Leo relegated himself to the corner like a temperamental toddler in time-out. Not that I knew exactly what that looked like, but he appeared very committed to the part with his arms crossed, severe frown that bordered on pouting, and refused to make eye contact with anyone who tried to talk to him. He had dutifully done his part silently, unlocking something in my bio-screen so Morgan, the Organization’s tech, could run tests without it kicking back at her. Some sort of protective firewall, it seemed. Not that Leo would say anything about it.

After we had all decided to share the information about the gamma with the Organization, and by extension Hubert Industries, I’d expected Leo to be…I don’t know, not so sullen about it? He’d agreed it was the best option in front of us, based on the limited information we had. But apparently that didn’t mean he had to like it.

Alex shifted slightly next to me, his arm brushing against mine briefly and sending a tingling wave up to my shoulder.

“Should we expect this to get interesting?” I asked him, uncaring that the tech would overhear everything. “With the results, I mean.”

He thought about it for a few moments before deciding on, “Yeah, probably.”

I sighed and rested my head back in the reclining chair, closing my eyes to block out the bright white lights. We were in some sort of pseudo doctor’s office with the sterile walls, some labeled white cabinets, a sink, and the chair I relaxed in. Thankfully the room was about twice as large as the offices I’d spent a lot of time in while searching for my LaShoul’s diagnosis, meaning there was enough room for Leo and his attitude. As long as he stayed in the corner.

Today had been another exhausting day working with the development team at Farley Tech and I was grateful I didn’t have to do anything other than sit while other people did the work. Things were mostly going well for the app, but it wasn’t easy for me to have to find my voice and put myself out there for every little thing I wanted to change or to redirect the team back on track. I’d felt like a babysitter trying to wrangle kids who were used to getting their way and refused to listen.

My thoughts wandered as I relaxed further. What would it be like to actually have a kid? Like…herding cats? I’d never given kids a consideration before, expecting I would die before even meeting someone who would be the other half of that equation. And even if I did, there still was no way I would risk passing on my faulty genes to an innocent child. I didn’t blame my mom for her choices, but I wouldn’t make the same ones.

But now? I had no idea. I had time now, and most importantly the knowledge of how to not die, so maybe—

My thoughts screeched to a stop as Alex brushed his fingertips against the back of my hand. It was a sweet, soothing gesture that made me realize that during my daydreaming about kids with a partner I hadn’t considered him as that partner.

Our conversations never strayed too far into the future, meaning neither of us had brought up that idea. Heck, we hadn’t even discussed marriage yet, our relationship still new enough that it was likely a far ways off, if it even happened at all. Marriage was not a prerequisite to having kids, true, but thinking of having either discussion with Alex gave me anxiety.

The tech at my elbow bumped my arm, and I jerked in surprise, eyes flying open.

“Sorry. Almost done,” Morgan said, angling the device in her hand around my arm. The square device she held was small, about the size of her palm. She’d explained, mostly to a sulking Leo, that it would connect with the bio-screen and read the code written there for its programming. Which made sense, seeing as the Organization wanted to make sure nothing had been tampered with.

The device finally beeped and she pulled away, immediately docking it next to a computer. Code appeared on the screen, which I couldn’t read to save my life, and she pulled up some program that started analyzing the data.

“How long will that take to run?” Leo asked, suddenly standing next to me. I jerked again. He unceremoniously grabbed my arm, navigating back through the device to turn back on whatever security he’d turned off, finishing up with a small pen-like device .

“Shouldn’t be more than a couple of minutes, max,” she answered. Then she turned to look at him. “As long as everything’s clear.”

Well. We were about to find out if the gamma was considered clear or not.

“Are we free to leave?” Alex wondered.

The tech hesitated. “Goodwin asked that you stay, though I can’t force you to.”

“We can stay,” I answered before Leo could. “Like you said, it won’t take long.”

I’d taken to swimming my feet and threading my fingers together. Normally I’d pull out my tablet and read, but it felt rude with three other people in the room waiting patiently without the help of fictional characters to distract them.

“Okay, so maybe it’s taking a little while,” Morgan said after ten minutes.

“How much more does it need to analyze?” Leo leaned forward a bit.

She squinted at the screen, assessing. “I think it’s about half done, maybe a bit more. It wouldn’t take so long if the tech wasn’t so complicated.”

Leo crossed his arms. “It’s got a lot of potential.”

She scoffed. “Wasted potential, you mean, if this is all it’s used for.” She pointed to part of the screen. “That right there. See it? Why aren’t you utilizing it?”

I didn’t speak code, so had no idea what was going on.

“We had to start somewhere,” he argued. “Why put in all that effort without testing it out first? We’ll get to that down the road, when the screen’s main purpose is finalized.”

