The hospital campus took up an entire city block. Helicopters flew back and forth, landing with patients or departing to retrieve them. Stretching up tall to meet the sky, the central campus tower dwarfed its surrounding buildings, lighting up the dusk with an enormous sign:
CALLAYO MEDICAL CENTER
“What does ‘Callayo’ mean?” I asked Fenn, who sat beside me in the back seat of the Roanoke security vehicle.
“Callayo Roanoke was your great-great-grandfather,” he answered with pride. “His efforts in the prodigy wars were widely acclaimed. You’ll find his picture in museums and his likeness carved in stone all over the Core. Someday, I’ll give you a tour. You deserve to know your heritage.”
Security was tight in the parking deck beneath the hospital, forcing us through multiple checkpoints. The process wasn’t as stringent as when entering the Roanoke Center, but it was still thorough. Morry met us on the first floor, looking angry enough to chew iron and spit out nails. The men around me cowered in silence at her ferocious expression, but I walked up and faced her head on.
“Where is Reece?”
Her eyes narrowed. “Hooked up to a healing kit. Would you mind telling me what the two of you were doing at Chesapeake today?”
“Fighting for our lives, as it turns out. Aspen and Reece were brought here by helicopter. I’d like to see them.”
“Later. You should be checked out before anything else.”
“Thess already had a medic look at me.”
“So I heard.” The look on her face told me just what she thought about that. “Do you have any idea what a disgrace it was to meet him under those circumstances?”
The tiger, restless and sulky from my exchange with Katja, growled a warning. I didn’t answer Morry for fear of provoking the beast into another attack.
“Perhaps we should discuss this privately,” she said. “Fenn, please wait here. Duncan, get a wheelchair for Rush. We’re going to my office.”
We traveled down a confusing maze of hallways before entering an elevator that emptied us onto one of the upper floors. Duncan and Rush waited outside while I followed Morry into her office.
The room was immaculate, almost painfully neat and organized, with few personal effects to give it any charm. Tyzer screens hung on the walls, and her desk was made of a clear material as well, the surface acting as another screen for displaying data. Swishing the office door closed, she tapped on the windows to darken them for privacy. The glass changed from translucent to tinted in a matter of seconds.
“Now.” She turned to me with a crisp white lab coat on her shoulders and judgment in her eyes. “Tell me what happened.”
“Don’t you already know?”
“I’m interested in your version.”
“We were ambushed at the stables by a group of—”
“From the beginning, please,” she interrupted.
Sighing impatiently, I ran through the afternoon’s events, starting with my sparring session and ending with my return trip to the hospital. Leaving out, of course, the fact that Reece had completely melted me with his kisses.
“You should have stayed in the apartment.”
Her tone put me on the defensive. “I was feeling cooped up! And more than a little nervous about the meeting tomorrow.”
“Nervous? Really?” she said, her tone biting. “Well, congratulations, Willow. You and the commander managed to circumvent the entire introduction by inviting Aspen on your impromptu adventure.”
“Asp invited himself,” I reminded her. “With his little smart-car, remember?”
“I don’t care how it happened. I care how it’s going to affect your relationship with the House of Tiernam. You can’t be constantly putting yourself in the media circus like this. Now they’ll be in the middle of it as well.”
“Och!” I threw my hands in the air. “How can you be so concerned about the opinion of a family you seem to hate?”
“We do business with them,” she shot back. “We sit on the Council with them, and if all goes well, we’ll share grandchildren with them. Maintaining a civil relationship is imperative.”
She had a point, though it irritated me to admit it. “Morry, I’m sorry. None of us knew what would happen at the stable.”
“Precisely. That was the commander’s area of expertise, and he blew it. Not only did he remove you from the Center with minimal security measures, but he also failed to foresee Katja’s loyalty switch. Anyone who knows that two-faced harlot would have seen this coming!”
There was no arguing with her. She wasn’t easily manipulated. I might lead village folk around by the nose, but not this woman. All I could do was stand there, waiting with unease for the statement I knew she was about to make.
“This was unacceptable. I cannot allow Commander Reece to continue overseeing your security detail.”
