Melissa threaded her fingers and pushed her arms straight out in front of her. Ow. Everything hurt, no surprise there. The grind of constant overwork had been her new normal. But nothing she did could outdistance the heavy Le Bleu umbrella.

  Brass letters on the clinic read “Dr. Melissa Le Bleu, M.D.,” and legally it belonged to her alone. She was not naive enough to believe that it was purely on her merit rather than the surname trailing after her.

  Connections opened doors, reputation kept them open, and her parents owned the keys to both. Her practice stayed perpetually booked, some clients didn’t even bothered to fake symptoms. For them, being seen by a Le Bleu was the medicine.

  And then there was Eydis Von Apfelhof.

  Given her age, Eydis was peculiar. Too polite, too well-spoken, observant, and too perceptive. She asked questions to spark critical thinking rather than to seek answers. Cunning was probably the word for it.

  On Melissa’s desk lay a white envelope, an invitation to Thomas Blackwood’s final fundraiser embossed in gold with a silver mask.

  To her it had been just one of those networking events where she thought it would be nice to establish her own connections. Then Eydis’s last comment unsettled that assumption, because it was logical.

  Lately Melissa had been buried under work and hadn’t gone online in ages. Had she missed something important?

  She opened her phone and looked for notifications from the Blackwoods. None. With their history, Thomas really should have contacted her by this point.

  Fine.

  Once she finished typing his name into her browser, articles, headlines, photos, and clips flooded the screen. Eydis had been right. Thomas dominated the news cycle.

  With a deepening frown Melissa opened the top video. Thomas appeared trapped in a swirling pool of violet smoke, only to emerge moments later without a mark on him.

  She let it loop once more. “No way. That thing had him completely for over sixty seconds. Why would it let him free?”

  Leaning back, she tapped the armrest once, and stopped.

  Is that why he didn’t want me to get involved?

  Because unlike any other doctor, Melissa was Thomas’s equal. She scrolled through her contacts then thumbed the call button. After two rings he picked up.

  “You don’t have to come with me tomorrow,” she said.

  “Hello to you too, doc. Little late to back out, isn’t it?”

  “It’s just…” The fine hairs on the back of her neck stood up without warning. She flinched and swept her gaze across the room. Lights steady, equipment silent, all normal.

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  “You all right?”

  “Don’t worry. I’m imagining things. I need a proper rest, I guess,” she reassured herself. “Anyway, the gala. If Thomas notices I’m not there, I’ll claim a bug and hope he accepts it.”

  “No formal excuse?”

  “It’s a last-minute thing.”

  “Mmhmm,” he said. “Nothing to do with Dr. Le Bleu and Professor Le Bleu, I guess?”

  Melissa rolled her eyes. “Professor Le Bleu’s lectures on parental disappointment remain ever popular. Fully booked out. You should attend sometime.”

  His laugh rattled through the speaker. “Your folks never change. Remember when we called them air patrol?”

  “Ha, very funny.”

  “But the great Dr. Melissa Le Bleu calling in sick? Best you’ve got? What’s really happening?”

  She scowled. There was no way in hell she would admit that this development had been sparked by a particularly sharp-tongued teenage client.

  “Honestly, Lionel, I have plenty to juggle. I need to speed-run through all my appointments before my annual winter getaway. And the absolute last thing I want is to burn time at some political gala pretending I endorse a campaign.”

  “Uh-huh,” Lionel hummed.

  She didn’t need video to picture the look he was giving. “Broken promises are part of the job description. He’ll cope.”

  He laughed. “Wow! You do know you’re saying that to someone on the government payroll?”

  “Fully aware, super-secret Agent Robin.” She shrugged out of her lab coat and tossed the invitation into the trash. “So, how’s your sister? Has she realised you do more than push paper?”

  “She’s been… determined. More than usual. I thought… Never mind.”

  Irritated, Melissa dug for her keys. “Lionel, she’s eighteen. You can’t protect her forever.”

  “You and I both know Gifted status isn’t a gift. It’s a target.”

  Melissa locked the door. “Try telling the majority who think a Gift is the same as winning the lottery. Suppression doesn’t erase power; it’s like watching your house burn and being dumb enough to reject the hose.”

  She bit back the sharper comment and added, “Ever tell her I healed you completely, Lionel?”

  Even his breathing quieted. Maybe her comment was still sharp.

  Melissa pictured his crimson eyes narrowing and took a step back. “Look, I’ll see Natalia soon.”

  “…You’re visiting St Kevin’s?”

  “Longer stay. Dean Saito asked me to help with this year’s Gifted Show.”

  "You agreed, Mel? After all these years of turning him down?”

  “Yeah, well. The smoke creature is still active. And Adrian… he insisted.”

  “If you want Natalia safe, this is the way.” She ended the call, walked into the elevator, and crossed her arms while the car rose upward.

  Lionel remained stubbornly certain that he could protect Natalia from what made her different, as though her Gift was a viral infection contagion that would go away if he ignored it.

  Utter buffoon.

  Melissa wondered if that wide-eyed kid had finally shaken off her past. She had hoped St Kevin’s might give her the perspective she needed to move on.

  St Kevin’s.

  Natalia and Eydis were the same age, same year, same school. Could they already know each other?

  She scanned her thumb to unlock her penthouse’s enhance. “Natalia… and Eydis. Looking forward to our next meeting.”

  Far below, wisps of purple smoke slipped from the elevator into Melissa’s empty office, thickening beside the bin. From it, a striking obsidian serpent emerged.

  “Striking is an understatement.” Envy scoffed. "Imagine, a creature as magnificent as I, reduced to trash duty. How tragically pedestrian.”

  The Queen had ordered Envy to consume it all, treating Sin like some lowly janitor. Utterly miserable. Grumbling, the serpent forced its jaw open and swallowed the bin’s contents, plastic liner included, its scales shivering in disgust.

  “I can only hope tomorrow’s little show makes all this suffering worthwhile. But what will my Queen do when she finds out that blue doctor is on her way to St Kevin’s?”

  Envy transformed into violet mist that seeped and bled into the surrounding shadows.

  "Better to keep that little detail to myself,” it thought with a sly grin. “The Queen of Shadows is at her most radiant precisely when troubles stand squarely in her path…”

  Wouldn't you agree?