The club twisted and folded back on itself, a maze of shadows and noise stitched together with flickering neon and the kind of energy that prickled at the base of your neck. It felt alive, like a creature thrumming in the depths of some dark ocean. Overhead, relics from before it all went sideways clung stubbornly to their places—ceiling fans that hadn’t spun in decades and chandeliers weathered to crusty fossils, barnacl...

Dawn crept over the drowned city like a guilty lover, all hesitant touches and broken promises. Jace hadn't slept. The data chip from Ciara lay on his desk next to a cup of coffee gone stone cold, both untouched for hours. That metallic taste still lingered on his lips, making everything else taste wrong. His office – a salvaged shipping container suspended thirty stories up – hummed with the sound of screens and security...

Sleep wasn't coming. Jace stood at his apartment window, watching security drones cut through the pre-dawn darkness like hungry insects. More of them than usual. All heading toward the financial district. He thought back to the crazy escape he and Ciara had made from his office and couldn’t help but think the activity was because of them. His apartment took up half the 40th floor of what used to be luxury condos. Now it w...

The emergency stairs were old, rusted from years of flood moisture seeping up from below. Their footsteps echoed off metal and concrete as they descended into growing darkness. Every few floors, emergency lights cast sickly blue patches in the gloom. "They're following the security alerts," Ciara said, her voice low. "Starting from the top floor, working down. Fifteen floors cleared so far." "How many teams?" "Three. Heav...