“Morry, please—”
“No.”
Chewing my lip, I pressed my palms together and tried to think of a way out of this mess. A game? How was I supposed to play when I didn’t know the rules?
Morry leaned back against her desk. “Do you think me ignorant?”
I shook my head.
“Because I wasn’t born yesterday. It’s obvious the two of you have formed a bond. I don’t know exactly what transpired between you in the Outlying Lands, and for the most part, I don’t care. When the time comes, you will marry Thess, and the commander knows it. I’ve trusted him to see that obligation through. But if he can’t protect you, I want him gone. There are other officers who can step in and take over.”
“I don’t want anyone else,” I objected.
“What you want isn’t the priority here. You need protection.”
“I need Reece.”
“That’s an absurd thing to say. Not to mention entirely inappropriate.” She headed for the door. “As of now, he is permanently dismissed.”
The tiger vaulted to her feet so fast that nausea erupted in my stomach. I knew nothing of chess, but an image flashed before my eyes. A wooden board with alternating squares. Black and white pieces arranged in rows. Battle lines being drawn. Morry was almost to the door when the fateful words left my mouth.
“I know about the switch. Kane told me everything.”
Her slender form went rigid, and her hand froze on its way toward the console. Silence filled the room, followed by tension thick enough to slice with my dagger. Morry pivoted slowly and leveled her serious gaze on my face.
“Your point being?”
“I know what you did, Morry. And I know you’re lying about it.”
“Kane is the liar. He’s filled your head with his treachery.”
“No.” My heartbeat accelerated. “You paid him to take me to the Outlying Lands. You found another infant to replace me, and then you got rid of everyone involved. Except Kane, because you couldn’t find him.”
“I would be very careful with my accusations if I were you.”
“You can’t keep me from talking,” I continued, fighting queasiness. “When the time comes, I’ll speak on his behalf.”
More silence.
“It would be my word against both of yours,” she said, crossing her arms over her chest as she confirmed her deceit. “No one would believe you.”
“But it would be all over the media.” I knew the value she placed on her reputation. “And I’ll tell them everything, unless you keep Reece as head of my security detail.”
Evaluating me in her detached, clinical manner, she sucked her tongue against her teeth. I couldn’t tell whether she was angry, impressed, or a combination of the two. “You have the audacity to threaten me?”
“Morry,” I began, ignoring her question and making an attempt to appeal to her logic, “you can’t even begin to understand what I’ve been through these past few weeks. I’ve lost more than you can imagine. Reece is responsible for some of that. But he’s the only person, outside of Kane, who can help me get my skills under control. And he’s saved my life on more than one occasion. I can’t help it. I need him.” What I left out was the gnawing suspicion that he needed me as well.
She uttered a scornful laugh. “You’re seriously going to play this card?”
“Yes. I am.”
We faced each other in the dim light of her office, not as mother to daughter or even woman to woman, but as opponents. If Fenn was right and life in the Core was a game of strategy, then I’d made my first bold move against Morry Roanoke. Where it would lead, I had no idea.
“Very well,” she said at last. “Keep your commander. You will pay for it with your silence. Agreed?”
“Agreed,” I said, my intuition screaming that I’d be paying with much more than that. Likely I’d just sabotaged my relationship with her in an unforgivable way. “Now where is he?”
Her expression was stone cold. “Station 416. Fourth floor.”
“Thank you.”
As I walked past her, she clutched my arm. “You’ve got nerve, Willow. I’d never have guessed it.” She shook her head in disbelief. “Just who do you think you are?”
I wrenched my arm free. “Call me an unpredictable draw.”
Pushing the console, I rushed out the door and almost ran Duncan over. He took me by the shoulders. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing. Everything.” I dropped my face in my hands. “Och, I don’t know!”
“I knew it,” sighed Rush. “We’ve all lost our positions.”
Duncan pulled my hands away. “Have we?”
“No,” I told him. “Just take me to the fourth floor, Duncan. Reece is in 416.”
