “ His piercing blue eyes scan her from head to toe. ”Don’t worry, love! I’m on your side...mostly.”

He looks straight at me and gives me another shit-eating grin as he tosses a small device onto the ground. It buzzes, projecting a holographic map of the corrupted network. “Welcome to my playground, brother.”

I whisper-yell, as I scan the market for anyone who may be looking. “Ash! Put that away!”

He doesn’t even flinch.

It hums to life projecting a 3D holographic map of the city grid, glitching and pulsing where the anomaly flashes collided with the drones.

He throws up both hands like I’ve offended him. “Relax, Kaze. I was helping.” The old nickname he used to call me when we both were under the care of Master Kenji—also the one he uses when he’s being especially insufferable. “I got this. You can thank me later.”

Ember groans softly under her breath. “He’s going to get himself killed...and us.”

“Helping?” I snap. “You sent up an anomaly flare bright enough to wake LINK from a coma.”

Ash snorts. “If ‘LINK’ ”—he air quotes with his fingers dramatically—“your wretched AI girlfriend can’t handle two broken drones, then she deserves to malfunction. Right Red?”

“Haha, very funny...and,” I add darkly, “there were two signatures.”

Ash’s brows lift, but something smug flickers behind his eyes.

Ah...it’s written all over his face...not alone, then.

Ember’s eyes narrow, but she can’t help smirking back at him playfully. “Red? That’s new.” She approaches him, hands still in her long, black tech coat.

Ash raises two fingers toward his head “Flaming copper-red that glints like molten metal,” he sings.

Gods. How does he do it? Sure, Ember’s milk white skin and freckles across her nose make her an attractive lab assistant, but I really didn’t think she would fall for Ash’s charm in this manner.

She leans in toward him. “Where is the other one...Blondie?” she quips back.

Ash takes a slow step backward, grin spreading. “Oh,” he purrs, tilting his head, “she left.”

She?