I scrolled through my contacts, found the right name, and tugged the sleeve of my coveralls over my sword bracelet. Here is hoping I won’t need it.

  I was still me. I was Ada Moore. It had to let me out.

  There was only one way to find out.

  “Come, Bear.”

  My dog wagged her tail, and we strode into the gate.

  I half-expected an impenetrable barrier to stop me, or a flash of pain, but there was none. I sank into the gate, pushing my way through the invisible Jello. The familiar pressure squeezed me. I pushed through it.

  The heaviness vanished.

  I smelled Earth’s air.

  The sky spread before me, gorgeous and blue, backlit with the first rays of sunrise, and I had never seen anything more beautiful.

  We were out. We were home. I’d been trapped in the damn breach for so long, this didn’t feel real. It felt like a wishful dream.

  Now I had to stay alive.

  In front of me, an assault team was walking to the gate, their gear dyed in Cold Chaos indigo. They saw me and froze, their faces shocked. A large man in the front, enormous in his adamant armor, stared at me as if he’d seen a ghost.

  I pushed the contact on my phone and put the call on speaker.

  “You have reached the Chicago DDC office,” a female voice said into the phone.

  “Assessor Adaline Moore,” I spoke into the phone. “Personal code 3725. I’m out of the Elmwood gate. I’m alive and uninjured.”

  The voice on the other end vibrated with urgency. “Do you require immediate assistance?”

  “Not at this time.”

  I hung up. My phone died.

  It was done. I had reported in. Cold Chaos couldn’t disappear me now.

  To the left, behind the large man, a familiar face swung into view, bleached white. London.

  I moved forward before I realized I had done it.

  He just stood there.

  I cleared the distance between us in a single breath. My hand drew back almost on its own.

  Control your strength, control your strength, control your strength…

  Panic burst in London’s eyes. His talent shot out of him, trying to shield him from me, but I was already swinging, and my fist tore right through his blade warden force field like it was a soap bubble.

  I hammered a punch to London’s jaw.

  The blow took him off his feet. He flew backward and landed on his back.

  Yes! That felt amazing. I wished I could rewind time so I could punch him again. If only I had that power, I would just sit here and do this all day.

  London tried to rise. Bear lunged forward like a bullet and pinned him to the ground. Her fur stood on end. Her mouth gaped, big teeth bare and wet with drool. She snarled like a monster from hell and clamped onto London’s right shoulder.

  Well, at least it wasn’t his neck. That would’ve been too fast and easy.

  London cried out.

  “Drop him.”

  Bear growled, her mouth full of London’s arm.

  “Not food,” I told her. “Just human garbage. Back.”

  Bear let go, snarled at London in case he didn’t get the point, and ran back to me, tail wagging.

  London collapsed back onto the pavement. A man dashed to his side, knelt by him, and put his hand on the blade warden’s chest. A faint golden glow bathed London.

  The big man in armor looked at the healer. The smaller man nodded. I finally recognized the two of them. The one kneeling by London was Merrick Jackson, Cold Chaos’ miracle healer. The man in armor who looked like he popped out of some medieval knight film was Elias McFeron. The Guildmaster of Cold Chaos.

  Behind London, someone made a strangled noise. I looked up. Melissa was standing by one of the trailers next to a man in mining coveralls. Our gazes met. Fear slapped her face. She shoved the man out of the way, pushing him between us, and took off running.

  The site was silent like a tomb. Nobody moved.

  Melissa kept running down the street, to the intersection. She turned right and ran out of view.

  “Leo,” Elias said in a deep voice. “Please inform HQ that Melissa Hollister has turned in her resignation, effective immediately. And call Haze.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  The man who answered was in his thirties, handsome, athletic, and his eyes were pure white. The light tactical armor fit him like a glove. I knew him, too. Leonard Martinez, Vice-Guildmaster of Cold Chaos. Cold Chaos had brought their best guns to take on the gate.

