The boardroom was a glass box that hung in the air. The city was far below, not knowing that a quiet war was going on at the top of Wolfe Tower.

Sera stood at one end of the long mahogany table with her back straight and her chin up. Cassian sat across from her, as hard to read as ever. The directors sat between them, twelve polished faces, some loyal, some calculating, all watching.

Alondra started the meeting.

“We're here to deal with the fallout from recent accusations,” she said in a clipped voice. “People don't trust the government very much. The Foundation's good name is on the line. “We need openness.”

Cassian didn't move. “You have it.”

A woman with silver streaks in her hair leaned forward. “The Swiss investigation. Arclight. Accounts in other countries. Is this your doing, Mr. Wolfe?”

“No,” he said in a calm voice. “It's our enemies. And they're using lies to tear down what we've built.”

Another director snorted. “How convenient.”

Then everyone looked at Sera.

“Mrs. Wolfe,” Alondra said. “People have talked about you in the news. What do you think?”

Sera looked at everyone without blinking.

“I joined the Foundation with good intentions. I didn't know anything about Arclight, and I didn't give permission for any transfers to happen outside of the country. My main goal has been to give to charity, not to wash money.”

There was a rustle of worry in the room.

The woman with silver hair said, “But your name is connected to a fake company that is linked to Arclight.”

Sera's heart raced. “I found out this week. I think it was set up before I got involved. Maybe by my mom.”

Gasping.

Cassian turned quickly. “Clarisse?”

Sera nodded. “Leo said it was true. She was on the board of a fake company. She knew more than she said she did, maybe even more than my dad.”

The silence was very thin.

Cassian followed Sera into a side hallway after the meeting. The hallway was quiet and full of oil paintings.

“You should have told me about Clarisse,” he said.

“I wasn't sure I believed it myself.”

“Do you, now?”

She gave him a look. “Yes. And it changes everything.”

His jaw tightened. “Not everything.”

She said, “It means I was a pawn long before I met you. Your vendetta against my family was dirty. It was rotten, but it was dressed up in gold.”

Cassian got closer. “We're not like our parents, Sera.”

“Then don't play their games,” Sera responded.

That night, a storm hit Manhattan. Thunder moved through the sky like a warning.

Sera stood in the kitchen of the penthouse with a mug of tea in her hands. Her phone rang.

Leo.

“Got something. Important. Meet at Mercer and 11th. Entrance from below ground. Come by yourself.”

She thought about it.

After that, she took her coat.

Cassian stopped her at the lift.

“Where are you going?”

“Out.”

“Not tonight. Not alone.”

She looked him in the eye. “I'm not yours to tell what to do.”

“No. But I have to keep you safe.”

She pushed him away.

“Then do it from a distance.”

The entrance to the basement led to a boiler room below an old print shop. Leo stood next to an old projector, and the shadows on the concrete walls moved around.

“What is this?” Sera asked.

He put in a drive.

The video was grainy and had a date stamp from six years ago.

Crest of Julian.

At a café.

Fighting with someone.

Cassian.

They talked in low voices, but the sound was clear enough.

Julian said, “I agree to the deal, but if I go down, I'm taking Calloway with me.”

Cassian: “Julian, you won't go down. You will go away. Quietly.”

Julian: “Are you threatening me?”

Cassian: “I'm doing you a favour. One you won't get again.”

Sera looked at Leo.

“This is... real?”

“Confirmed. Source is not known. We are trying to find it.”

She was sick. The talk was easy to understand. Cassian had planned for Julian to be quiet, and maybe even to disappear.

There was something else in the way he spoke.

Not a threat.

Sorry.

She didn't get any sleep.

She got home before dawn and dropped her keys on the marble counter, making a loud noise.

Cassian was in the living room, looking out at the city skyline.

“I saw the video,” she said.

“I thought you would.”

“You paid him off. Made him feel bad.”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“Because I thought it would make me feel better. The cure was supposed to be revenge.”

She went to him.

“It wasn't.”

He said softly, “No, I drank poison because I thought it would kill them.”

“And me?”

He stared at her.

“You were never meant to be real.”

She put her hand on his chest.

“Yes, I am.”

Cassian put his hand on top of hers. “Now I am.”

Days went by. The scandal started to fade. The board stopped talking. The press was busy.

But the air between Sera and Cassian was still charged, like a storm or a thaw.

They sat next to each other in the conservatory one afternoon. She drew. He read. There was no talk.

But everything was heard.

Then the call came.

Lucien Reyes.

He wanted to meet with Sera alone.

Cassian was furious. “He's trying to split us up.”

“Maybe. Or maybe he needs a friend,” Sera responded.

“Lucien doesn't have any friends. He gathers leverage.”

“Then let me be the one who has the knife,” Sera retorted.

Cassian didn't say anything.

Lucien's townhouse was a stronghold made of glass and steel. He welcomed her with champagne and a smile that looked like a wolf's.

“Mrs. Wolfe, you're becoming quite the power broker.”

She didn't sit down. “Say what you want to say.”

He gave her a tablet. Legal documents on screen. A plan for a merger.

Lucien wanted to buy Arclight. And he needed Sera's signature.

He said, “You now own Wolfe Holdings with someone else. Your approval makes it easier. Trust from the public. New leaders. A new face.”

“You mean a nice distraction,” Sera responded.

He smiled. “You've always been quick.”

She read the paper carefully.

“If I sign this, I'm making everything real.”

“You are rewriting it. There will be no more shadows with you at the table.”

“And what do you want in return?”

Lucien leaned closer. “A place at the new empire.”

Sera looked at him.

And then she signed.

Cassian read the paper without saying anything.

He said, “You made a deal with the devil.”

“No,” she said. “I made a leash for one.”

Neither of them moved for a long time.

Then Cassian grinned. Only a little.

“That's my girl.”

She gave him a look.

“Not yours. Not anymore.”

He nodded slowly.

“But still with me?”

“For now,” she said. “Until the fire goes out... or we both die.”

Cassian lifted his drink.

“To fire.”

Sera raised hers.

“To frost.”