By the time Marcus got inside, the building was already on fire. He watched as Sasha smiled while flames licked across one of the university walls. She was getting more unpredictable lately. This was not what they had discussed on the flight here.

  “What in the cascades are you doing?” Marcus hissed.

  Sasha shrugged. “Creating a distraction.”

  “That’s not the plan!” Marcus snapped.

  Sasha gave him an exasperated look. He was tempted to punch her.

  “Maybe it wasn’t your plan,” she said. “But I think this distraction will be much more effective.”

  This was a hell of a time for Sasha to decide not to trust his plan. She was still pissed about Trevor’s drive, but really? Setting the building on fire?

  Kathrine and Dirk, their other team members, stood off to the side, watching in silence. It seemed neither of them wanted to get involved.

  “Jeron is going to be on his guard as soon as he hears the fire alarm,” Marcus shot back. “They’ll exit another way to avoid the flames, and we’ll have lost all advantage.”

  Sasha didn’t look remotely concerned.

  “And what about the bystanders?” he demanded.

  She shrugged.

  Marcus gritted his teeth.

  The flames were spreading, but not as fast as they should have. The material must have been treated to be at least partially flame-resistant. Didn’t matter. They needed to get out of this section before someone saw them.

  “This is a mess, Sasha,” Marcus growled. “Now the police are going to be all over this place!”

  “We’ll cover it up,” Sasha hissed back. “Make it look like an electrical fire.”

  They stood there, glaring at each other, the heat from the flames rising between them.

  Kathrine finally stepped between them. “What’s done is done,” she said, her voice clipped. “Right now, we have another problem.”

  She pointed across the room. Smoke was creeping toward a detector on the opposite wall. Once that alarm went off, any element of surprise was gone.

  Bursts.

  Sasha’s eyes widened. Without another word, she sprinted toward the alarm. Apparently, Marcus’s warning about Jeron being alerted had finally sunk in, even if she wouldn’t admit it.

  Marcus took off in the other direction, heading for the stairs. That was where Teorin and Jeron would be. Sasha would handle the alarm. He would block the siren, buy them time.

  Criolin TR-8900. He recognized the model instantly, knew the frequency it would sound at. It was the only reason this would work because he didn’t have time for fancy equipment.

  As he ran, he let the pulse build under his skin. He skidded to a stop just as the lights on the siren activated. That was his cue. He blasted out a wave of pressure.

  The two forces collided in midair. The alarm sputtered, its sound cut off and distorted.

  Sasha dove forward, flinging a red-hot throwing star at the alarm. As the sound hit Marcus, he adjusted his wave until nothing but silence surrounded him. Sasha’s throwing star lodged into the alarm, followed by a second star.

  The lights died. Marcus held the silence a second longer, then let it drop. From across the room, Kathrine relaxed as the sound vanished. It would have been deafening on her side of the building.

  Good.

  Everyone else in the building needed to know there was a fire. Marcus didn’t want any unnecessary injuries or deaths.

  Everything was still, except for the fire spreading across the room. Marcus cursed under his breath. This is not how this was supposed to go.

  Sasha climbed to her feet, and he shot her a glare. She gave him an apologetic look—which, coming from her, was as much of an apology as he was going to get. Kathrine and Dirk moved through the room and into the hall, disabling the remaining alarms. Sasha jogged over.

  “There’s a good chance someone heard that,” Marcus said. “If Jeron did, he's either running now or coming out swinging. That’s his style.”

  “Right,” Sasha said. “Plan for that?”

  “Aren’t you in charge of this mission?” Marcus asked innocently. “You did say you didn’t even want me along.”

  “Plan?” Sasha asked impatiently.

  Leave it to Sasha to do something totally impulsive and not have a plan to fix it.

  Of course, that was always what happened when Sasha was in charge. Hence, the reason Marcus always had a backup plan. He had to. Otherwise, they would have been dead a long time ago.

  “If they heard the alarm or felt the pulse, they’ll probably come down this staircase,” Marcus said. “It won’t be clear yet where the fire is, and the stairs are the best way out. Even if they didn’t hear anything, they have to leave eventually. It’ll just take longer.”