  Elias McFeron turned to me. He was in his late forties, with short blond hair that was going grey. His face was harsh, with a square jaw and broad angles. He might have been handsome if he’d led a different life, but the breaches must’ve purged all softness from his soul and his face. Only hard resolve remained. His light blue eyes evaluated me with methodical precision. He saw my face, my expression, my coveralls, Bear at my feet. He missed nothing. Elias McFeron was very dangerous, and he’d decided I was a threat.

  I didn’t want to kill anyone. I just wanted to go home, but if I had to cut my way through Cold Chaos to get back to my children, I would do it.

  He opened his mouth.

  I braced myself.

  “Assessor Moore, welcome home. Perhaps we could have a word?”

  13

  Leo held the library door open. “Please.”

  Adaline Moore walked into the library side by side with the dog. If that creature could be called a dog. She strode in and sat in the nearest chair.

  Leo followed her.

  Jackson approached, his eyes wary.

  “London?” Elias asked under his breath.

  “Shattered jaw, cracked teeth, torn brachial artery. I put him back together. Krista is watching him. If it wasn’t for the shield, he would be dead.”

  Adaline Moore, a consummate noncombatant, punched through a warden forcefield and hit London so hard, he flew twelve feet. And she had held back. He saw her slow the punch halfway through. Had she hit him with everything she had, London would have stopped being a problem. Permanently.

  And if Elias was honest with himself, he wouldn’t be shedding any tears over it.

  “Did you get a chance to scan her?” Elias asked.

  Jackson nodded. “Kid gloves, Elias. Treat her like a nuclear warhead. You want me in for this meeting.”

  “Is she human?”

  “She seems to be.”

  Elias held the door open for Jackson and walked in. He was too large for a chair in his gear, so he just leaned against the nearest desk. Leo took up a similar position to his left and Jackson stood to his right. They had formed a U with Adaline in the center. The significance of being flanked wasn’t lost on her. She noted it but didn’t seem bothered.

  Adaline leaned back in the chair. A harsh, familiar stench emanated from her. He’d smelled it on himself hundreds of times – the odor of alien blood and ichor, acrid and tinged with decomp. Layers of brown stains marked her coveralls. Dried blood caked on her scalp. She looked like someone in an assault team’s vanguard after a week of hard fighting in the breach.

  The dog at her feet was supposed to be a guild K9, a two-year old German Shepherd, according to the files. He’d seen a picture of her, a typical guild GS with big eyes and a happy dog smile, panting. The picture did not match reality.

  For one, Bear was too damn large. She had to be over a hundred pounds, and those teeth were longer than any dog’s cuspids he had seen. More importantly, she watched him with something other than canine intelligence. He knew their German Shepherds, the guild took them on every gate dive, and he’d interacted with them and gave them treats. This creature was something else.

  There was an eerie similarity in the way the woman and the dog were looking at him. He had a feeling that if he said the wrong word or moved the wrong way, both would go for his throat.

  Kid gloves. Right.

  “Do you require medical assistance?” he asked, keeping his tone casual. “Jackson is our best healer, and he will be happy to assist.”

  “No.”

  No emotion, nothing in the eyes. Unreadable and cold.

  “Your children are safe and on their way here,” Elias said.

  She focused on him, and it was like having a blade to his throat, pressing against his carotid. “Why do you have my children?”

  The challenge in her eyes was so sharp, he had to force himself to speak instead of simply staring. On his left, Leo tensed. A faint gold shimmer rolled over Jackson’s hands.

  “You spent a week in the breach. Since you were presumed dead, we brought them to Cold Chaos HQ. They are under the care of Felicia Terrell. She doesn’t work for Cold Chaos. She is representing them directly. The DDC doesn’t have the best track record when it comes to taking care of survivors, and the political infighting between the guilds is vicious.”

  “We felt it would be best to shield them from media scrutiny and from being used to influence public sentiment,” Leo said.

