Page 107 of No Charm Done

“My orders were for you to be restrained.”

“Yeah, well. Your dogs aren’t as good as you think they are.” He started backing up slowly. Not running. Not yet. Just . . . creating distance. Drawing him forward.

“You will not escape this facility.”

“Probably not,” Shaw admitted. He took another step backward, watching Burke’s face.

“You are an insect.” Burke matched Shaw’s retreat step for step. “An annoyance. Nothing more.”

“Funny thing about insects.” Shaw kept backing up, leading Burke down the aisle. “We’re surprisingly hard to squash.”

Shaw saw a flicker of irritation cross Burke’s perfect features.

Good. Irritation meant carelessness. Carelessness meant mistakes. Burke’s hands began to glow with that same killing light the sentinels had used.

Shaw’s heart hammered. This was the play. Lead him through the maze. Let him chase. Let him get angry enough to throw power around without thinking.

And eventually—if Shaw’s luck held, which was a big if—Burke would show his hand by trying to protect cage 7B. He just had to survive long enough to get there.

“You know what your problem is?” Shaw said, still backing up, watching the aisle behind him in his peripheral vision. Looking for cage numbers. Looking for anything familiar.

“I have no interest in your observations.”

“You think magic is about control, but that’s wrong.” Shaw ducked around a corner—cold aisle, his coat caught the wind—and Burke followed. “It’s about sleight of hand.”

“Nonsense.”

“Really?” Shaw risked a glance at a cage as he passed: 5A. Wrong direction, yet again. He adjusted, angling left. “Because right now, in Oak Haven, Luna Melrose is tearing apart every spell you built. But you’re here, chasing me, instead of stopping her.”

His expression went arctic. “The Melrose girl is nothing⁠—”

“She’s better than you. Smarter than you. And she’s making Vex look like a fool.”

Burke raised his hand, and the glow intensified.

Shaw grinned. “So go ahead. Kill me. But you’ll still lose.”

Burke fired.

Shaw dove.

The bolt of killing magic screamed past his shoulder and slammed into a server rack with a sound like the world cracking open. Metal shrieked. Cables exploded. The whole structure listed sideways, sparks raining down like angry fireflies.

Shaw hit the ground, rolled, came up running deeper into the maze, praying his luck would hold just a little bit longer.

Behind him, he heard Burke’s footsteps. Measured, unhurried, absolutely certain.

Chapter 29

Chuck the Investor

Shaw rounded the corner at full sprint and nearly ran face-first into his own tie.

There it was: cage 7B, door hanging open, and draped over the central rack like the world’s saddest flag. The rack hummed with a different pitch than the others, cables as thick as his wrist snaking in and out like arteries. This rack—this specific rack—was the nexus point, the central hub powering CastR and connecting Kansas City to Oak Haven.

Shaw stepped directly in front of the tie-marked rack and turned to face his old enemy.

One honest job, he thought. Even if it kills you.