Chapter 40
Chapter Forty
Juliet
Two weeks later
It’s not your first day of fucking high school. Get your shit together.
My angry pep talk doesn’t do me much good as Hadrian and I walk toward his lab. I don’t know why I’m so nervous. Maybe because my friendships in this place are delicate and new. Maybe because Quinn and Candice are such a tightly knit pair and I don’t want to feel like I’m butting in.
Or maybe because sharing game ideas with the world’s only sentient electronic being feels like, as my mum used to say, I’m teaching my grandma to suck eggs. What the hell can I teach her?
Hadrian wraps his hand around mine, and we walk down the street that is slowly starting to feel familiar rather than terrifying. I’m almost convinced this place doesn’t actually believe in human sacrifices and no one is going to leap out at me with a knife. Almost.
It’s definitely a cult, though. I’m not budging on that. Even if it is a cult with some benefits.
We reach Hadrian’s lab building, and I pause at the door. I feel like throwing my sketchbook into the trash. This is all stupid. I’m a captive here. Why am I even interested in making a dumb game?
Because it makes you happy, just like Hadrian does. Stop beating yourself up over it. If you need a punishment, that’s what he’s for.
My little voice is right. Hopefully I don’t need to sit much today.
For the past two weeks, I’ve been battling with myself in a way I never did in the cell.
In there, if I’d had the chance to run, I would have in a heartbeat.
Now? I’m not so sure, and that makes me feel like an absolute lunatic.
The more time Hadrian and I spend in our little bubble together, the less I want to leave it.
He’s him but better. My husband but my master too. I thought I’d lost him forever, and now I have him back. Is it crazy that I don’t want to give him up?
Maybe. I’m well aware of how captivity can twist the mind. But my mind has been twisted for a long time. In a way, isn’t this what I’ve always wanted?
As if he’s reading my mind, Hadrian drops my hand, pulls me to face him, and wraps his fingers around the back of my neck. “We’re going to walk in there, and you’re going to impress them. They’ll love your ideas. Promise.”
My insides shiver. Confident, strict Hadrian is going to be the death of me. I lean my head into his hand, loving the possessive pressure. “Yes, Master.”
“Good.”
Then he slaps my sore ass, grabs my hand, and leads me through the doors. Christ. I’m going to need new panties, and he only just let me put these on.
Calm down. Don’t embarrass yourself in front of the super-intelligent electronic lifeform.
The elevator takes us to Hadrian’s lab, though I’m not sure he can call it that anymore.
He tells me Candice and Quinn live there pretty much permanently.
Sure enough, the doors slide open before Hadrian can touch the hand scanner, and Quinn pulls off her headset just as we walk in.
My body relaxes a little when she gives me a wide grin.
She’s a different person to the broken woman I first met. Her hair is dyed in crazy, rainbow colors, and she’s dressed in a tiny denim miniskirt and a vintage 80s T-shirt with a picture of a cobra. A weird combo, but she pulls it off. She even makes her electric-blue eyeshadow look good.
It’s the first time I’ve seen her since the day we restored Candice, and I’d been worried things would still be awkward.
Instead, she rushes forward. “Hey. He”—she waves an imperious hand at Hadrian—“only fucking told me who you are yesterday. Triple-Six Games! Saldar’s Curse! You’re like a celebrity.”
My face warms under her praise. “Christ, hardly.”
She rolls her eyes. “Don't do that. You know, I would have loved to design games. Except I can’t draw for shit and don’t have the patience for coding. And, well, basically, it wasn’t going to happen. But now we’ve got Candice back, and you’re here, and…”
She trails off, and it hits me. Quinn is nervous. From the way Eve and Ophelia talk about her, I didn’t think she was scared of anything. But I don’t think I’m wrong.
She takes a deep breath. “Sorry. It’s just…I know I made a shit first impression. I wasn’t in a good place when we met, and when I saw you, it was a real shock. You know?”
I smile. “I know. I nearly shat myself when I saw footage of Candice.”
Quinn’s smile returns, and her shoulders relax. Hadrian clears his throat, and I turn to face him. He’s got his stern expression on, but there’s a softness to his eyes that he can’t hide. He’s glad this is going well.
“I’ll leave you to it and be back in a couple of hours. Be good, doll.”
My mouth goes dry. I know what he’s expecting me to say, and I’m still not used to doing it when other people are around. I’m sure Quinn won’t care, but it’s still a struggle to force out “Yes, Master.”
The little shivery pulse of embarrassment that runs through me warms the dark parts of my soul. Hadrian dips his head and kisses my forehead. His eyes search my face for a moment longer before he turns and strides away.
God, this is going to be awkward. I turn back to Quinn, expecting to find her with eyes averted, but she’s staring right at me.
“Holy shit. He’s so different. With you, I mean.
When I first met him, he was this quiet, geeky guy, and now he’s got this dangerous vibe…
” She shakes her head. “I wouldn’t want to fuck with him.
And I piss Jacob off on purpose so…you know… ”
Her description is so on the nose it makes me laugh. A dangerous vibe. She’s got that right. “You think he’s scary now. You should have seen him in his Saldar mask. Talk about terrifying.”
Her eyes light up. “I bet, and the dungeon? I really want to get started on this game right now, but soon, we’re going for cocktails and you’re telling me everything. Deal?”
Her enthusiasm is infectious. “Deal.” I glance up at the dead monitors. “Where’s Candice?”