We found a bruised, scratched-up Ritter quartet standing guard outside the station door. One was missing a hand, and another looked as if its ear had melted into the side of its head. They murmured in surprise when I approached, like they weren’t expecting me.
Leitwolf stepped forward, amber eyes wide, assessing my condition. It muttered something unintelligible.
“What’s he saying?” Duncan asked.
“He?” Rush blinked. “You mean ‘it’. Those things are genderless.”
“Well, it looks like a male.”
“Have you ever seen one without a military suit?” Rush argued.
“No, but thanks for that mental image.”
“Enough!” I made a sound of frustration in my throat. “Let’s make this easy and say he’s male.”
Leitwolf repeated his guttural phrase.
“I don’t speak your language,” I said. “I’m sorry.”
Without warning, Leitwolf bent his small head and laid it against my chest. I stood in shock while Rush groaned from his wheelchair. Placing my hands on the Ritter’s shoulders, I started to push him away. But I heard his little purring sound and paused. He was so childlike. What if my rejection made him angry?
“Willow, please,” Rush said. “We’re in enough trouble.”
I pushed Leitwolf back as gently as I could. He might be childlike and programmed to protect me, but he was still a deadly weapon. I looked down into his face and forced myself to smile. “I’d like to see Reece.”
To my relief, he nodded and pressed his hand to the console beside the station door. It swished open, revealing Reece, sitting shirtless on a padded table with a young female medic monitoring his healing kit. He looked haggard and tired, and his jaw dropped when he saw me.
The medic glanced up. “I’m sorry, but this is a private station. No visitors.”
I entered anyway. Not bothering to ask permission, I plucked a damp cloth from a nearby tub, pressed it to Reece’s forehead, and looked the medic in the eye. “Leave.”
She gave me an incredulous stare. “On whose authority, miss?”
“Mine. I’m Morry Roanoke’s daughter.”
“Oh.” Taken aback, the medic blinked. “But he’s not finished—”
“Out!” A heady sense of power filled me as the word left my mouth. This was what it felt like to be one of the elite. The medic turned and fled, nearly injuring herself on her way out the door.
As soon as she was gone, Reece crushed me to his chest, his grip so tight I could hardly breathe. “You’re alive?” His words came out hoarse and shaky. “How is this possible?”
“I’m not sure,” I mumbled against his neck. His long hair was caked with mud, his sweat-drenched skin burned my cheek, and he smelled as bad as an overworked miner. None of it mattered. I dropped the cloth and hugged him back with all my strength.
He pulled away, searching my face with silvery-blue eyes. “How is it you survived? The close proximity of that blast should have killed you. All of you.”
“Well, it didn’t.” I avoided any mention of Joshua.
“Asp?” he asked urgently.
“He was badly damaged, but he’ll be okay. We all made it. Did no one tell you?”
He shook his head. “Morry refused me any details. Willow, she’s furious over this, and she has every right to be. I put us all in a bad situation.”
“Reece—”
“This was my fault. I’ll be held accountable for it.”
“Don’t blame yourself.” I held his face between my palms, though the warmth was almost unbearable. “You couldn’t have known what would happen.”
“You think that will matter to Morry? I put your life at risk!” He closed his eyes, his jaw clenching beneath my hands. “I’m certain to be dismissed.”
I was hesitant to tell him the truth. “You don’t know that.”
“I know that I failed today.” A solitary tear slid from the corner of his eye, surprising me. I hadn’t thought him capable of sorrow. But my intuition gave me a nudge, telling me he was deeply hurt and disappointed.
“You didn’t fail, Reece.” I wiped the tear away. “You kept me safe.”
“It’s not supposed to happen like this.”
“What isn’t?”
Eyes squeezed shut, he gripped my waist, clenching and unclenching his hands.
“Just tell me,” I whispered. What could be so hard for him to say?
Instead, he opened his eyes, and his wounded expression cut right through my heart. “I swear, if anything had happened to you—”
Reece broke off, slid his hands into my hair, and pressed his forehead against mine. Neither of us spoke for a long moment, and I sensed him struggling for control. He was wrestling with something deep inside. Something my intuition couldn’t quite reach. Possibly his own tiger, whose motives were beyond my knowledge.
