FAZER LOGINDORIAN'S POVThe city at night had a specific quality that I had stopped finding interesting approximately four hours ago. We had covered two locations since dinner. Both dead ends. It was starting to feel more like bad luck. I sat in the front seat and watched Voss City move past the windows and said nothing. "Riven still hasn't called back," Lucien said from the back seat. "He said he went for a run." Caius responded, not looking up from his phone. "A run." Lucian's voice had that particular flatness it got when he'd decided something was absurd but hadn't fully committed to saying so yet. "He's been on a run for over twenty hours already. Is the lack of blood already affecting him this much?" "Riven runs long when he needs to clear his head. You know that." "I know that when there's nothing happening. We're in the middle of looking for Ezra and then he goes for a six hour run." I kept my eyes on the road instead, not fully participating in their discussi
EZRA'S POV "You need to shower."I looked at Riven from across the room, still standing against the locked door, whether this was a new category of problem or an extension of the existing one. "I'm fine." "No, you're not. You've been in those clothes for almost a day." He nodded toward the bag on the table. "There's a change in there. Bathroom's through that door." "I don't need you to..." "Ezra." He said my name flat and final like the conversation had already ended and I was the only one who hadn't caught up to that yet. I looked at the bathroom door then at the bag and then at him again. The truth was that I could feel the day on my skin and the heat residue still clinging underneath my clothes and the particular discomfort of someone who had been running on adrenaline, no proper rest and the idea of hot water was genuinely difficult to argue against even in the current circumstances. "Fine." I replied. "Turn around."He frowned. "I am not undressi
RIVEN'S POVThe food stall was just three blocks from the building and the woman running it worked fast, which I appreciated. There was no unnecessary conversation. She took the order, made the food and handed it over. That was a clean transaction. I liked people who understood that an exchange didn't require embellishment.My phone rang while she was bagging it and I glanced at the caller. It was Caius. I picked up on the second ring. "What?" "Where are you?" "Went for a run. I won't be back soon. Why?" There was a pause before his voice came through. "We're heading out again in a few hours. It's another search radius for Ezra. Are you coming?"I watched the woman fold the top of the bag with the efficiency of someone who had done it ten thousand times. "No." "Riven..." "Keep me updated." I hung up. The woman held out the bag and I took it and paid and turned back toward the building. Behind me, two girls at the adjacent stall had dropped their conversatio
EZRA'S POVThe first thing I was able to register fully was the chair that I was currently tied to, specifically the fact that my wrists were bound to the arms of it like something that wasn't rope. It was softer than rope but that wasn't even helpful!My ankles were also dealt with similarly and no amount of initial experimental pulling was going to change either of those facts.I went still as my brain immediately got into a rescue mode. 'Inventory. Start with inventory.' I thought, trying to calm myself down. The room was relatively small. It was not completely dark as there was light coming from somewhere behind me. It was like from a lamp instead of an overhead fixture. The floor was wood and the walls were bare. It smelled like a place that had been aired recently and wasn't used often. There were no sounds from directly outside the door which either meant soundproofing or distance from wherever people were. My bag was gone and I didn't even have the phone with me. I was sti
EZRA'S POVI made it through the door before my legs gave out. It wasn't some sort of dramatic one or that I even collapsed. If I did, I'd have no one to lift me up. I just slowly slid down the back of my door until I was sitting on the floor with my knees pulled up and my bag still on my shoulder. The cold door was against my spine and my apartment was quietly dark too. I sat there for a while. In here, it was just me and the smell of my own pheromones against the world. I pressed the heels of my hands against my eyes. "What did you do?" I whispered. I had walked into that locker room to catch my breath. I wanted to leave. I was going to. I had my bag in my hand and the door was just not too far away from me. The plan was to leave and come back home faster, even if I had to do that on willpower. If only I had fought harder before that door opened. I mean I tried my best. I said, "Don't." But they didn't listen! They were to be blamed! They were always bad news. My face was h
LUCIEN'S POVWe had arranged ourselves around the laptop in front of us. Dorian was the closest to the camera, Caius was sitting to his right, Riven at the edge of the frame with a look that depicted boredom while I was leaning against the back of the couch where I could see everyone's faces without being directly in anyone's eyeline. Caelan's face filled the screen. "The win was a clean one." He said, by way of greeting. "I watched the footage this morning. You played well." "Thank you, Father." Caius replied. Caelen nodded once, accepting the compliment briefly. Then his eyes moved across the four of us, almost as if searching for a fifth person or maybe anything that could answer the question in his heart before dropping it. "Ezra," he mentioned...as expected. The word landed in the room like a stone into still water. Nobody dared to speak for half a second. Riven was still while Caius's expression didn't change but his pen stopped moving. I lowered my gaze strategical