  “We have the cat as well,” Elias added. “The children insisted on bringing Mellow with them. Although from my interactions with him, I believe the name to be a misnomer.”

  The pressure in her eyes eased a little.

  “We are not enemies, Ms. Moore,” Elias said. “We mean you no harm. We just want to know if London was honest in his report. He stated there were no survivors.”

  “He lied.” Her voice was ice-cold.

  “Are there other survivors?” Elias probed.

  She shook her head. “Just me and Bear.”

  The monster dog twitched her ear.

  “Could you walk us through what happened?” Elias asked.

  She studied him. This woman didn’t trust him at all.

  “London stated that there were humanoid hostiles. We need specifics and confirmation,” Leo said.

  She ignored Leo. She was looking straight at Elias instead. Their gazes met.

  “Did you know? That he was a coward?”

  He could’ve lied but he didn’t want to. “Yes.”

  “And you put him in charge of the escort anyway.”

  “The best escort captains are cautious,” he said.

  “The best escort captains don’t look you straight in the eye and throw an aetherium grenade at the people they are supposed to protect.”

  “Is that what he did?” Elias asked.

  “Yes. There were hostiles at the mining site, but we were not their targets. We simply got in their way. Some of us died instantly. The rest of us ran for the exit. He murdered four people with that blast, activated his shield and got the fuck out. When you find the bodies, look at their injuries.”

  “I will,” Jackson said. “I will confirm exactly how they died. My Talent identifies the cause of death. It’s never wrong.”

  She ignored him.

  “What about Melissa Hollister?” Leo asked.

  “What about her?” Adaline asked.

  “What was her role in this?”

  “She reacted exactly as you saw. When the slaughter started, she shoved people out of her way and ran for the exit. I believe her last words were, ‘Throw it!’”

  He almost flinched from the venom in her words. “Thank you.”

  “For what?”

  “For confirming my worst fear and giving me the justification I needed.”

  “Are you planning to fire him?” She raised her eyebrows.

  “For starters.”

  “You will have to do better than that.”

  He had this weird feeling that they were the only two people in the room, circling each other, their blades out, looking for an opening.

  “How did you survive?” Leo asked.

  She didn’t answer.

  “Where did you get this bag?” Leo asked.

  He’d noticed her backpack too. It was made from a fabric he didn’t recognize.

  “What’s in it?” Leo asked.

  She finally gave him a flat look. “Don’t worry about it.”

  Leo blinked.

  She looked directly at Elias. “Do you keep your promises, McFeron?”

  “Yes.”

  She studied him for a long moment.

  “I gave London a second chance,” he told her. “The buck stops with me. I made an error in judgement. Two, actually. Everything that happened to you in that breach is the result of my mistakes. I can’t bring the dead back to life, but you are not dead. Tell me what I can do for you.”

  She was still watching him with that disconcerting focus. He finally identified what it reminded him of. He’d met intelligent monsters in the breaches. That was exactly how they looked at him before deciding the best way to strike.

  “You could’ve requested assistance from the DDC,” he said. “You didn’t. You want something from us.”

  Adaline tossed one leg over the other. “The DDC knows I’m alive. In about thirty minutes, they will descend on this site to take me into custody under the pretense of medical care. They will expect a full report. This can go one of two ways. I can tell them that Cold Chaos betrayed me, left me to die, and then delayed entering the gate, hoping the creatures of the breach would finish their dirty work. Or I can make you look like heroes, who rescued me against impossible odds.”

  “What will it cost me?” he asked.

  “London must never enter another breach.”

  “We cannot guarantee that,” Leo said.

  “What he means is that it’s not within our power,” Elias explained. “The law shields him from being tried for murder for his conduct within the breach. They leave other punishments to our discretion.”

  “So what can you do?”

  “We can Sontag him,” Leo said.

