I have no idea what to say to him.

Knee bouncing furiously, my battered sneakers tap an agitated beat against the polished floor of the metro as it rides on a slow circuit around the familiar glass heights of the Metro Blockhouse. All ten fingers, five real five fake, mesh and unmesh in nervous fists while I wait.

The Electric Town is cold and quiet beyond the train’s frosted-over windows. Hunkered down for the winter, not even the most energetic fighters are up training in the pre-dawn hour. I’ve never seen the metro so empty. All the way at the back of the train, I have an entire car to myself. While the train snakes through the Electric Town, I take in the view with enrapt eyes, locking in what might be my final glimpse of my Dad’s home district before I leave the capital. Or before it claims me.

Haven’t decided which of those is more likely to happen, yet.

I scuff my foot against the floor, hungry for some other sound. The clacks and clunks of the train make a dull backdrop as it circles the M from just a few blocks away. My eyes wander the arena’s heights, roaming and imagining, picking one floor at random and wondering what it would be like to be inside on a prime time weekend. The masses filling the stands. The coaches and medics watching the action with attentive eyes. Casters at the small sideline table rising out of their seats when a hype play happens on the square. A tide of roars and cheers lapping against the repulsorfields, and within, two warriors who can’t even hear the mayhem through their tunnel vision.

I always wanted to visit the center of that maelstrom. To join the legends I’d spent my whole childhood idolizing; maybe even fight a few of them. For so long, the Metro Blockhouse was the only goal I ever had. Carving out a place inside it would mean never being apart from Dad again. He’d be sitting ringside at every one of my fights, and some day, I’d climb high enough to take on the burden that he’d been carrying since before I was born.

My heart falls as I look out over the darkened city.

“Finally made it, Dad,” I say, voice faltering, bitten lip in my faint reflection “…I miss you.”

All I’m waiting for is Cal to return, with or without Thane. We took a massive gamble going straight to the Metro Blockhouse, but it was the only way to reach out to Thane without tipping off the rest of the Shadows. We’re tiptoeing around in the dragon’s maw. Gami’s residence is literally within eyeshot. Arena staff and league fighters allied with the Champion could be waking up and starting their morning routines at any moment, hopping on the metro and heading out into the city. Our insurance lies in the lunacy of coming to our enemies rather than running from them. The only true unknown is Thane.

The naïve part of me wants to believe that he feels the same compulsion I do, and it’ll be enough to make him listen to my words. The realist has me taping up my knuckles in advance.

Whether he’ll come or not, I have no idea. Whether or not he’ll kill Cal while I’m not with her, I have no idea. Whether or not she’s bleeding out in his room while I’m sitting here trusting she’ll come back, I have no-

I stamp out the fears like the coals of a fire. Breathe out, shake off the nerves. Imagine Jolie’s hands on my shoulders, firming me in place.

Cal will be fine. She’s Feint. The pro-killer. She can handle herself.

I slump back into an empty seat and twiddle my thumbs, skinsuit unzipped to the breastbone, the inline heating on Dad’s jacket cranked to the max. My real fingers brush over the stitches my aunt left near the feathered zipper. Thoughts trailing off to what she might be doing. What she’ll think of me for leaving. The train accelerates as it pulls away from a station; bright lights outside fading to pre-dawn darkness. Neon advertisements scrolling down a skyscraper paint the car’s interior in moody blue and purple. For a moment, I’m tempted to pull out my JOY and message Yuki for an update. Where are they now?

Where?

I don’t even know why the question pops into my head, but it does so with an unusual amount of urgency. Like my own brain is pressing itself for confirmation. But I already know Jolie is on her way out of the capital. The question itself doesn’t even make sense, and neither does the quizzical impulse that chases it through my mind. A wormlike need to go over the details of my aunt’s escape again, just to be sure. Untrusting of my own surety. I’m about to shelve the weird feeling and go grab a handhold when the question hits me again, keeping me in my chair.

Where?

I can almost hear the question like it’s talking directly into my head. My eyebrows narrow in confusion. Faintly, like the distant call of a voice I almost recognize, there’s a part of me that realizes something’s off about the feeling. I start to shake the worry off. But that moment of discomprehension costs me everything.

The doors hiss open. My head snaps up, instinctively expecting Cal. And it’s over like that.

It’s a lethal mistake to think that classes like mine are the most dangerous. I might be strong, but I’m a quantifiable danger. The invisible threat, the threat you don’t even notice, the one that doesn’t even need to be near you to plant the seeds of its victory, that is the one that frightens the smartest warriors. It’s the reason why Psis are almost universally loathed. Once they have you, they have you in a way that no amount of strength or talent can protect you from. A truth I understand all too clearly as a tall woman with the most entrancing catlike eyes sways into the car, and I can do nothing but watch.

