“Now remember,” Sophia said as we walked across the Canary Wharf complex, “You’re going to have to try very hard to keep your cool. If it looks for a moment like you’re not going to be able to do that I will kill not just you but everyone in your office, and then the Immateria Council will go to great lengths to keep that slaughter under wraps.” 

I nodded in response, the statement had spooked me a little too much to be able to respond verbally. 

The Canary Wharf towers loomed above me, monoliths of the London skyline that had stood since the 90s, though they hadn’t always been as successful as they were in the modern day. 

Our offices were in One Canada Square, the premiere space for offices in all of London. At 800 feet tall it was the third tallest building in the UK, and we were situated right at the peak. 

It was the lobby of the building that had initially attracted me to the idea of having our offices there and walking through it with Sophia brought all of those thoughts back. 

We breezed past the receptionist's desk with a flash of my work ID card, and I tried very hard not to think about how much I’d noticed the woman behind the desk and the way her blood was pulsing through the jugular in her neck. 

The next moment we were in another lift, this time on a journey straight up to the top of the building… where we would arrive just in time for the meeting. 

“So, have you figured out what your excuse is going to be?” Sophia asked. 

The truth was I hadn’t, not really, and my plan was to just tell a version of the truth. 

I wasn’t planning on telling them that I’d been stabbed in the back, of course. None of them would believe that. But that I’d been put in the hospital and unable to make any outbound calls due to being on painkillers or something to that effect? 

That they might be able to buy. 

“A version of the truth,” Was all I said to Sophia. 

She nodded, “That’s usually the best way to tell a lie.” 

I took a deep breath as the lift came to a stop and let it out as the doors opened. 

The offices that we kept was an open-plan space with desks strewn haphazardly around the main area for the desk jockeys to work at. There were also a series of managers' rooms and meeting rooms. 

Outside of all that, though, was the receptionist's desk. 

“Kasey, good morning, have they already started the meeting?” I asked the moment I stepped out of the lift. 

By the surprised look on her face, I was sure they already had, she looked like she hadn’t even expected me to show up. 

A spike of rage from deep in my belly had to be pushed down with a moment of silence and closed eyes. It faded as quickly as it arrived. Sophia was right, after changing into an Immateria my emotions did feel a little bit… peaked. 

“Don’t worry, I can tell from your expression they already have, meeting room one, right?” I rattled off in rapid succession, I needed to get in there and fast. 

The worried nod she gave me was all I needed to get moving. 

We had three separate meeting rooms in our offices and all of them were side by side. They had concrete walls separating them so that no one in any of the meeting rooms could see anyone in the others and glass windows facing the front, with blinds that could be pulled across whenever they were actually in use. 

Meeting room one was the only one with blinds pulled down. 

I stalked across the room with Sophia close at my heel, a steely glare focused on the meeting room. 

As I walked I could feel the eyes of all the humans trained on me, tracking my progress as I crossed the room, their heartbeats rising and their stinking fear hormones pumping out of their pores. 

I took another moment as I reached the door of the room. I closed my eyes. Breathed. Tried to block out all the information my now enhanced Immateria senses were giving me. 

And stepped into the meeting. 

“So as you can see, this is why-” Alex Wood, the man who I had considered my best friend of many years, was standing in front of the board and speaking about something. Presumably me. 

My first thought was that Wood was defending me, there was no way my best friend would turn on me after all, but that thought quickly fell away as I noticed the look of shock and horror pass over his face. 

It was only there for a moment, but a moment was all I needed to piece together everything that had happened over the course of the past two weeks, and it stung me to the core. 

It all made sense, in a sick and twisted way. 

I hadn’t just been stabbed in the back literally with a blade between my shoulders, I’d been stabbed in the back figuratively too, and I was pretty sure that both of those things had been orchestrated by the very same man. 

Alex Wood. 

The man I had started the company with. 

The man I had trusted with so many secrets of the years. Drunken nights out. Sad times and happy times. 

He had betrayed me, there was no doubt about that. 

Like a phantom pain, I could feel the knife jutting out of my back once again, wedged between my left shoulder and my spine. 

I wanted to rage and rip and tear apart every person in the room for daring to cross me. I didn’t care that Sophia would murder me in return. I didn’t care if it would mean… 

No. 

I had almost told myself a lie. 

I did care. 

I wouldn’t let this ruin my company, and I wouldn’t let them take it from me.