  “So we wait here?” Sasha asked, glancing at the flames.

  Right. The fire.

  Marcus cursed again. Why did Sasha have to make this harder than it already was?

  “No,” he said. “We wait a couple of minutes. We’ve got smoke masks. If no one shows, they didn’t hear, or they ran another way. Then we go after them. Teorin could glide from the upper floors, but he can only carry one passenger. They might split up. That’s what I would do.”

  “So?”

  “So, if someone comes this way, it’ll be Jeron. Teorin is better off fleeing from the roof. We check Jeron for the document first. If he doesn’t have it, we go after Teorin and leave Kathrine and Dirk to distract Jeron.”

  Sasha mulled it over.

  “How do we get the document from Jeron?”

  “He’s classy,” Marcus said. “Classy enough to go for style over utility. He’ll probably have the document in a briefcase, not a backpack. We set a trap. I blast it out of his hands.”

  “Fine,” Sasha said, waving Kathrine and Dirk over. “Explain,” she commanded as they jogged up.

  “We don’t have long,” Marcus said. “So we keep it simple.”

  Then he laid out the plan as quickly as he could. “Got it?” Marcus asked. There were nods all around.

  “Good, because Jeron could come down those stairs any second now, so... go.”

  Everyone scattered, disappearing behind pillars and statuary. Marcus ducked behind a marble statue of some ancient writer, positioned perpendicular to the stairs. He needed to be close, but not too close—far enough away to avoid being seen or caught within time-freezing range. He yanked on his smoke mask, filtering out the increasingly thickening air, and kept an eye on the flames.

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  Spreading, but slowly.

  Now he waited. He’d make his move last, so that Jeron would be occupied with all the visible weapons instead of Marcus’ invisible pulses. A minute passed. Then Jeron appeared at the top of the steps. Just as Marcus had anticipated, he was carrying a briefcase.

  Marcus ducked lower, listening intently. At first, nothing. Then the rapid thud-thud-thud of Jeron rushing down the stairs. Marcus had to time this exactly right. He needed to give Jeron just enough time to recognize the incoming projectiles from the others, but not enough time to predict their strategy.

  Marcus crouched, counting his breaths. He peeked around the statue. Jeron stepped off the stairs. Marcus counted: one, two, three. He sprinted.

  Jeron had one hand raised. A knife and a throwing star, courtesy of Kathrine and Sasha, hung suspended in the air in front of him, like some bizarre art display. Jeron let them hover there for another second, then sidestepped and released the time wave.

  Dirk appeared across from Marcus as the projectiles resumed motion, continuing on their original path. With a yell, Dirk hurled another knife. Jeron caught it midair, freezing it with a time wave, holding it just long enough to sidestep again.

  Marcus fired. Three pulses, half a second apart. The first pulse slammed into the briefcase. For a split second, it froze midair—suspended, wrong, like reality had glitched. The second pulse struck, and the case twitched sharply, like a skipping video, before jerking free from Jeron’s grip. Jeron’s fingers curled, as if instinct alone could pull it back. Then the third pulse hit dead center. The force ripped the briefcase free, launching it toward Dirk.

  Jeron whirled toward Marcus. Up until this point, even with the attacks and flames, Jeron had been eerily calm. That changed the moment he saw Marcus. The shift was instant. Jeron wasn’t just irritated. He was furious, but not rage like Sasha’s. Jeron wasn’t out of control. He was focused. That was worse.

  Marcus had seen him fight before. He knew what that meant. He had to get out. Now.

  Sasha hurled another star.

  Jeron flicked out a hand—

  It froze midair.

  He stepped aside and resumed time. The star shot forward, slicing through empty space, right where he had just been standing.

  Cascades. Sometimes Marcus forgot how terrifying Jeron’s abilities actually were, but staring him down now, Marcus clearly remembered why he tried to stay off Jeron’s radar. He was almost a foot taller than Jeron. Didn’t matter. Not when Jeron got that look in his eyes.