  “We can fire him and revoke his combat certification with a Sontag code,” Elias explained. “It means that there will be a code by his name in the international Talent database that states that he killed his team members to save himself.”

  “The code is named after Steven Sontag, the man who murdered his team members and fed their bodies to monsters to buy himself time to escape.” Jackson added. “No legitimate guild will hire him after that. Nobody wants to go into the breach with a killer who’ll stab you in the back.”

  “That doesn’t mean that he can’t get hired by some desperate minor operation,” Elias said. “But I can guarantee you that he will never work for any guild above third level.”

  “And it will follow him to the civilian employment market,” Leo said. “Talent standing is factored into the background checks.”

  Elias could tell she wanted more. He watched her mull it over.

  “Good enough,” Adaline said.

  Practicality won.

  “What else?” he asked.

  “Bear stays with me.”

  “No,” Leo said.

  He knew exactly why Leo wanted the dog. Something happened to Bear in the breach, something that made her what she was now, and his XO was desperate to find out what it was.

  Adaline turned toward Leo and stared at him. The dog at her feet rose, looking at Leo as well. It was like they were in sync. She would kill them all to keep this dog. Elias knew it but he wanted to see what she would do.

  “That dog is the property of Cold Chaos,” Leo said.

  Adaline leaned forward. It was a tiny movement.

  The fur on Bear’s back rose. A terrifying growl rumbled in the shepherd’s throat. The dog snarled and erupted into barks, biting the air with huge fangs.

  Leo took a step back.

  “Back,” Adaline said.

  The shepherd stopped barking and sat at her feet.

  “Does she seem like your dog, Vice-Guildmaster?”

  Leo opened his mouth. Elias shook his head.

  Adaline turned back to him. “The dog is mine. It’s non-negotiable. I cleared the cave-in London caused. The adamantite is marked. The way to the anchor is open, and resistance should be minimal. Give me the dog, and you can be mining all that adamantite in half an hour while I sing your praises to the DDC. Or I will make sure you lose the gate and three days from now you will be testifying before a congressional committee. You might keep the guild, you might not. Your choice.”

  Elias stared at her. “Are you threatening me?”

  “Yes. That’s exactly what I’m doing.”

  “Hmm.”

  He looked into her eyes and saw steel-hard resolve staring back. She wasn’t bluffing. He knew that if he tried to contain her, she and that so-called dog would explode with violence. A part of him wanted to do it just to see how strong she was.

  He hadn’t felt so alive in years.

  “But will Mellow be okay with it?” He couldn’t resist baiting her.

  “What happens in my family is none of your business, Guildmaster. Do we have a deal?”

  “We do,” he said. “The guild record will reflect that K9 47 died in the breach with her handler.”

  Her posture eased slightly.

  “We’re going to give you everything you want,” Elias said. “As a gesture of goodwill, would you tell us more about what we can expect from this breach?”

  “Stay away from the flowers with mauve petals. The pollen goes airborne quickly and will kill you. Stay away from red coral growth. Their thorns secrete poison. It will kill you. Any water source larger than a small pond might have dragons in it. They wait under the surface, ambush you, and will kill you.”

  What the hell happened to her in that breach?

  “Malcolm marked his route in white. Stick to it, don’t deviate. You won’t encounter resistance.”

  “Even at the anchor chamber?” he asked. Did you reach the anchor?

  “Even at the anchor.” Yes I did. Don’t worry about it.

  He almost asked her to go back in the breach with him.

  “If you see the spider herders, you’re going the wrong way. Leave them alone and backtrack…”

  What in the world was a spider herder? “Or they will kill us?”

  “Not unless you piss them off. They keep to themselves, but I have seen their war spiders, and it will be a hard fight even for you.”

  The doors of the library opened, and Tia and Noah ran inside.

  Adaline spun off her chair, so fast, he barely registered the movement. The hard mask on her face broke. Her eyes shone, and she smiled a beautiful, glowing smile, as she threw her arms around her children.