The second Rayne recognized Matt’s voice, she froze in Nox’s arms.

Oh, Elden. What was she—

Rayne and Nox had almost…

Oh, wow.

An entire audience of people were watching the spectacle Rayne had made of herself. Her mask was lost and sorta pointless by now. Ergo Matt standing only a few feet away with nothing interpretable on his freckled face.

With an aggressive frown, Nox looked between Rayne and the ginger. Only instinct sparkled in Nox’s eyes, and the interruption had clearly disappointed him.

Pinned to the wall, Rayne patted her partner, who looked equally surprised by their position when he set her down. Her cheeks burned as Nox relaced the ties to his pants. His deep baritone was hoarse from the almost sex, muttering, “Sorry.”

That snapped Rayne back to him. “Do not apologize for this. I initiated everything, and it looks like the general idea of it worked.”

Volition controlled people surrounded them with their wild eyes and their empty expressions. Celindria was behind those eyes, which once belonged to hundreds of people from various races and genders, dressed in club wear or combat gear. They hid among gawking innocents in the crowd. None of them looked armed, at least.

Matt noted them, too, asking with a thumb in their direction, “Do you think they’re admirers of your work?”

At first Rayne thought he was talking to her until…

Lucy appeared from behind Matt, saying, “I don’t know, but they’re creeping me out.” She was in a combat stance, keeping their backs together while assessing their unfriendly company. At Rayne and Nox, she smiled and waved, “Hi! You couldn’t have come at a better time.”

Frowning, Rayne exchanged a look with Nox, who shrugged.

Matt grinned at them. “Yeah. Thanks for the distraction.”

Rayne frowned. “For what?”

An explosion ripped through the farthest caisson. And the next. And the next.

“For that.”

The blast spheres were small, sending out waves of dust and tiny embers, but nothing large or lethal. Ringing replaced Lucy’s vocals in Rayne’s ears, and the place emptied fast into dead silence.

Matt and Lucy’s blasts revealed thin support beams of nacre glass hidden inside hollow spaces with two-way walls. Booths lined the insides, and hundreds of people spread across them, bleeding from various places—All dead. Those weren’t caissons. They were VIP lounges for the vice lords.

Little Bethany Roberts, Kyle’s baby sister, stood in the center of the closest one, and her expression chilled Rayne.

Satiated.

Bethany looked full and ready for a nap.

A stirring of people behind them brought Rayne and Nox around. “Excuse me. Coming through. We’re with the cool crowd.” It was a Mon3 drone and a Tritan. The drone was grinning as far as his needle-nose mouth could allow. “Oh, my god. It is you—Oh, sorry.”

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Nox stopped the drone from reaching Rayne with a look.

“Puk.” Matt’s tone contained a warning.

“I know, I know, man, but wow. King Rayne, I am a huge admirer of your work, and former King Nox, mad respect for everything you did for Cinder.”

Both Nox and Rayne raised their brows at the blatant hero worship.

The Tritan waved with a bladed ring. “Hi, I’m Yito. This is Puk.”

Oh, introductions.

Rayne tugged on Nox’s open shirt, blushed because she’d destroyed his buttons, and said, “This is Matt, Lucy, and that’s Bethany. These are the agents Caedes sent.”

Matt waved, Bethany bared her teeth in a grin, and Lucy said, “Well, you can’t forget—”

“Dammit, Ginger! I told you not to burn the place down!” Rayne recognized Pehton’s voice coming from Matt’s palm device.

With his Arkansan drawl, Matt laid the charm on thick for the Lyriki Warden. “Ma’am, I assure you the flames are all out, and the place is still standing. We just thought a little fireworks show would clear the innocent bystanders from the crowd. That’s all.” He winked at Rayne.

It was an empty wink.

The next voice over the device belonged to a male. Maybe an Icarus? Rayne faintly recognized him as he said, “We’ve got frightened people out here. The Co-Emperors will not be happy.”

Lucy beamed. “Well, Bones, they will be once they see who we found—”

“No!” Nox and Rayne both shouted at once and cut her off.

Not at all hurt, Lucy looked more intrigued as she tried to recover her message. “We found Amaryna and the people responsible for the trafficking ring.”

Rayne sighed with relief, and Nox looked a question down at her. She wasn’t sure how to explain it, but this wasn’t the right time to include the others.

Pehton sounded genuinely pleased. “That’s wonderful news. We’ll be down there to make arrests as soon as we finish organizing the traumatized people outside—”

“Sorry, ma’am. No arrests to be made. They were dead when we got here.” Matt gestured at the VIP lounges. “Bethany’s consuming their memory banks now to help with the investigation. We’ll be up soon. Over and out.”

Puk took in the space with a frown in his multi-faceted eyes. “What is with the lingering chill in this place? The vibes are so wrong here.” He was staring at Celindria’s agents, most of whom were drones.

Yito asked, “Why haven’t they run? And why do they look like Bethany on a hunt?”

This was too much.

Rayne’s head swam keeping up everyone and who knew what—Why couldn’t she return to the treeloft and cozy up next to Nox with a cup of tea?

As if he sensed it, too, Nox placed his warm hand on her back and soothed her. She didn’t realize, but in her distress, Rayne had turned into his chest and hid. This would not do. The Shadow were many dozens of people who cared about her. If she couldn’t handle this small portion of them, how could she find comfort in their fully assembled numbers?

It was Celindria.

Her glaring at them was overwhelming Rayne. They were on the cusp of a fight while surrounded by people she loved. It was splitting her concentration and rendered her magnesium field all but useless. It wouldn’t do any good to blind Rayne’s team and these innocent people under Celindria’s control.

Nox kissed the top of her head and murmured, “Talk to me.”

Rayne gazed all the way up at him. The love in his eyes warmed her through to her toes. He would abandon their plan to take her away for her sake.

But that’s not how martyrs worked.

Rayne smiled, and it was sad. Soon. She should tell Nox about how her feelings have grown for him soon. And soon, they would tell their family together.

If Matt’s bewildered expression was any indication, it might take some convincing. Until then…

After taking a step back from Nox, Rayne pulled Night Killer from her nacre.

“Oh, sick. That’s awesome.”

Yito nudged Puk to stop, but Rayne kind of appreciated the drone’s fanatic playfulness.

In awe, Lucy confessed, “I wish I would’ve thought of that for the shows.”

With a respectful nod at Nox, Matt moved closer to the powerful pair. Lucy followed, signaling Bethany to join them. Everyone formed a circle with their backs together, taking in Celindria’s small army of potentially innocent people. Nox was on Rayne’s right, and Matt was on her left. She was happy to consider the redhead a friend, but this was not how she expected to return to the Shadow.

As if he sensed the direction of her thoughts, Matt said, “Look, we don’t know each other all that well, but I credit you for saving my life—”

“Our lives,” Lucy added.

“—By introducing us to Xelan and letting us join you at the first Iona. I’ll keep your secret, if you can promise me one thing.”

Nox looked down at Rayne, who looked at Matt. A little reticent, she asked, “What’s that?”

Yito sighed.

Puk let out a single laugh, as if he knew the answer.

Lucy and Bethany exchanged a beaming look.

When Matt grinned at her, the hair raised on the back of Rayne’s neck.

“I get to crush some skulls.”