Chapter 27
RACK
The elevator dinged softly, the doors sliding open as I stepped inside without bothering to look up from my phone. My thumb kept moving across the screen while I hit the button for level five from memory alone.
Ever since Calix’s meeting yesterday, he’d turned into a man possessed.
The second we explained the fae magic situation to Olivia, her eyes lit up with the same dangerous spark, the one he always wore whenever someone presented him with an impossible problem. She practically threw herself into the project before he even officially invited her.
And Calix? He looked just excited to have her there. So the two of them had barricaded themselves on the fifth floor for thirty-two hours straight.
Olivia had passed out on the couch in Calix’s office for a few hours before waking up and immediately going back to work.
Both of us tried convincing her to go home, but she just laughed in our faces and waved her hand toward the couch, informing us she’d spent most of her adult life sleeping on a rusted cot that creaked every time she breathed, so the “big boss office couch” felt luxurious by comparison.
Calix and I had stared at her in stunned silence after that. Neither of us knew what to say, so we let it go when she drank down her blood smoothie and went back to work.
After all this is done, we’re going to take her somewhere luxurious. Maybe we’d take her to Vegas and pull out all the stops. Calix would absolutely lose his mind planning it.
We’d bury her beneath expensive clothes, ridiculous meals, and the bright lights of Vegas shows. We’d even have her meet the famous people after their shows. Between the two of us, we’d drown out her past with so many good, big memories that she never had to think about that time in her life again.
She belonged with us now. She was Syndicate. That meant she would never have to scrape and survive again.
Only one thing kept stopping me from fully letting myself settle into that future—that damn work ethic they both seemed to possess.
The elevator doors slid open, and I stepped out, barely acknowledging the exhausted employees hunched over desks as I moved down the rows of cubicles. The deeper I went into FangTech, the louder the familiar arguing became.
By the time I reached the bulletproof glass doors, I already knew exactly who was involved.
Olivia stood in the middle of the lab, her hands slicing through the air while she argued, fiery eyes locked onto Calix.
Her dark hair had partially escaped whatever messy knot she’d tied it into hours ago, and the rose tattoo curling against her skin stood out starkly against the flushed heat in her face.
Calix stood across from her, looking equally sleep deprived and unhinged. God help us all.
People called me a workaholic, but at least I knew when to shut down before my body gave out. These two? They would work until their brains stopped functioning, then they’d try to keep going anyway.
I pushed the glass door open just in time to hear Olivia snap, “I helped build it, so I should get to test it first! You agreed to that last night!”
Calix recoiled like she’d accused him of murder. “I absolutely did not!” His finger stabbed toward her dramatically. “Why would I ever agree to putting you in danger?!”
Across the room, Ryan and two other engineers looked seconds away from passing out from stress.
“Uh… sir…” Ryan’s voice cracked badly enough that all three of them winced in sympathy. “Y-you did kind of say Miss Olivia would be the first one outfitted with the device…”
Calix turned slowly toward him, those usually warm pink eyes narrowed into sharp slits.
“Rack.” He pointed toward Ryan without looking away from Olivia. “Kill him.”
Ryan visibly stopped breathing.
Olivia planted both hands onto her hips immediately. “Don’t. You. Dare!” Her glare narrowed hard enough to rival his.
“You know he’s working on my formula to be able to make a body forcefield instead of a shield!” she snapped. “Are you trying to sabotage my project because you’re being dramatic?”
Yep. This was exactly what happened when two obsessive, creative people were mated to one another.
The poor engineers were still frozen in place, eyes bouncing between the two psychopaths and me like they were silently begging for rescue.
I tipped my head toward the door. “Go home.”
That was all it took. It sounded like a stampede as they bolted. Ryan nearly clipped the doorway trying to escape fast enough.
“I need field experience with the device,” Olivia continued the second the others disappeared. “I need to understand recoil timing and response delays before we investigate the hangar.”
The metal pen in Calix’s hand crumpled with a sharp crunch.
“Who,” he asked very slowly, “said you were going?”
Olivia stepped directly into his space without hesitation. “I did.” Not one ounce of fear appeared on her face.
“I’m Syndicate now too,” she bit out, crossing her arms over her chest. “So I’m going.”