Morgan didn’t answer, absorbed in the screen now. I looked to Alex, who raised his eyebrows at me. I shrugged, also having no idea what was going on.

Two quick raps on the door, and Goodwin entered.

“So,” he said in his large voice, “what have we got so far?”

“It’s still running,” Morgan answered. “There’s a lot of unused programming here it’s trying to sort though.”

“Unused?”

Morgan turned away from the screen to face him. “It seems like these bio-screens are designed to do more than just gather data. But it’s dormant, non-active. But the code is running through it anyways.”

Goodwin turned to me first, then to Leo. No one said anything, and the tension in the room grew suffocating.

“There!” Morgan pointed excitedly at the monitor. Goodwin leaned in close, following her finger. She hit a few keys in rapid succession, and the monitor next to the one running the code popped up with a mirror image of what I’d been seeing on my screen until recently, including at the very top, a single, world-changing word.

“Gamma,” Goodwin breathed. He nodded once to Morgan and then…left. Morgan quickly shut the system down, apparently having what they needed and went to the door.

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“Thank you,” she said to Alex and me. “You’re free to go now.”

It was silent for several beats.

“What the fuck?” I whispered. Then, louder, “What just happened?”

Before I knew it, Leo had Alex hovering two inches above the ground. I sprang up, stepping between them uselessly.

“Leo!” I snapped.

“What did you tell them?” Leo demanded, ignoring me completely.

“Leo!” I scolded, tugging on his extended arm in an effort to put Alex back on the ground. “The fuck you think you’re doing?”

Leo shook his arm free of my hold and shoved me aside, my back smacking against the wall. A flash of regret danced in his eyes, but he turned back to Alex.

“How does he know?” Leo pressed.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, asshole,” Alex ground out.

Leo didn’t like Alex’s answer, raising him higher in the air.

That was enough.

I zapped myself over to Leo in an instant so he wouldn’t see me coming, wrapped my arms around his middle tightly, and zapped us back to his apartment.

Immediately, I started breathing heavy from the effort of moving myself and another person so far. But I mustered my anger and shoved Leo away from me, sending him stumbling. He failed to catch himself, landing on his side, and turned to look up at me.

I pointed a finger at him. I wanted to look menacing, threatening, but the heaving lungfuls of air I sucked in probably ruined the effect.

“You do not get to behave as though you know and control everything!” I chastised, stepping into his space to stand over him.

“Why would that man just accept there’s gamma involved and not ask questions?”

I paused.

“As a scientist of some sort, he should have immediately started asking questions about it. But he didn’t. Know why?” His eyes bored into mine, but I didn’t look away as I crossed my arms. “He already knew.”

“So, what, you take your feelings out on my boyfriend?”

“How did he get that information?” Leo countered. “Alex.”

I froze, not blinking, not breathing while I processed his words.

“You can’t say that for sure,” I breathed, then cleared my throat and said louder, “We knew there was a possibility that someone else already discovered it. And wouldn’t it make sense that the group of organized people who knew about the abilities long before us would be the ones most likely to be that someone else?”

Leo paused, considering my words for half a second. “But we could have found out, right now, if that was the case if you hadn’t interrupted me.”

I scoffed. “You’re like a bull in a china shop. You just plow in there, do your worst, and don’t give a damn about the consequences or messes that other people have to clean up. We could have had an actual conversation instead of that fucking interrogation you started.”

“And give him time to come up with an excuse?” Leo shook his head. “You’re not seeing this situation clearly. Take off your blinders and look.”

I recoiled, taking two steps away. That stung. I began gathering my energy again, focusing inward.

“You’re going to always push everyone away, aren’t you?” I said quietly. I wasn’t arguing with him anymore. “But the thing is, you’re going to have to live with that now. You don’t get out of it by dying anymore.”

I turned, not wanting to look at him a second longer, knowing that this was going to be the last time I would ever spend time with him outside of work.

I zapped myself back to the room we had been at just two minutes before.

Or, at least I tried.

I landed myself in the hallway instead, recognizing the white subway tile walls.

Whatever, close enough.

Maybe it was my lack of full concentration—from anger, confusion, or otherwise—that made me off, or my unfamiliarity with the place, or even my own fatigue from popping myself all over the city.

Now to find the right room.

I wandered slowly down the hall, listening for any indication that someone was inside. I could start opening doors at random, but there were only six in this hallway, and I remembered we’d passed the first two.

I sighed, putting my face in my hands and taking a deep breath that did nothing to ease the tension creeping into my shoulders. This was such a clusterfuck.

It took the fifth door before I heard anything. I stopped right outside and approached the unremarkable door. Seriously, they should have been labeled or at least numbered or something.

“She’s not involved like that,” came a muffled voice. I strained to listen, pressing my ear against the door carefully to not make a sound.