A jaunty oversized witch’s cap casts shade over irises so sharp a pink they could cut stone, which dance over my features as she draws nearer. The rest of the woman is equally captivating. Dark blue dress that ends just past her hips, high-heeled thighboots reinforced with metal plating, a black-bound spellbook attached to her belt. Full-figured in a seductive way that would make even me take a second look in envy if my head could move.

“You,” I manage to snarl.

Valance holds my gaze with slow blinks as she wordlessly makes a meal of mind. I can feel her up there, in my head, prying with the lightness of a spider’s fingertips. The insidious feeling that’s been trailing through my unconscious brain like a winding hedge begins to grow roots. Wrapping its way possessively around the stem of my brain. A groan rattles out of me. My JOY falls out of my hand and tumbles to the floor, clattering loudly as it rolls towards the back of the train. Electric-blue screens flicker wildly, Yuki’s name still waiting to be called. When I try to reach down for it, an invisible force wrenches my limbs to a standstill like it’s holding me back on puppet strings. Another none-too-gentle tug yanks me back into my seat.

I collapse into the cushioning panting for breath. Shaking, holding onto the lip of the bench with white-knuckle grip as sweat beads atop my shaking arm. Valance’s pressure spreads deeper into my head, worming into my consciousness. Fingering through the folds of my thoughts. A scent like the sweetest perfume clogs my nostrils as she draws nearer and I almost heave over onto the floor. All the while, the fog in my head roams further. I forget everything but the struggle it is to sit there unmoving while she slides her long-legged frame into the seat beside mine like wine into a chalice.

Her voice speaks right into my skull.

Thane. One word. Using it to draw out more information, bait in the chaotic ocean of surface thoughts. An amused snort tinkles through my ears as she notes the hesitancy his name spurs in me.

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Cal. The mental image of lips pursing in interest, then narrowed surprise. Her mental touch grows nails, digging quicker. My throat scrapes out a soundless cry as my mind is turned-inside out by the psionic interrogation. I try to shout. Bash my head into the back of the bench. Reach for my JOY and warn Cal. Anything to break the thing that’s taken root in my head.

Valance slips a casual arm around my shoulders, petting my hair while she keeps digging. Jolie. Escape. Dynasty. The questions come faster, probing the first things that leap to my mind. Gunship. Gami. Escape route. Feint. Mars. Her curiosity piques on the last one, the color of purple flowers blooming in my narrowed vision. The link connecting us is a two-way street, and through it, I can feel the woman’s growing annoyance as she churns through the slurry of my thoughts. She’s not finding what she wants.

Out the window, the Metro Blockhouse glides away at an agonizingly slow pace; the train’s path carrying me further and further from Cal. The loop won’t head back to the district’s center for several minutes. Valance has nothing but time, and she barely even needs it. Thirty more seconds of tossing my mind around like a rollercoaster has it spilling out every last detail of the escape plan for Jolie. Finally satisfied, the Psi casts me aside and withdraws everything but partitions she set in my mind; barriers between things I am allowed to touch and things she controls. My body a puppet. My mind slaved to hers. Her tongue slowly wets her lower lip as she pulls her arm back.

The fact that I can objectively recognize the exact danger of the situation at all should incite panic every danger instinct I have, but even my emotions are on lock. There’s an odd detachment as I watch my frozen body vibrate in desperation to break free. I try to say something, but I just sit there mute, forced into silence as those Iros eyes continue to undress me. Drinking in my details. Lingering on my right arm first, then the petals of luminous hair that flutter at my brow, then finally to the heavy freckles painting my skin. Appreciation- no, recognition- settles over her.

“Fresh meat from the outskirts indeed,” Valance purrs. “You cut such a figure with Cal that even I didn’t recognize you at first. I hoped someday I’d have a chance to really meet you. The girl with the freckles.” Her attention pours over me. “I always wondered if Thane had a thing for them, but now I understand his fascination- you shaped his tastes. Left such an impression on his darling mind, too.”

Her pink eyes sparkle with cruel humor as she shifts to face me, legs crossing just so. My skin crawls in revulsion.

“He still thinks about you, you know. As much as he tells me otherwise. Even when we sleep. Even when we fuck.” Her fingers trail along my metal arm, index and middle doing a small skip. “Though I doubt you care who’s despoiling your lover these days, hm? Not when you’ve got a new bone to chew. No, don’t try to keep from flushing. She’s everywhere in your head. I’m jealous of you, really. You’re not the first to try plowing that rice field.”

“Did you come… just to fuck with me?” I manage to snarl.

“No, darling. I’m just having a little fun at this point.” She flashes a prim, coquettish smile. “Some old friends of mine in the Orange helped point me in your direction, but waiting for Cal to leave you long enough to finally make a move? Dreadful. I was starting to worry you two had fused at the hip with how close she kept. She never struck me as the romantic type. That was always her brother’s fatal flaw. Yet try all she might, she’s still in his shadow. Making his mistakes. Following in his steps. Taking his women.” She pauses for a sensual sigh. “Apples and trees, truly.”