  Marcus backed up, hands raised. He kept moving, trying to keep both Jeron and Dirk in his line of sight. He had to stay out of Jeron’s immediate range to avoid being frozen.

  Marcus prepared to sprint. The fact that Jeron hadn’t immediately gone for the briefcase meant it probably didn’t contain what they were looking for, but Marcus waited for the signal to confirm. Dirk got the case open, flipping through the pages inside. He shook his head.

  Good enough.

  Marcus fired off a pulse and dashed for the hallway. Jeron started after him, taking the hit, but still moving. Sasha hurled another throwing star, forcing Jeron to pause to deflect.

  Sasha made it into the hallway. Marcus followed on her heels, glancing back. Kathrine and Dirk had both thrown knives at Jeron, forcing him to stop or risk being impaled in the back. Staeron was supposed to show up any second now. He’d even things up.

  Marcus felt a twinge of guilt leaving Kathrine and Dirk alone with Jeron, but with the fire spreading faster, everyone would have to flee soon. As long as they kept their distance, they’d be fine. Marcus just needed a head start. Kathrine knew that.

  Sasha reached an intersection, and Marcus shouted, “Right!”

  Sasha turned. Marcus followed.

  “So, did you have a plan for this?” Marcus yelled after her.

  She shot him a glare. “Don’t push your luck, Marcus.”

  He backed off. It was good to remind Sasha why she needed him, but he didn’t want to push too far.

  “Left!” Marcus yelled as they neared another intersection.

  Sasha skidded to a stop. She turned to him, exasperated. “Would you like to lead?” she asked, gesturing dramatically for him to go ahead.

  “As a matter of fact, I would,” Marcus said, jogging past her. He pulled off his smoke mask as they pushed through a door into a clear part of the building.

  Marcus had studied the blueprints for this place as soon as he’d learned they were headed to Kalin Bay. Isi had told him that Novem had approached Dr. Tanel about translation work. Her office was in this building. At the time, he hadn’t been entirely sure what Novem’s goal was, but he’d taken the intel seriously. Turned out, he’d been right to.

  He hadn’t been able to confirm Jeron was heading to Dr. Tanel until Dirk tracked him here. Her office was four floors up, and this building, for some ridiculous reason, had no other stairs. Marcus had studied the layout. It was an odd design, but he knew there was a fire escape outside, just a little way down the hall. That would get them up to the fourth floor. Then, they’d make their way back to Dr. Tanel’s office.

  They reached the end of the hallway, and Marcus held the door open for Sasha. She sprinted through to the outside. Then she stopped short, looking frustrated.

  “Why are we outside the building we need to be inside?” Sasha demanded.

  “Because there aren’t any other stairs, so we’re going to take a different way.”

  Sasha scanned their surroundings, and then she saw it. The fire escape. The ladder didn’t reach the ground. It was at least fifteen feet up. “You’ve got to be kidding me,” Sasha said.

  “Nope. Best option.”

  “You first, then.”

  Marcus grinned. “My pleasure.”

  Lots of times, Marcus hated his job, but sometimes it had its perks. This was one of them.

  He flipped a switch on his wrist panel. The wing jacket adjusted, the wings unfurling slightly—just enough to give him a little extra surface area. He took off running, straight for the wall below the fire escape. At the last second, he kicked off the wall, twisting midair. Instead of falling flat, he timed a pulse just before impact.

  The shockwave hit the pavement first, the force bouncing back right as he reached the lowest point of his fall. It threw him upward. He twisted, caught the fire escape railing, and hung there for a second.

  Then, with a grunt, he swung a foot onto the landing, and channeling pressure to his arms, pulled himself up. Marcus hit the button to retract the wings into their slots. He didn’t want to knock them on anything. Then, he swung over the railing and glanced back down.

  Sasha was waiting below, gesturing for him to hurry. The drop-down ladder had a locking mechanism holding it in place. Marcus pulled it free, and the ladder slid to the ground. Sasha started climbing, and Marcus headed up the steps. He stopped when he reached the fourth floor. The window here led into a conference room, but it was locked.

