Chapter 1

The First Performance

The gates opened without a sound.

I had expected a voice on the intercom, a security check, something that would give me a moment to steady my breathing. Instead the black iron simply parted as my rideshare approached, revealing a long driveway lined with trees that looked too perfectly spaced to be accidental. The house at the end of it was all clean lines and dark glass, the kind of architecture that refused to explain itself. No warm porch light. No visible staff. Just the low glow of recessed lighting along the path and the quiet suggestion that I was already being watched.

I paid...