BOUND BY HIS TERMS

Hart'

ned in my mind l

ct Fi

ever-growing web that bound my father, Jaxon, and

ryptic warning fo

per, you will

might have stopp

no

silence never saved anyone. Secrets had already tak

ving in the shadows and s

rner café in Brooklyn, one far from the

stirring her coffee with the int

bol. I think it is connected to Project Phoen

are sure the handwriting in

laying it flat on the table. Sh

s seal..." She tapped the wax. "This is custom. Military g

altered clause in the contract, he claimed he neve

yebrow. "And yo

tter says it goes beyond the Va

find out who sent it. And wh

r that day. His eyes held the kind of weariness t

ird," he said under his breat

n wh

ded me

Records archive. Do not

you hel

es of himself trying to build something that his father would hav

n let us start

ly of dust and plastic. It was the kind of place

ocked a drawer label

Coded messages. Financia

ed document with my

hase Two Confidential

eath

t a designer. He was

an anonymous source, discussing technology designed to embed sustai

ator deceased. Legacy tran

dary

ed the

ame:

line list

lfth b

e archive room,

ad it,"

spered. "What

ther protected the original designs by tying them to your identity. It is why Jaxon c

"That is why Jaxon wanted control. It w

cted. "Depending on who

s swirl inside me, grief,

"Every piece. Every shadow.

ive. "This is everything I could find. But

ped th

r plann

y candle I had. I did not wan

back as fifteen years. My father had written journal entries

es once. Believers

thing involving Diana. And a myst

e the la

t Ember. She is the key. The futur

ll onto

uilt an entire firewall around me. I was

ers. Jaxon was already in his office, brooding

e a storm," h

I am done playi

der and flash dr

ird,"

ten

u k

suspected. But I did n

hy

, nothing stays clean. Not you.

pped

let it

For once, nothing h

you s

on. Let us find out what

alked into our design lab

m our new camp

as

fr

desk wa

d an empire. Stop

ess. "The servers are being wiped.

It was not Ja

an

hed a scorche

ved a call from an

by a filter spoke

ing, Ember. But fir

ic

there in

d began sketching again.

ed to bur

th

a who they were lig

d not just sur

d beco