The bunker felt wrong without Emin.
Not empty. Just... lighter. Like a church after the furious priest finally walked out. The air didn't vibrate with suppressed rage anymore, but the silence had its own weight. It was the heavy, awkward silence of a bomb squad trying to figure out which wire to cut next.
Damaris was already in his corner. Chalk on stone. Scratch. Scratch. Scratch. Drawing diagrams for a machine that didn't work.
Asher ghosted in.
He tossed a pair of worn black leather gloves at Ravenna's chest.
"Forget calm, Boss," the Rogue said. A reckless glint in his green eyes. "You can't achieve stillness when you're half Lycan. You need noise."
"You want me to run again?" Ravenna asked. Her legs still ached from Emin's boot camp.
"No. I want you to escape."
Asher grinned. It wasn't a nice grin.
"Emin uses brute force. Damaris wants cold control. My solution is simpler: If you're focused on not falling to your death, you won't have time to worry about your feelings."
He jerked his head toward the tunnel exit.
"We run the rooftops. Highest risk. Misstep, and you're paste on the pavement. Your full focus will be on your feet and the next jump. It's the ultimate distraction."
A rush of terrified excitement shot through her.
Terrifying? Yes. But free.
The Mate Bond, usually a throbbing migraine of anxiety, vibrated with a strange, high-pitched thrill.
He's right, she realized. No room for their noise up there. Only the next step.
The Grey Zone at night was a skeleton of a city. Rusted girders. Shattered concrete. Shadows deep enough to hide an army.
Asher scrambled onto the first roof with the speed of a feral cat. Ravenna followed.
Emin's training had given her the muscles. Asher's warnings forced her mind into a sharp, diamond-hard focus.
"Don't look down," Asher called back. He sprinted across a narrow metal girder like it was a highway. "Look at the landing!"
They ran.
They leaped over gaps between crumbling factories. The risk was absolute. One slip, and gravity wins.
The danger forced all her chaotic energy to the surface. But it didn't explode. It became fuel. Raw, clean energy that allowed her to jump, brace, move.
"Faster!" Asher yelled. "Let the adrenaline clear your head! Feel the fear, but use it!"
Ravenna pushed.
She leaped a wide gap. Her stomach went into freefall. She landed hard on the gravel of the next roof, rolling to absorb the impact.
She stood up. Breathing hard.
And then she realized the truth.
The bond was silent.
I'm not angry. I'm not calculating. I'm just... here.
The danger had created a momentary, perfect equilibrium. Survival is the loudest voice in the room.
They reached the peak of the tallest structure. A rusted water treatment plant overlooking the distant, mocking lights of the city.
Asher pulled her down into the shadow of a chimney.
Their bodies were pressed together. Both panting. Both high on the chemical cocktail of survival.
"There," Asher breathed out. His face was inches from hers. "That moment. The chaos is a clean energy source when it's focused on a clear goal: Don't die."
The Mate Bond pulsed.
Silently. Intensely.
It wasn't romance. It was the raw connection of two people standing on the edge of a cliff. Boundaries dissolved in the rush.
"It works," Ravenna whispered. Her heart hammered against her ribs. "I don't feel them. I only feel..."
"...The next jump," Asher finished.
He reached out. Gently brushed a stray lock of hair from her face.
It was intimate. A secret shared in the dark.
FZZZT.
The air snapped with ozone.
"And now that your reckless escapade is complete," a cold voice cut through the dark, "perhaps we can return to the realm of logic."
Damaris emerged.
He didn't climb. He flickered into existence on the neighboring rooftop. A difficult, precise teleportation spell.
He looked like someone had just insulted his mother and his calculator in the same sentence. Furious. His grey eyes flashed at the unsanctioned chaos—and the intimacy he was interrupting.
"This is dangerous, Rogue!" Damaris snapped. He pointed an accusing finger. "You risked the Hybrid for a cheap thrill!"
"I risked her for a functional brain, Warlock," Asher countered. He didn't move away from Ravenna.
"Your spells make her explode. Emin's shouting makes her implode. My method? It gives her a moment of clean energy. Can you say the same?"
Damaris stood rigid. He wanted to argue. He wanted to flay the Rogue with a curse.
But through the bond, he felt the proof.
The unusual steadiness in Ravenna's emotional signature. The chaos was, for once, filtered.
He's not wrong, Damaris thought. The admission tasted like ash. The data is illogical. But undeniable. The adrenaline acts as a grounding wire.
"Illogically... it worked," Damaris stated. He folded his arms. "The rush of adrenaline suppresses the mixed emotions. It's not permanent. But it is a valid patch."
He jumped down to their roof. Smooth grace. Surprising for a man in a suit.
His cold presence immediately disrupted the fading rush. The buzzkill had arrived.
"We need a scalable solution," Damaris announced. He ignored the tension. "We cannot base our strategy on nightly rooftop chases. We must harness this 'distraction' without the constant risk of death."
He looked directly at Asher.
Two rivals. Forced into a hostile corporate merger.
"Your physical coordination is excellent, Rogue. My magical knowledge is absolute. We will combine our methods."
Damaris began pacing. His mind churning out schematics.
"We need a complex, shared physical and magical drill. Something that demands intense, external focus from all three of us. If we are forced to focus on the same difficult task, the bond will carry the collective focus rather than our individual... flaws."
"You want us to dance?" Asher asked. Skeptical.
"I want us to achieve synchronization through forced external demand," Damaris corrected. His eyes lit up with intellectual hunger.
"The Alpha is currently useless. Until he returns, you will provide the physical framework. I will provide the magical architecture. We will use the chaotic energy from these runs to power a stable, complex, shared shield."
Ravenna felt the thrill of the run fade.
It was replaced by the daunting, exciting difficulty of the task. They were finally moving past the failures.
A shared shield, Ravenna thought. Powered by my chaos. Shaped by his magic. Guided by his agility.
It sounded impossible.
"It sounds like the only thing keeping us alive," she said aloud.
Damaris gave a curt nod.
"Precisely."