Ellen had garbed herself for battle.

Light blue dress—a touch more formal than expected at a 'casual' cocktail party like this, but not black-tie formal, either—to hide her shorts and workout top below. A necklace and bracelet with quick releases, non-dangling earrings, and flats, not heels. And her hip pouch, where she carried the few items she'd need for delving.

She wasn't here, at the Traynor Corporation Headquarters, to delve. But she hadn't been invited to this party, and neither had Kade, Jessie, and Stephen. They were, for lack of a better word, party-crashing.

Kade had taken her arm, but it was obvious that it was as much so she could guide him as from any sense of chivalry. He still wasn't comfortable here. That was fine. They were right on track to execute the plan.

"Miss Traynor," some gray-haired CEO whose name Ellen couldn't remember said, "Your father said you were feeling under the weather. He said not to expect you at tonight's get-together."

"Daddy was mistaken. I'm perfectly fine," Ellen said. The mundane conversations were boring for her, and Kade looked like he was all but dying in his suit and tie. She sympathized. This was her world, not his. The candle-lit chandeliers, paintings on the walls, and stuffiness as the most wealthy—but far from the most powerful—men and women in Phoenix bumped elbows. The overwhelming sense that everyone was maneuvering behind the scenes. The rhythm and flow of business.

Ellen had been trained for this. A few volleys of conversation, and the CEO left.

"Kade, take a glass from the next caterer you see. If it's hors d'oeuvres, take those instead. It doesn't matter what they are, just grab something," Ellen murmured. Then she disengaged her arm, letting her fingers latch onto his, and kept moving. "And say something about it. You're playing a role right now, remember?"

Kade nodded as he let her drag him across the concrete floor. After a moment, his hand slipped out of hers, and when she turned, he had a glass of something red. She raised an eyebrow.

"Sorry. Thirsty," Kade said. He grinned apologetically. Ellen saw through it to the nervousness below.

Ellen rolled her eyes. Then she kept moving, letting Kade follow in her wake. Executives, trophy husbands and wives, and a few of Phoenix's most influential non-delvers greeted her as she crossed the room. She made the simplest conversation she could, which wasn't much. She wasn't hosting, after all, and Bob had made it clear that she wouldn't be here. That made her all but invisible—or at least, unmemorable.

And that lasted until she was almost to the far wall.

That was when Edward found her. The mustached man wore his trademark black suit with coat tails and dress shoes. He stood six feet away, hands behind his back. "Miss Traynor, your father wishes to see you in his office. Since you've chosen to attend his party, he believes now is a good time for a conversation."

Ellen turned to Kade. "Alright, hun, I'll be back in ten to fifteen minutes. Find somewhere to keep yourself out of trouble, and text me where. I'll find you when I'm done."

"Are you sure about—"

Edward cut Kade off. "Sorry, Mr. Noelstra, but Mr. Traynor has requested both of you."

The elevator was quiet.

Ellen stared at me, eyes just slightly wider than usual. I looked back. The butler—Edward, according to Ellen—stood in the corner, not looking at either of us. The tension was so thick I probably couldn't have sawed through it with Tallas's Dueling Blade.

We'd been at the party for less than twenty minutes, and we were already off-script.

The plan was supposed to have been simple. Ellen was bait. I was the first line of attack. And Jessie—who, according to Ellen, was the only other person ready for anything like this—and Stephen were supposed to hang out and enjoy themselves unless everything went wrong.

But in the fifteen or so minutes since we'd walked through the door, none of the three of us had seen any of our targets. Ellen was supposed to distract Bob, drawing his attention in while I hunted down at least one of the Traynor delvers to tell them about my core break. That was the whole mission—plant seeds of doubt in the Traynor Corporation and start setting up their team to fall apart by using the truth against them. Jessie was the backup because she was sympathetic, and as my little sister, she had a lot invested in me. Plus, as a GC rep, she had more power than a sophomore in high school should.

Ellen fidgeted. I reached out and took her hand. "We've got this. It's just a meeting with Bob. You can handle it."

Edward cleared his throat. "Mr. Traynor has business to discuss with both of you. He's especially interested in you, Miss Traynor—"

"What else is new?" Ellen muttered.

