Jaxon

For the third day in a row, Kairo was a damn ghost.

No messages. No returned calls. His office remained empty, the assistant offering me the same tight-lipped excuse: “He travelled.” But where the hell did he go without fulfilling his promise?

I stared at the list of numbers on my phone, Deric’s name highlighted at the top. Thirteen missed calls from him. I didn’t bother opening any of them.

Whatever Deric wanted could wait.

What couldn’t wait was the growing knot of unease under my sternum. Callan’s absence, the council’s aggression, Ronan acting cagey, the cryptic signs Elvira kept seeing in her dreams, I felt the noose of...