Page 33 of Captured By Chaos


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“Hi, big bro,” I said, pulling open the door to the Hierarchy office building to begin my ascent up the three flights of stairs.

“Hey, little shadow.” A smile was plastered on his face, but his eyes were filled with something I couldn’t quite make out over the virtual connection, his reddish-brown hair already mussed even though he had probably styled it this morning. “Just thought I would check in.”

“On?” I hesitated on the first-floor landing, fingers tightening around the sleek black unit.

“Life, work, anything else that may be bothering you?” Ollie’s voice was a pitch too high, the unit shaking a bit like he was pacing or his leg was bouncing. Either way, he was nervous about something. “You know, I’m here to talk if you need it.”

“I know.” I took a few more steps upward, my eyes narrowing at him. “But what would make you call me this early to check in? Anything in particular?”

“Can’t an older brother just check in with his sister?”

“Of course, but you don’t,” I pointed out. “At least, not in this stressed-out, high-strung way. So why are you really calling?”

“I’m not stressed out.” He tried to slacken up, his body moving in a weirdly fluid way. “We’re all loose here, see.”

“Oliver!”

“Fine!” he groaned, throwing his head back before righting himself to look at me. “Look, I talked to Nolan last night…”

My chest tightened. “Excuse me?”

Ollie winced. “He may have mentioned that he’s noticed some odd behavior and brought up some concerns.”

“He told on me?” I snarled, my teeth clenching. “Like I’m a misbehaving child?”

“Kas…”

“Oh, it is too early in the morning for this.”

My vision tunneled, a haze overtaking me as I stomped up the rest of the stairs, taking them two at a time. I could hear Ollie yelling at me, but I barely registered the words, my determination fueled by the hot churn boiling deep in my stomach and growing with each wide step I took to Nolan’s office. That little voice in the back of my head—the one I tried to stifle when it convinced me to rebel—was screaming at me, begging to give in.

I was listening this time, letting the defiance take control, feeding it. I didn’t even knock when I arrived, swinging the door open with so much force, it slammed into the wall behind it.

“What in the Goddess were you thinking?” I yelled, slamming my free hand on Nolan’s desk.

He didn’t even look up, scribbling notes on a loose piece of paper. “Good morning to you, too, Kasha. What have I done to upset you today?”

“You called mybrotherandtoldon me?” I shoved the Comms unit in his face, showing Ollie’s image. “Seriously? What are you, my babysitter?”

“Hey, Nolan,” Ollie said, voice shaking a bit.

Nolan gave a little wave. “Hey, Oliver.”

“Stop the pleasantries and answer the question!” My arms were shaking, fingertips numbing with each second that passed.

“I didn’t tell on you.” Nolan leaned back in his chair, steepling his fingers in front of him. “I was missing some information from one of the Vapalles case files, so I called Ollie to see if he could send a falcon over with the missing pages. And I may have mentioned you seemed extra stressed recently.”

I slammed the Comms unit on the table, face-up so I could still see Ollie and his stunned expression. “You don’t know me well enough to know when I’m stressed out, let alone extra stressed.”

“True, although not for lack of trying to get to know you.” He glared at me, prompting an eyeroll. “Still, with your behavior recently—dropping out of meetings, refusing to come to Camp, and purposefully losing our sparring match—it all seemed like you were carrying something heavy, and I wanted to help. And before you try and claim you didn’t throw the match, don’t even start…it was obvious. You’re too good of a fighter to leave your weak side open like that.”

My arms shook. “Fine, maybe I did throw the match, but you crossed a line going to my family and tattling on me.”

Ollie cleared his throat. “Can I please…?”

“I knew you wouldn’t talk to me if I brought the subject up,” Nolan cut Ollie off. “I can’t get anyone in this Faction to talk to me about anything besides work, so I went to the one person I knew would listen to me that you were close to. How can that be such a bad thing?”

Haughty laughter escaped my lips, my head shaking. “Because I am not a child, and I will talk to people about my problems when I’m ready to, not when you deem me ready, understand?”

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