My face tightens in silent ire. Reading the emotion straight from my mind, Valance waves two fingers in a casual dismissal.

“Yes, yes, I already know. I’m a deviant. A whore. A slut. A carnal, erotic, disgusting piece of gutter trash; a perversion of everything good in our gleaming world. You don’t have to keep going. I’ve heard plenty worse from plenty uglier people. And they were all right, of course.” She sighs back into the seat. “I am a product of my upbringing, Tay. I hunger for power as a survival mechanism. My whole life I have only ever been a tool for others. Even now. Perhaps wanting to escape that cycle makes me evil to some. From one tool to another, I’d rather hope it makes me relatable.”

Her head tilts from side to side. Something clicks in my mind and my throat muscles release the tension that held them still. I clear my throat while she finishes.

“Relatable enough, at least. I’m supposed to be hunting you for my master, of course, but his schemes can be so… menial. Even Thane has a better use in mind for you.” Her eyes flick to the arena spearing from the heart of the Electric Town. “Seems our whole world wants a piece of you. It’s a shame the two at the top are incapable of seeing that you’re clearly more than just a weapon.”

“But let me guess- you can.” I snort quietly. “You’re not the first to preach that sermon.”

“I take it Thane has already tried to woo you back,” she scoffs. “If you think I care for him, allow me to disabuse you of that notion. He’s a rung on a ladder I’m going to climb,” she says. She leans closer, fingers gliding up the thigh of my skinsuit. Predatory like a shark, her perfume the blood in the water. Psi pheromones in the aroma. The scent is cloying. Overpoweringly sensual. “Maybe he was special to you. You’re defective, after all. I imagine a pretty boy like him made you feel like the most special girl in the world, wanting you like you are. But pretty boys are all the same. Sleep with one, you’ve slept with them all. Everyone wants to use everyone for something. I’m only where I am because it’s convenient.” She looks down at me. “Believe me, darling. If being good paid the bills, I’d be on my knees in a church right now.”

“Get to the point,” I snap back.

“I know what Thane did. To you, to Mars.”

I stiffen.

“I know why you’re here… and I know what you want. What you really want.” One dangerous fingernail traces up to my breastbone, cajoling the skinsuit’s seam apart. “I know Thane and my master killed your father. They think you’re something special, something exceptionally dangerous.”

The nail comes to a stop as she looks me in the eyes from beneath the brim of her hat. “I’m not certain of that quite yet. But you are strong. I’ve seen enough of what you did to the Mobiak to know that together, you and I could topple them. Forget working with them or for them. You’re powerful. I’m smart. Either Thane or Gami are going to find you if you don’t change the game, and you’re almost out of options.” Her palm flattens against my chest. “Wouldn’t you like that? To have vengeance on the two men who have taken everything from you?”

I flinch away from her touch. “I would never help you.”

“No never lacks a price. Whatever it is, I can give it to you. Anything. Safety for Cal and that famous aunt of yours? Simple. Or is it power? Influence? The kind that can make sure what happened to you happens to no one else?” She leans closer. “Something more human, maybe? Someone who knows how to play with power like yours?”

“Since I wasn’t clear enough.” I manage to lean away, regaining a tiny portion of control over my body. “Get out of my head, and get out of my sight.”

Her voice hardens. “Perhaps I should make myself a little more clear. Whether you listen to me or not, thanks to those well-remembered plans in your grey matter, in about twenty minutes, I’ll be intercepting Jolie Mons with a strike force of her own counterespionage division and taking her into custody. Her and her escorts will never see it coming. They will be intercepted. They will be butchered, even that fetching duelist you have a fondness for. And both Jolie and you will be brought to my master’s throne in chains. Unless you accept what I offer.” She glances at a timer on her JOY’s projector screen, then rises to grip a handhold. “I would rather have a willing partner or no partner at all, Tay. Understand that this isn’t blackmail. It’s two forks in a path, either of which can be taken.”

The train slows as it coasts into a highrise stop on the edge of the Electric Town. Valance’s petticoat swishes around her thighs as she heads for the station platform.

“Accepting my proposal is the best move you have,” she says. “I’ve been in your head. I know you’ll enjoy it once you get over that initial hump of morality. The world isn’t as clear cut as you might believe. Compromise is just another tool for a different battlefield than you’re used to. But if you need some encouragement to realize the gift I offer…”

My body rebels against me and my head cranks towards opening doors. A groan rises out of me when the doors cut open and I see what’s waiting on the other side. I shiver and strain, trying to brute-force rip myself away from Valance’s mental stranglehold. But her grasp on my motor functions is absolute. Down to the individual muscles in my neck as she forces me to stare into a sneering face I thought I’d seen the last of.

It’s my father’s face. And the orange-haired boy who wears it looks like he wants nothing more than to rip me to pieces.