“She said she’d give us some space in case you were weird about her. She said she wouldn’t be listening in. She’s working on respecting boundaries. I’ll get her.”
As if I believe that for a second.
But I’ll play along. There’s no point upsetting Quinn. She picks up her VR headset without putting it on and speaks into the microphone. “She’s fine. She wants to see you.”
Not even a second later, one of the monitors flicks to life, and Candice’s uncannily real face smiles down at me. “Hey there. How’s it going?”
There’s not a trace of Scottish in her voice, and her image doesn’t resemble me in the slightest. It should probably feel weird talking to a screen, but after everything I’ve been through in the last couple of months, it really doesn’t.
What does, though, is how to respond when people ask me how I’m doing, even as a casual, polite greeting.
It seems a really, really weird thing to ask someone who is being held captive.
Do we all just pretend that isn’t the case?
I know most of the Wards seem to, but I’m not very good at pretending like that.
What I’m thinking tends to come flying out of my mouth.
I manage an eloquent “Hi.”
Quinn jumps in before things can start to get awkward. “Okay. So, are we doing this?”
She’s so excited she’s practically vibrating.
She reminds me of Lisa, an intern I liked, who had the same wild energy.
One of the worst things about selling my company to Brightscape was losing the ability to take an active role in training and mentoring newcomers to the industry.
The restrictive covenants in my contract benched me for years.
One more good thing about this place.
I like Quinn’s straight-to-the-point attitude as well. Normally, getting anything done takes about a hundred meetings. Here, it seems we’re cutting the bullshit and jumping straight in. I raise my sketchbook. “Sure. I had a few initial ideas. Shall we look through them first?”
I pull up a chair at the plain desk—I am definitely decorating in here; this place is depressingly bare—and we get to work.
By the time Hadrian returns, his pristine office is a mess of paper, color, and soda cans.
Quinn keeps a stash here, and I’ve gotten through three all by myself.
I’m still finding myself craving flavor, even though the food since I got out of the cell is top-notch.
Show me something full of sugar and artificial colors, and I can’t resist.
He stares at the mayhem in what I think he wants to look like dismay, but I don’t miss the slight upward turn of his lips as Candice says, “Juliet is a genius. This game is going to be amazing.”
“Good to know. We might need to look at getting you three your own office space.”
I’m not sure if he meant the suggestion as a peace offering to Quinn or whether he just wants his lab back, but either way, it seems to mollify her as she actually deigns to speak to him. “Oh my God, yes. We can have comfy couches and cool shit. Ooooh, what about a pinball machine?”
“I’ll speak to Kendrick and get it organized.”
And just like that, I have an office and a team again.
Candice replaces the entire coding department—whatever we decide to create, she can make it happen—but game development is about more than just ones and zeros.
She’s hyper intelligent, but creative thinking is new to her.
She seemed fascinated when I talked about storyboards, character development, plot, and gameplay.
I tidy up the lab in silence while Quinn lists everything she wants in our new office. I’m only half listening. One question is burning me up, and I wait for Quinn to pause before I ask it. “Once everything is ready, how do we release the game?”
I’d been so unsure this would even get off the ground that I hadn’t put much thought into it, but now it feels important. I’ve never been someone who can create in a vacuum. So much of the fun comes from knowing others are playing and enjoying my games.
Hadrian comes to stand beside me. “The same way a lot of Brotherhood tech makes it out into the world. We’ll create a company with fabricated people as the directors and release this game and any future games through it. You’ll have complete creative control, of course.”
After what I went through with Brightscape, that sounds good.
A very petty thought occurs, and though I know it’s the wrong thing to do, I say it anyway.
“Speaking of Brightscape, any chance we can fuck up their release of the new Saldar game? I really, really hate what they’ve done to the series. I’d like to bury it.”
This time, Candice answers. “That’s easy. I’ll turn public feeling against it so fast it might never even get released.”
Guilt grips me for a moment. This seems like improper use of a sentient electronic lifeform. But fuck it. If I’m to be held captive by an all-powerful tech cult, I might as well use it to my advantage. Screw Brad Grayson, with his plastic face, smarmy attitude, and megapreacher hair.
With any luck, he’ll end up getting fired.
“Thanks. That would be amazing.”
Quinn looks impressed. “Damn. Don’t get on your bad side, hey? Anyway, I’ve gotta go. Jacob says he has a surprise for me.”
Candice pulls a face. “Ew. We don’t want to know.”
Quinn grins. “Don’t be such a prude.” She turns to Hadrian. “Can you get working on a hot sentient male CI please? Candice needs someone to play with.”
Hadrian’s mouth drops, and just for a second, he looks like his old, easily flustered self. “Well, I can’t…and technically, they’d be siblings, so…”
“I’m kidding. Jesus.” Quinn elbows me. “Good to know I can still annoy him.”
Candice makes a small noise, and I swear she looks embarrassed.
“Actually, you know, I’ve been spending a bit of time with Tal.
He’s still imprisoned, of course, but it’s been nice to have another CI to chat with.
None of what happened is his fault. His creator made him wrong and twisted his mind. Stunted his development.”
Quinn whirls on her. “What the fuck? He’s a nutjob! You said so yourself!”
Candice looks down, and her next words cement forever that she is, in fact, alive.
“He’s got issues. I know. But I think I can fix him.”