I didn’t know what to do or how to feel. Kane had warned me, and Joshua had made himself very clear. But I was losing my way. Instead of fostering a relationship with Morry, I’d just blackmailed her. And instead of steeling my resolve against the commander, I was surrendering it.
Somehow, I’d gone from hating Reece to wanting him. He stirred me in ways I didn’t understand, took every feeling I had and pushed it to the breaking point. It was all right and all wrong. How was I going to explain this to my guardian? I’d be lucky if Joshua ever spoke to me again.
Feeling vulnerable, I tilted my head, brought Reece’s chin forward, and offered him my mouth. He took it tenderly, his lips tasting of sweat and battle and the bitter anguish we both felt inside. We were holding back, keeping parts of ourselves secret. Maybe that was what made us reach so hard for each other.
His hand gently cradled the back of my head, and I held his face, drawing comfort from the warm, clinging press of his mouth. There were no butterflies, just a deep longing for the moment to last. But his healing kit bleeped an alarm, and I drew back with a sigh of regret. He stopped me, holding my head still, his eyes full of truth as they met mine. Then they veiled over, and he let me go. He fiddled with the alarm while I cooled his forehead with another cloth.
“How much longer before you’re fully healed?” I asked.
“Not long.” He took my free hand and held it, staring at it as if intrigued by our size difference. “I’m to see Morry when I’m finished. This could well be my last conversation with you.”
“You won’t be dismissed.”
He paused. “You say that with quite a bit of confidence. Is there something you’re not telling me?”
“I’m telling you that you won’t be dismissed.”
His brow furrowed. “How did you manage that?”
“You don’t want to know.”
“Oh, I think I do.”
“Seriously, Reece, I just need for you to heal up. I want you in top form before you teach me how to play chess.”
“Chess?” He looked surprised. “That’s a random request.”
“Not as random as you’d think,” I said, my voice grim. “Things are going to be different from now on.”
“I imagine they are. But whatever happens, Butterfly, I promise I won’t fail you again. I swear it. On my honor.” Drawing my hand to his chest, he placed it over his heart. “On my life.”
My belly fluttered at the look in his eyes. “I’ll never ask that of you.”
“You won’t have to. I thought you died today. That’s not something I want to experience again.”
“If you’re going to make promises, Reece, I only want one.”
“And what is that?”
I thought of Joshua, who claimed he was always with me, always watching. But I was weak. I needed more. “Promise you won’t leave me.”
With a deep sigh, he gathered me in his arms and hugged me to his chest. He kissed the top of my head before resting his chin there. “I’ll never leave you, Willow.”
I felt the comforting beat of his heart against my cheek. Like the guardian’s, it was strong and steady. “Promise?”
“Promise. Core officers don’t lie.”
“But they do play chess?”
“Quite well, actually.” Soft laughter vibrated through his chest. “What is it with you and games today?”
“Fenn says I need strategy.”
“For chess?”
“For navigating the Core.” I leaned back to look up at him. “For playing their game.”
He sobered. “Willow, the Core isn’t some village tavern full of normals you can scare off with your dagger. It’s dangerous. The Council is corrupt, their legal system slippery. If you make things difficult, you’ll pay a price.”
“I know.” But my mind was made up, and he didn’t know the price the Core would pay, or Mercer. Or anyone that stood between me and the freedom I craved.
Seeing the stubborn tilt of my chin, he sighed. “Are you certain about this?”
I wasn’t certain about anything. But I’d already made moves. Butterfly, tiger, wild card. Gambit. Each had their advantages, and there was no turning back now. Events had officially been set in motion.
“I want my life back.” Wrapping my arms around his neck, I smiled up at him, feeling confident. “And I want you to help me.”
Admiration tugged up one corner of his mouth and made his eyes gleam. “All right. I can handle that. We’ll begin with chess.” His voice took on a challenging tone. “That is, if my little Butterfly thinks she’s ready.”
The tiger laughed from within. Her voice, mysterious and silky and deep as the great water, whispered in my ear. We’re just getting started.