  He waited a few seconds for Sasha to join him. She wouldn’t appreciate a rain of glass. Then, he set his hands against the window and pulsed, adjusting the frequency until the glass began vibrating beneath his palms. The pressure and the glass found a harmony. He turned up the amplitude. A spiderweb of cracks raced across the surface before the entire pane shattered in silence.

  “Nice,” Sasha said.

  A rare compliment from her. Probably more about the plan than the execution.

  They slipped through the broken window into the conference room. Marcus led the way, jogging through the hallways toward Dr. Tanel’s office. The fire alarm was blaring now, and random bystanders had begun wandering out of conference rooms and offices. They got some odd looks, dressed in their rugged outdoor gear.

  Marcus decided to lean into it. If they were going to attract attention, he might as well control the narrative. He’d be memorable, but for an entirely different reason.

  “Fire escape is that way!” Marcus shouted. “Everybody out! The fire hasn’t reached this floor yet! Knock on doors, make sure people know this isn’t a drill!”

  People panicked but listened. They took off running toward the fire escape, knocking on doors as they went. Marcus and Sasha pushed deeper into the building. They passed the stairs to the roof, but when Marcus tried the handle, it was locked.

  If Teorin came this way, he left no trace.

  Marcus continued shouting at anyone they passed to get out of the building. When they reached their target hallway, the smoke was thick enough that Marcus had to put his mask back on.

  “Did you have to light the building on fire?” Marcus asked.

  Sasha stopped beside him. “Stop complaining,” she said, voice slightly muffled by her mask.

  Marcus sighed. “We need to get into Dr. Tanel’s office. I don’t know if they’re still in there, but since it doesn’t look like they went to the roof, this is our best shot. You’ll probably have to burn through the lock.”

  It was possible Teorin had fled, but then he could be anywhere. Marcus hadn’t seen him in the halls. This was the place to start.

  Sasha nodded. They ran down the hallway, keeping low. Marcus counted the doors. He stopped when he reached the number that her net profile had listed as Dr. Tanel’s office. Sure enough, her name was by the door.

  Marcus tried the knob. Locked. He shoved against the door, just in case. Still locked. He gestured for Sasha. She placed one hand on the doorknob and the other on the deadbolt, both began to glow red beneath her touch.

  A few more seconds.

  Marcus positioned his hands by the door, ready. Sasha nodded. She pulled back—

  Marcus pulsed. The door exploded open.

  Marcus and Sasha burst into the room just in time to see Teorin’s wings shoot open as he jumped out of the building. Dr. Tanel was riding tandem on his back. The new weight against the wings jerked Teorin upward, but he managed to stay level.

  Then Teorin pulsed and a compressed shockwave blasted downward. The pressure rebounded off the air beneath him, launching them higher before they leveled out again. It was gracefully executed, especially considering he had a tandem rider. Teorin might not have been the best all-around Pulser, but Marcus had to give him credit: his brother could fly.

  Sasha cursed. She slammed a hand against the bookshelf. It erupted into flames.

  “Really? More fire?” Marcus asked.

  Sasha glared. “They got away!”

  “And I suppose that’s my fault?”

  For a second, Marcus thought she would cuss him out, but she seemed to think better of it. Sasha hadn’t had a backup plan. She knew the only reason they’d even made it into this room was because of him.

  Marcus zipped up his jacket.

  “Are you going to follow them?” Sasha asked.

  “Yep.”

  “Will you tell me where they go?”

  “Maybe,” Marcus said.

  Sasha glared.

  Marcus shrugged. “Don’t blame me. I told you up front, I’m here to protect my brother. I’m not even getting paid, remember?”

  “Marcus—” Sasha hissed.

  “Watch your comms,” Marcus interrupted. He grinned. “And good luck with Jeron and the burning building.”

  Sasha grimaced.

  Marcus didn’t wait for a response. She’d get out. She knew about the other fire escape, and the flames wouldn’t do much to her anyway.

  Marcus backed up, ran for the edge, and jumped.