"—but Mr. Noelstra, ah, 'represents a different line of profit.' Please be ready to hear him out with an open mind," Edward said. If he had any disgust for what he was part of, he wasn't showing it.

"I'll keep that in mind," I said, trying not to be too furious. This wasn't part of the plan. I didn't need to confront Bob. Ellen was supposed to. But then again, we'd discussed this. The fact that it could happen. And Ellen was supposed to take the lead. "Okay, Ellen. You're on point. I'll support you."

"Thanks, Kade. Let's do this," Ellen said.

The elevator door opened, and we stepped into an office that felt more like a living room. Two couches surrounded a wide coffee table covered with papers; on first glance, they looked like they'd been put there at random, but as I looked more closely, patterns emerged. The walls were lined with gold embellishments, and the wallpaper was white and formal-feeling.

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"Eleanor and Kade, thank you for accepting my invitation," Bob said. He sat behind a large wooden desk, hands sitting behind a golden nameplate that read 'Robert Traynor, CEO and Owner.' His eyes locked on Ellen's, only leaving her face long enough to acknowledge me with a tiny glance. It was obvious that she was the main objective on this battlefield, not me.

"I've been thinking about this meeting for a long time, Eleanor. Our last conversation was less than familial, and it hurt me deeply. But it was also enlightening. I learned a lot from it—and from the fallout from it. For example, I learned that you believe you can trust your friends more than your family. That you truly believe you owe me nothing. That you drive around in a self-driving car I gave you—three times—and believe I've been nothing but demanding."

Ellen stiffened. "I do. You're not supposed to be like this, Daddy. You're supposed to be like…"

"Like Roger Gerald? Dead? Or maybe like Alessa Noelstra? Disappeared without a trace, leaving two kids with a partially-absent father?"

I tensed. My vision shrank. I hadn't thought about Mom in…in such a long time. It had been almost a decade and a half since I'd seen her. I'd been a kid—and Jessie had been a baby. She hadn't been a mother—not really. She'd just disappeared and left Dad to manage us. He hadn't complained once, but…

But Bob. That was what was important. Not Mom. Not Dad. Bob. Ellen's hand sat on my knee for a moment, and I refocused. Or I tried to. But I couldn't get the faint image out of my head; he'd dredged it up from wherever I'd buried it.

And Bob didn't bother focusing in on me. I was in check already. Instead, he drove hard for Ellen. "Eleanor, you're supposed to be my heir. I'm building a company that's not just strong in Phoenix, but all across the continent. And I'm not building it for me. I'm building it for you—and I built you for it. Everything I've done has been to take care of you. Can you honestly look at Kade's parents and say they had his best interests in mind?"

I wanted to reach out and take Ellen's hand. But I couldn't. Bob was pushing hard, and I couldn't figure out a way to fight back. He'd hit me exactly where I was weakest.

Ellen was, for the moment, on her own.

"I think they did. Or at least his stepdad did." Ellen stared at Bob's nameplate. "Kade's told me a little about their training. Not just the sparring. The attempts at meditation. The chess games. All of their discussions about family, taking care of each other, and how to manage anger. He remembers all of that. All I remember is being invested in."

Bob stared at her. Then he chuckled. "You don't think Kade's stepfather invested in him? That's adorable. How about you, Kade? Did Roger's investments pay off? Are you who he wanted you to be?"

"I don't know," I said through gritted teeth. "I hope so. And I think that's the difference between you and him, Bob. Ellen doesn't want to be the person you tried to make her. I want to live up to my dad every day."

For a second, Bob stared at me, and I glared back. Then he shifted his focus again. "Eleanor, I've given you safety and wealth, the education you needed, everything you could possibly have wanted. In return, you are going to join the Traynor team—and you're going to do it tonight."

"Or else?" Ellen rolled her eyes.

"Yes, or else. Otherwise, I'm going to use the Traynor Corporation's wealth to crush all of your friends. Miss Alvorado, Mr. Carlton, And Miss Gerald. And especially Mr. Noelstra. None of them will be able to live in any city where my company has a presence—and that's all of them."

Stephen looked good in a suit.

