Page 63 of A Barista's Guide to Love & Larceny
Hecate’s bones. For an aspiring oracular studies major, she’d sure missed the signs with this one—the mansion in Eunoia Park, the bespoke security agency, the fucking greenhouse. Kass hadn’t made it a secret that his dad was a CEO, or that his sister worked for him; it was just that Dani had been too naive to see the obvious connections between the stars in the constellation she had full view of now.
Wyatt came up beside her, saw what she was looking at, then snorted. “There they are. The happy little Gianakos family.”
“Kass,” Dani said softly, sadly.
“Yep,” Wyatt said. “Lukas Gianakos Jr.”
“And Dr. Rodriguez…”
“Is his sister,” he finished for her. “Their dad is the CEO of OneiroLabs.”
Dani’s eyes landed on the ring on Dr. Rodriguez’s left hand. Of course—Rodriguez was her married name.
“You didn’t know?” Wyatt asked.
An ungodly shriek answered him, filling the bathroom, and they both clamped their hands over their ears as sirens whooped and wailed throughout the eighth floor. Alarms on the walls began to flash, red and green and red and green, like a trippy holiday horror movie.
“Katya!” Wyatt shouted, forgetting to use his shell. “Get us the hell out of here!”
Dani didn’t move. She stood, staring down at the photo of Kass and his family before the screen fell asleep. Everything was fading, drifting away from her—the sound of his laugh, the taste of the dark roast they’d shared, the pressure of his lips on hers. All of it gone in the space of a breath.
Katya!Wyatt cried.
The room went black. The sirens cut off, the flashing alarms died,even the whir of the air-conditioning flatlined. It was like the emptiness in Dani had been too big for her to contain, like it had spread beyond her body and blanketed the entire room.
“We’re porting,” Wyatt said. “Now!”
He grabbed her by the hand; she clutched at it like a drowning woman to a life preserver. The world flattened without warning, and together they slipped between dimensions, leaving OneiroLabs behind.
Twenty-Three
No one had told Dani that interdimensional travel was like being at the bottom of the ocean without a submarine. The particles of her shrank down to the size and texture of an uncooked lasagna noodle, which were then squeezed through the massive pressure of the exposed universe and guided by the most threadbare of tethers—the hold she had on Wyatt’s hand. She was certain that her bones would splinter at any second, or that the layers of her skin would slough off under the incredible force of the tunnel they were hurtling through. This was no graceful tumbling down the rabbit hole, no sidling through the winter coats in the wardrobe; this was a tornado ripping a house from its foundation and lobbing it through a crack in space and time.
But the pavement that rushed up to meet them was far from a yellow brick road. They slammed spread-eagle into the sidewalk, puddles splashing magnificently around them. Dani’s chin bounced off the concrete and jarred her teeth against one another. The world spun, and she heaved herself onto her back, which only made it worse.
“Hey, you okay?” Wyatt’s face appeared over hers. His arm wriggled under her back and propped her upright against him. Her vision swung back and forth like a pendulum, and before she could warn him, she folded at the waist and vomited into the gutter. “There you go,” he said, rubbing between her shoulder blades with urgent soothing. “We’re out, it’s over, we’re good.”
Dani lifted her head and wiped her mouth. It was pouring nowinstead of drizzling. They’d landed in a dark alley she didn’t recognize, no sign of the van or anyone else in sight.
“Your first time can be rough if you aren’t ready for it,” Wyatt said—to his credit, without a hint of a joke in his tone. But Dani wasn’t so sure it was just the portal that was making her sick. She looked up and realized that she could see OneiroLabs at the end of the alley. The building was spookily dark, like its spirit had left it, and she knew exactly how it felt.
Kass.
The reality of it hit her just as hard the second time. Dani retched again, but she had nothing left in her, only despair. Of course it had all been too good to be true. She’d been waiting for the other shoe to drop for so long, expecting Kass to lose interest or realize just how not on his level she really was—but she’d been looking in the wrong place this whole time.
Katya’s voice came in over their telepathic connection, crackling with some kind of etheric static.Did it work? Are you out? One of you answer me!
Dani?Oliver said.Wyatt? Can you hear us?
Babe, are you all right?McKenna said.
She’s fine, Wyatt replied.We’re both fine. We’re out. We’re okay.
Where are you?Silva asked.
Behind OneiroLabs, Wyatt answered.Coming to pick us up?
We had to evacuate.Silva’s voice sounded faded, far away.You’d better get away from there. Now.
