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The air was chilly, but I was ready. I always had to be ready in my new role. And honestly, I much preferred doing extra training than suffering through a terrible date with a guy who didn’t listen to a word I said.

The Hellraisers were only one of five teams within the Chicago Bureau. Each team had been formed as part of an initiative from the Bureau, working alongside the US government to take out the creatures from the Leftovers. Some areas had monsters that were bolder than others, while some—like the Salt Lake City mission—required annoying bait to get the beasts to come out.

I glanced at the large digital clock displayed on the building next to our training courtyard for the purpose of timed exercises. It was time to begin. Easier said than done, with Hindley watching me like a silent hawk from the sidelines.

I sized up the crowd. Our daily training as monster hunters involved mandatory physical and mental exercises. One had to be careful when hunting supernatural beasts, after all. With five teams of six to seven people each, there were plenty of soldiers here, and that included my brother and sister. The twins had better behave today. They were as troublesome as… well, me, before Bryce taught me how to behave, for the most part.

Yesterday was Captain Kelly”s turn to run the training. I hadn’t met her before, but she had done an excellent job, and I wanted to do the same, hoping to impress Hindley and show her that I was capable of living up to my new promotion. “Captain Roxy” never gets old, no matter how many times I say it. Having the twins in the crowd today meant that my chances of screwing up were higher. I”d have to be on top of my game.

”Let”s get started,” I said. We”d done these drills before, and the instructions weren”t new to most, but we had a very new team of recruits who were eager to do extra training in order to get up to field level. For the rest of us, a failure in the exercise would mean extra extra training. ”Nothing prepares you for fighting a monster, but hard work and practice will be your best asset in an encounter.” Besides redbill interactions, Colin and I had the most experience with a wide variety of immortal creatures. It was far from bragging rights; more like the flag I needed to wave to get some of these older fighters to pay attention to me. I spotted one of the twins, Jessie, smirking behind her hand at something Jordan had said. Here we go.

Holt, who was watching the twins with amused but annoyed interest, had told me that he couldn”t believe they were related to me until they opened their mouths. They looked like angelic cherubs, with their heads of big blond curls. Jordan was taller than Jessie by a head, and Jessie was shorter than me, which meant it was easier to grapple her bad attitude out of her when I needed to. What she lacked in height, she made up for in brains. She was the mastermind who dreamed up elaborate plots and social games, while Jordan charmed his way through life the way only a handsome boy can get away with. They were both loud, though, as Holt noted, and skilled in trash talking. It was a dangerous combination.

I ignored the twins for now and explained our training for the day. It was simple but challenging. ”Our goal is to work together on coordinating an attack on larger creatures. I”ve personally witnessed and participated in several fights like these. Immortal creatures are often massive, truly overwhelming in their size and capabilities. It”s common to come across them and realize that they have poison breath that can rot your flesh down to bone. You have to work with your team at all times, both to check your backs and figure out an efficient way to take down the monster. Luckily for us, the Leftovers provide us more remote areas to fight in, so we have fewer civilians to worry about.” My fight in Moab with Lyra and the others against the empty swarm, those enormous hell-bugs that considered metal a light snack, came back to me.

The Hellraisers were going first as the example for today’s exercise. I was nervous, given that we hadn’t run the drills since the twins had integrated into the group. They were on special restrictions as the youngest additions, something that made me feel better as an older sister having to watch her siblings jump into the supernatural fray.

The crowd was largely silent… except for Jessie and Jordan. They giggled over something to one another. My eye twitched. I shouldn”t have chugged a coffee before coming out here; I’d been spurred to do it after a late night of hearing Kane”s voice. My siblings were my pride and joy, but they were no exception to the rules.

”If you”re chuckling right now, I can guarantee that you won”t be in the face of a shrieking decay. I”ve seen one melt a woman right in front of my eyes. I”ll never forget that smell.” Jessie and Jordan stopped. Everyone glanced toward them, fellow Bureau soldiers outside the Hellraisers who now smirked as they watched the drama unfold. ”If you’re done, Taylor and Taylor, I”ll carry on.” From the corner of my eye, Hindley lifted her chin with an approving glance. She was a stickler for the rules, and I respected her even if rules sometimes annoyed me. My siblings gave me the stink eye from afar. They might be plotting a counterattack or prank on me later, but they”d soon realize I was being nice. Hindley would”ve torn them apart and sent them packing to do grueling extra labor.

The twins didn”t mean to be rude. They’d just grown up rough. My family was always rowdy and undisciplined, but the twins took the cake, since they’d come out of the womb with a built-in partner in crime. They shared a strong bond from our childhood that enabled them to scheme their way out of everything. Ultimately, the twins showed impressive initiative. They had risen quickly through basic training and impressed their superiors by showing creative problem-solving talent years beyond their age and skill levels.

