Kyle pressed both hands against the side of his head, let his knees buckle, and dropped to the floor of Vivian's room with the dramatic commitment of a man who had studied fainting in a mirror."I'm dizzy." Kyle's voice came out weak and breathy. "The revelations. The tunnel. The mind control. It's all hitting me at once. I think I need to lie down. In my own room. Immediately.""You were standing perfectly fine two seconds ago." Vivian's amber eyes narrowed."Delayed shock." Kyle pressed his forehead against the cool floor. "Very common in three star husbands who just discovered their entire life was fabricated by a psychopath. Ask Hailey. She'll confirm it.""Hailey is downstairs." Vivian folded her arms."Then I'll crawl to her." Kyle dragged himself toward the door on his elbows, committing to the performance with everything he had. "If I die on the way, tell Scarlett I tolerated her too."Vivian's door slammed shut behind him the moment he cleared the threshold, and her voice fol

"Then we eat the mystery flowers and solve two problems at once." Kyle handed her the bouquet. "No evidence left behind and we get snacks for the road.""You want to eat a gift from an unknown sender." Scarlett's voice came from the hallway, flat and clinical. "That could be poisoned.""Hailey can test for toxins with her plant sensitivity before processing." Kyle looked at Scarlett with innocent eyes. "Right, Hailey?""Easily." Hailey was already separating petals with her fingertips, golden light pulsing faintly as she scanned each one. "These are clean. No chemical agents. No tracking compounds. Just flowers.""Just flowers from a stalker who knows our address." Bianca's voice was flat with disapproval."A stalker with excellent taste in roses." Kyle clapped his hands together. "Flower cakes it is. Hailey, you're in charge. Make enough for six."The bouquet disappeared into Hailey's kitchen within ten minutes, the dark petals pressed, dried, and folded into sweet rice dough with th

She kissed him. Slow. Deliberate. Nothing like the careful precision of Scarlett’s first kiss. This was heat and pressure and the faint scrape of teeth, the kind of kiss that made Kyle forget his own name and every strategic thought he had ever constructed.When she pulled back, Kyle’s knees had stopped working.Bianca lifted him off the door with one arm, crossed the room in two strides, and set him on the bed with a gentleness that did not match her reputation or her seven foot blade or the skinned rabbit head she had served him four days ago.“Lights off.” Kyle reached for the bedside lamp, his face burning. “Now.”“Why?” Bianca stood over him, one eyebrow raised.“Because I have the body of a man who pulled a hamstring getting out of bed last week and you have the body of a four star predator.” Kyle’s hand found the switch. “I need the tactical advantage of complete darkness to maintain whatever dignity I have left.”“You have no dignity.” Bianca’s voice carried a smile he could he

The cramp hit Kyle like a fist clenching inside his gut at exactly two fourteen in the morning. He rolled sideways, grabbed the terminal off the nightstand, and scrolled through the medical menu with shaking fingers until he found the remedy tab.Acute abdominal cramping. Cause: accelerated physical adaptation from star stone absorption. Recommended: terminal issued analgesic patch, apply to lower abdomen, effects within ninety seconds.A small adhesive patch materialized on the delivery pad. Kyle slapped it against his stomach and lay back, breathing through his teeth, waiting for the ninety seconds to pass. The pain eased in seventy. Not gone, but manageable, a dull, heavy ache instead of the sharp stabbing that had woken him.He pulled the blanket up and tucked the towel he had been using as a compress higher against his chest, making sure the glowing red mark on his collarbone stayed hidden. The bird mark from Scarlett’s bond pulsed warm under the fabric, and beside it, newer and f

Kyle accepted another spoonful, and then another, letting Bianca feed him with the focused care of a woman who had decided that this particular task was hers and nobody else’s. Each spoonful was warm and sweet and slightly too much, but he took every one.Riley watched from the foot of the bed with her arms crossed, her pale blue eyes tracking the spoon’s path from pot to Kyle’s mouth with an expression that started as concern and evolved rapidly into something hotter and more complicated.“I could have made that.” Riley’s voice was tight. “I know the recipe. My grandmother made the same thing.”“Then you should have made it first.” Bianca did not look at her. “Instead you were upstairs checking his forehead with cold fingers while I was downstairs actually cooking.”“I was assessing his condition!” Riley’s face flushed red. “That’s what medics do!”“Medics who bring medicine win.” Bianca held up the spoon. “Medics who poke foreheads lose. That’s how the scoreboard works.”“Plus ten t