I should’ve stopped the argument there, should’ve de-escalated it before Calix exploded, but my thoughts snagged on one specific thing she’d said.
I’m going.
With us. Into danger. Into something that could very realistically kill one of us. For once, I agreed with Calix completely. She absolutely should not go.
I had opened my mouth to say exactly that when a quiet voice drifted through the room behind me.
“If she’s Syndicate, then she deserves the chance to prove herself.”
Every muscle in my body was so tight that I nearly jumped at the unexpectedness of Riot’s voice. All of us turned at once.
She stood near the doorway dressed entirely in black, pale hair brushing her shoulders while the rest of her blended, almost unnaturally, into the shadows behind her.
Her trademark Desmond eyes shined just as bright as Calix’s, but more exacting.
She looked less like a person and more like death itself had decided to attend the meeting.
Riot silently moved into the room while Calix stared at her in disbelief.
“Mate or not, Calix,” Riot continued evenly, “you cannot shield her from every risk.”
Without waiting for permission, she picked up the long metal prototype resting on the table beside the schematics. Her eyes skimmed over the blueprints once before she slid the device over her forearm and secured it.
Then her fingers twitched. That was it. One tiny motion caused a controlled wind explosion that went through the room hard enough to rattle loose papers. Riot vanished from one side of the lab and appeared on the other in the blink of an eye.
Even I was impressed by her speed and precision, and air was my dominant magic. I was one of the best alive at using it.
But Riot? Riot was the best.
Riot turned the device over once in her hand before looking down at it. Her thumb clicked a small switch along the side, and a blue arc of electricity instantly burst outward with a violent crack.
The shield formed around her torso in jagged glowing lines, its energy snapping and hissing through the air like it wanted to bite something.
She lifted her eyes to Calix. “Shoot.” The single word snapped the room taut.
Calix blinked once like he’d just remembered how to move. Slowly, he raised the gun and pulled the slide back. The metallic click echoed through the lab.
For a second, he just stared at her through the sights while neither of them moved.
“Now, Calix.” Her voice never rose, but somehow, that made it impossible to ignore.
Bang.
The shot exploded through the room. All of us tracked the glowing bullet as it screamed across the lab straight toward Riot. She planted herself firmly before impact, feet spread wide, knees bent slightly, ready to absorb whatever came next.
The bullet slammed into the shield with a deafening crack. Blue electricity burst outward violently, and the barrier buckled. Riot’s body jerked backward half a step while sparks crawled wildly across the surface of the shield.
For one horrible second, nobody breathed, then the bullet dropped harmlessly to the floor with a dull metallic clink.
I barely had time to register the success before Riot vanished.
One blink and she was in front of Olivia, her palm striking her shoulder hard enough to shove her backward several steps. Olivia caught herself before falling, sneakers screeching against the floor while shock flashed across her face.
Calix and I moved in unison. Both of us stepped toward Riot at the same time, wanting to throw ourselves between her and Olivia.
Riot didn’t react at all.
“That,” she said flatly, “is the level of recoil you should expect.”
Olivia blinked at her rapidly, clearly still processing.
Riot turned her head toward Calix. “Anything else?”
Calix looked like he wanted to argue anyway, but his eyes flicked over Olivia first, quickly checking her out, before he exhaled sharply through his nose.
“No.” He rubbed a hand over the back of his neck. “We can finish the remaining prototypes tonight and head out tomorrow at dusk.”
Riot nodded once.
“I’ll scout the location beforehand.” Her attention shifted between the two of us. “Should I meet you at the house before we finalize the plan?”
“Yes,” Calix answered, already drifting closer to Olivia again like he physically couldn’t help it. “That works.”
Riot unstrapped the device from her arm and carefully set it onto the table before turning toward Olivia again.
Then, unexpectedly, she held out her hand.
“Riot Devil.” Olivia straightened. “I oversee assassinations, covert operations, and clean-up for the Syndicate.” Riot’s eyes stayed fixed on Olivia’s face. “I look forward to working with you, Olivia Savin.”
The use of her last name visibly startled Olivia. Her eyes widened slightly before she reached out and carefully shook Riot’s hand.
“It’s nice to meet you too,” she answered, her voice softer now. “And… thank you.”