The doctor shoved past Gloria with a crash cart trailing behind him, another nurse hot on her heels.“Clear the room! Everyone out, now!” The doctor called out, as the team plugged monitors and set up equipment.“That’s my mother! I’m not going anywhere.” Luke barked, refusing to budge.“Sir, I need you step out and let me do my job. Else she dies. Do you want that?” The doctor asked. The words landed like a slap. Luke stumbled back in defeat. By then, Gloria was already sobbing profusely. Luke grabbed her, taking her along with him as they attempted to leave the room. But Rhys didn’t move.The doctor turned on him next, eyes narrowing at the man standing calm in the middle of the chaos.“Leave sir!”“No.”The doctor frowned. Both Luke and Gloria stopped on their steps.“Excuse me?” The doctor scoffed. “You heard me. I’m not leaving her.” Rhys’s voice didn’t rise. “Somebody call security!” the doctor barked. “We’ve got a family member interfering with a code blue!”Luke quickly

“Staring won’t fix the roof,” Luke said flatly, catching Rhys looking at the ceiling.The house hadn’t changed.It had the same sagging porch step Rhys remembered breaking as a teenager.Same water stain blooming across the ceiling by the door, wider now than it used to be. The air inside smelled like mildew and old grease, like the loneliness inside it never escaped.Gloria helped their mother into the one good armchair, tucking a blanket around her knees. Luke stood in the kitchen doorway, arms folded, saying nothing, watching Rhys with both fury and admiration.Rhys stood in the middle of the room and looked around.The peeling wallpaper. The unpaid notices stacked on the counter, corners curling. His mother’s frame, thinner than it should be even accounting for the sickness.Luke’s old shoes, the same pair from what looked like two years ago, held together at the sole with what was probably duct tape.This wasn’t a family that had survived without him.This was a family that had b

The Longwater ballroom had been transformed into something out of a fever dream. Chandeliers dimmed to a low gold. Masks everywhere, hiding faces of all that entered into the hall.Anna stood near the champagne fountain in a silver gown, her mask small and simple compared to the theatrical monstrosities around her. She didn’t need to hide behind anything. Everyone already knew exactly who she was.Which was, apparently, part of the problem.“Sick little heiress playing dress-up,” a voice drawled somewhere behind her.Markus Fester. She recognized the voice before she turned. A shareholder with more opinions than shares, and tonight, apparently, no filter at all.He was talking to a cluster of men in expensive masks, all nodding along like he was saying something clever.“Adam Longwater has been bleeding money for two quarters,” Fester continued, swirling his drink. “Everyone in this room knows it. And what’s his succession plan? A girl who faints if she skips a pill. That’s the em

“You okay?” Anna’s voice cut through the static in his head. She was watching him carefully, head tilted. “You’ve gone somewhere else.”“I’m fine.” Rhys said, scanning the crowd again.He wasn’t fine.Every instinct he’d sharpened over the last several years was screaming at once.Someone here has magic. And they were watching him.“You handled Markus beautifully, by the way.” Anna said, threading her arm back through his, either not noticing his distraction or choosing to work around it. “I don’t think anyone’s shut him up that fast in the history of this company.”“He had it coming.”“Most people do, around you.” She said, something almost fond creeping into her voice. “Dance with me.”It wasn’t really a question.She pulled him toward the floor before he could answer, and the orchestra swelled into something slow and deliberate.Rhys let himself be moved into position, one hand at her waist, the other closed around hers, and even as they turned in slow circles under the gold light,

“You look like shit.” Mr Ken said to Luther.Luther was three drinks deep into his own self-pity when Mr. Ken found him at the private lounge downtown, still nursing the bruise on his pride.“I lost everything tonight.” Luther muttered. “Thanks to that bastard.”Mr Ken slipped in beside him without waiting for invitation.“The one who walked in and ruined your little proposal?” Ken’s smile was amused. “I noticed him too. Anna seemed rather attached.”“Rhys.” Luther spat the name like it tasted like vermin. “Nobody even knows where he came from. One week and he’s already got Adam eating out of his palm and Anna looking at him like he hung the fucking moon.”Luther raged on. “Interesting.” Ken swirled his glass, “And you know him personally, this… Rhys?”“Unfortunately.”“Then you’ll tell me everything about him.” Ken said, leaning forward slightly. “Where he sleeps. Who he sees. What he’s afraid of, if he’s afraid of anything at all.”Luther studied him “Why does it matter to you?”