Jessie couldn't stop staring at him. She was wearing her fancy dress and sitting in her wheelchair—which kept her from dancing with her boyfriend, but wasn't stopping her from having a good time anyway. Not that today was a bad day, pain-wise. No, she felt great. Better than usual, even. But the chair came with a ton of advantages over her cane, especially on a night like this, and Jessie wasn't stupid enough to think she could do this without the backup.

No. Kade was convinced he could convince a delver that something was dangerously stupid by telling them what he'd been through, but he didn't realize that he wouldn't listen to himself. Why should anyone else?

So, in the bag attached to the back of her chair was a tablet. Her GC tablet. And pulled up on it—and disconnected from the Phoenix internet so it couldn't be messed with—was evidence. Lots of evidence.

Right now, she was sitting next to the non-alcoholic punch bowl, waiting for Stephen to make his way across the room and get back to her with the little crab-thingies she'd fallen in love with over the last half hour. But as fun as it was to watch him try to maneuver across the room, her eyes weren't locked on him. Instead, she was trawling the room, looking for one of the six people whose faces she and Kade had memorized.

Patty Vader. Healer.

Felicia Quintana. Fighter.

Logan Fritch. Tank.

Garrett Fritch. Support.

Ophelia St. Vrain. Mage.

Xander Panchek. Archer.

The Traynor team. All of them were at C-Rank. All of them were equipped to the teeth with the best gear available. They'd been growing faster than anyone—even Kade.

And that made them vulnerable.

But Ellen had been convinced that at least a couple of them would be here. Bob Traynor was subtle when it came to business. The delving team was a secret, and it was one he'd want to keep for as long as he could. But the secret was out now—and Bob was also an egotistical maniac. You had to be to run a company that big.

So now he'd want to show them off, and events like this would be perfect for that.

"How are you feeling?" Stephen asked. He handed a tray of crab-thingies over, and she shoved one of them into her mouth, enjoying the taste of biscuit and real crab meat. "I'm still a little sick from the ride over."

"Oh come on, Deimos isn't that bad," Jessie said. "I'm great—especially now that I've got more of these! Did you clear out the whole waiter like I asked?"

"No. That sounds like incredibly bad manners at an event like this." Stephen looked around awkwardly. "I still can't believe you got an invite here."

"I mean, Kade's dating the owner's daughter, so…yeah." Jessie munched on a second crab-thingie, then a third. Then she started wheeling herself across the room, tray in her lap. "I'm going to get a look over here. That's half the fun, really—seeing what people are doing."

Stephen nodded. "Here, I'll help you out."

"Sure, sure, why not?"

As Stephen maneuvered her chair through the knots of upper-class people talking and hobnobbing, Jessie split her time between eating more and looking for any of her six targets.

It took her most of the room to find them, but there they were. Two of them—the Fritch twins. They were huddled next to an elevator door, talking with a man in a black suit and gray mustache. Jessie pointed. "There. I want to go talk to those two."

"You're sure?" Stephen asked. "They don't look like the kind of guys you want to talk to—especially not the big one."

Jessie glanced at them again. Stephen was right. The big one—Logan—was covered in scars that had half-healed. His brown hair was already starting to bald at only his mid-twenties, and he'd cropped it close to his head. He wasn't dressed in armor, but even so, it was obvious that he was ready for…something. He wasn't on the list of top targets.

And Garrett looked more ready than his brother did. But unlike his brother, he was someone Jessie needed to speak with.

"Yeah, I'm sure," Jessie said.

Then a hand clamped down on her shoulder. "Are you sure? Wouldn't it be more fun to talk to me instead?" a voice with no emotion asked.

She turned in her chair. The woman talking to her was rail-thin, without a scrap of muscle or fat on her body. The black dress she wore hung loosely on her frame, and her black hair was pulled back in a bun. She didn't have a single piece of jewelry, and only a bag slung carelessly over her shoulder.

But Jessie recognized her anyway. She was the only delver on the Traynor team that she absolutely didn't want to confront—because she was the only one Bob Traynor wanted to get rid of, and because she was crazy.

Ophelia St. Vrain. The Lonely Mage.

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