“Can you be absolutely sure?” Goodwin. Damn, this man was everywhere. Did he ever sleep? Or take a break? Have a doppelgänger, maybe?

“She’s just as annoyed by him as I am.” Alex, I was sure of it now. “She just teleported his ass out of here because he started coming at me, demanding answers.”

A beat. “She took him with her?”

“It sure looked that way.”

“So she’s stronger than we initially believed,” Goodwin mused. “That could be useful.”

“I think Leo is a lost cause at this point,” Alex continued.

What does that mean?

“Unfortunately, I agree. I think we got all that we could out of him.”

“And Callie?”

“Has she had any other developments other than taking someone with her?”

“Leo thinks she’ll be able to create portals, with time and training. She’s not so sure. I’m inclined to believe Leo.”

I leaned away from the door. Why was Alex telling Goodwin this? I shook my head before placing my ear back.

“…your choice.” A heavy slap. “You did good, Alex, even if things didn’t turn out the way we expected. We’ve got the confirmation of the gamma we were looking for, and we can forge a path forward from here.”

“I’ll think about it, let you know. She’s grown on me,” Alex said.

What the…?

“Alright, alright. She’ll be able to come back soon, hopefully.”

Quick steps came towards the door, and I had a split second to decide whether to stay in the hallway or go.

I wasn’t sure what the best option was. But what I was sure about was I had no clue what the fuck was going on. Alex’s words with Goodwin had made no sense and didn’t align with what I knew. I needed time to digest it, figure out what it all meant.

And, because of course, Leo’s words echoed back at me. And give him time to come up with an excuse? You’re not seeing this situation clearly. Take off your blinders and look.

I needed to look.

I left.

My apartment was eerily quiet. Lucie must be sleeping somewhere. Hopefully not my clean laundry I’d finally gotten around to doing last night.

My phone was still in my pocket, thankfully, and I pulled it out to tell Alex…something. Instead, I found myself calling Amelia.

She answered on the first ring. “Hey, girlie! What’s up?”

“Um.” My voice was shaky, adrenaline starting to flood my system as my subconscious started working out Alex’s words and putting them together for me.

“Babe, what’s wrong?” Her tone was serious, the joy gone.

“I’m not sure. I think…” I swallowed thickly around the knot forming in my throat. “I think Alex…I think he might have gone behind my back?”

How much did I tell her? She was just as involved in the Organization as I was, probably more at this point.

“Okay, I’m coming over. When did you find out? What happened?”

“Like, thirty seconds ago. Leo started acting like an asshole, no surprise there, so I took his ass to his apartment. You know, I zapped us there. And when I got back, I overheard some things.”

“Okay, so not a cheating sort of behind your back. Got it. Does he know you heard?”

I shook my head before remembering it was an audio-only call. “No. I left again. I just… I need to figure out what’s going on. What I heard doesn’t make sense, but I’m freaking out, probably for no reason, and I just—”

“Callie, I love you, but shut up for a second and listen.” I did, jaw snapping shut with an audible click. “Trust. Your. Gut. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve ignored something because it didn’t seem likely and it turned around and bit me in the ass. If your body is telling you something is off, it probably is. Let me come over, and we can talk about it. Okay?”

“Sorry,” I whispered, feeling foolish.

“Again, Callie, shut up. Don’t apologize to me. That’s literally what friends are for. I’ll be over in, I don’t know, twenty minutes? Unless you can zap me, too.” Her tone was teasing, but I actually considered it. I pulled up my stats to see if it was feasible, focusing just on my Ability Pool.

Current

Maximum

Ability Pool

27

35

Well, that was different. This morning, the maximum had only been at thirty-three. How had it jumped by two in such a short time?

It was a question for another day. There was a crisis to handle.

“No, I can’t,” I told Amelia. “I’d burn myself out.”

“Okay then. Twenty minutes. In the meantime, say something to Alex so he’s not suspicious. I’m connecting the dots here and thinking you were with him, and going back. Am I right?”

She was good. I told her so.

“Okay. You can’t zap yourself anymore—which, by the way, I like that word for it, zap—so tell Alex you can’t get back. Buys time for me to get over there and talk through it with you. Got it, missy?”

“Got it,” I sighed, feeling marginally relieved at having a game plan. “You’re the best.”

“I know. I’ll text you when I’m there.”

After we hung up, I took a picture of my bio-screen and sent it to Alex with a brief explanation that I couldn’t possibly make it back there, was exhausted, and was going to shower and go to bed. Thankfully, I was a better liar over text than in person, and Alex accepted my explanation without question and even going to far to wish me a good night’s sleep.

I stuck my tongue out at his message before grabbing a throw pillow and screaming into it.