Their problem was that they tended to live in their own world. I used to joke that they might as well have been joined at the actual hip, with the amount of time they spent together. They always thought they were right because they constantly confirmed each other’s beliefs. I needed to get them to move past that if they wanted to progress as solid members of the Hellraisers worthy of going on missions. Or at least to stop giggling during important training seminars. I might have been a bad influence on them, though… I taught them to be freaking confident and believe in themselves no matter what, and unfortunately, that includes challenging authority figures. Perhaps I should”ve also taught them that there was a time and a place for challenges, and training for monster hunting was not one of those.

The other soldiers chuckled, and we moved on. Good. I needed to keep things moving before my head burst from all this stress. I hated explaining things, since I preferred jumping into the action, but it had to be done.

”We”re going to start our official training exercise for the day,” I informed the crowd, stepping to the side to gesture to the large machine. The contraption rested in a padded area covered in various rock-climbing walls specifically designed to test different holds and styles of climbing. It was a modification of an exercise taught in field training, but this one came with a twist. The walls wouldn”t move from their location, but they would shake and buck like a mechanical bull to get the climber off. The goal was to make it to the top, where a lever was placed for someone to deactivate the machine. Once the lever was pulled, the ”monster” was down. It was close enough to what they could expect when they fought larger monsters. In fact, I was still sore and popping aspirin from being tossed off the alligator beast.

”Sounds easy,” Jordan whispered to Jessie, purposefully loud enough for everyone to hear. I took a breath and counted to five in my mind. Bryce told me that always helped him when dealing with annoying soldiers. I was probably that soldier for my poor ex-captain.

”No exceptions. Do the exercise, or sign up for extra training if you don’t feel ready to drill yet,” I addressed the crowd. Faces looked more alert and serious after that. Even Jessie and Jordan perked up a bit. They would do anything to get out of any extra work, so that was good enough motivation to do the current exercise well. Nobody liked extra training.

”I hope you”re ready to climb,” I told them. ”Hellraisers, as my team, you”ll go first and we’ll split you up into two teams so you can demonstrate for everyone else. Captain Kelly will coach Team B. Please make me proud.” The last part was a dig at the twins. I split them up into two groups. Team A would attack the ”monster”—the moving rock-climbing section—by helping a teammate who was trying to climb the wall, but they also had to defend themselvesfrom Team B. The goal was to get one member from Team A safely to the lever so that they could disengage the mechanism, unless Team B overwhelmed Team A’s defense. Defense or offense could win in the timed rounds.

The Hellraisers lined up. Jones and Evans were separated, but they didn”t care. They might be disrespectful at times, but they understood the point of Bureau exercises, and they were seasoned veterans. A soldier never knew whether their preferred team member, who they worked best with, would fall in combat. You can never rely on someone completely. You have to adapt to your surroundings. A younger version of myself laughed somewhere inside me, knowing that I was regurgitating the lessons Bryce had handed down to me. I was such a wild child for him—and still was, in a lot of ways—but the knot of anxiety in my stomach was new to me as I watched the Hellraisers. They were my responsibility, but it was something more. I wanted them to do well.

Captain Kelly shot me a grin as she joined me on the platform. ”Ready to see how your team does today? I know it”s hard at first.” She was forty, and kind in all the ways that Hindley was cold and straitlaced. I liked her, and her team had done expertly in the other lesson”s drill. I swallowed the small lump of nervousness in my throat. I was a fighter, but now it was time to fight to make my team a better version of themselves.

“They’ll try their best,” I replied, hoping it was true.

I blew the whistle, and the drill began. I chose Jones, Holt, and Jessie for the offensive side while Kelly took Jordan, Colin, and Evans on Team B. I wanted to separate the twins, even though they grumbled about it. They needed to learn to be apart. I held my breath as Jessie and Jordan went into their separate groups. More and more, I understood Lyra”s frustration as a captain. It came with a whole lot of wishing people would act a certain way and having to be the bad guy when you realized just wishing for people to be better wouldn”t work.

Immediately, Holt and Jones conferred with Jessie. She seemed to be listening to them, but her eyes were still locked with Jordan’s. Quickly, it became clear that Jessie would head for the wall, since she was more agile. Jones and Holt were easily six feet, making them bigger targets for the other team. Hindley crossed her arms as she watched the Hellraisers intently. It was hard not to feel like a mother hen with a foul mouth.

Jessie sprang up the wall as Evans and Colin hurled themselves at her. Immediately, Jones and Holt went on the defensive to fend them off. Jessie scurried up the rock walls, the shaking segments no match for her. Hindley didn”t know it, but Jessie loved rock climbing. The more extreme, the better. She and Jordan had often gone out on day trips before they signed up for the Bureau.

The teams on the ground were at war—except for one person. Jordan was making his way up the wall after Jessie with a giant grin on his face. I wanted to smack my hand against my face. He didn”t look like he was planning on trying to fight Jessie off. No, instead, they were lobbing jokes back and forth. As I watched, Jessie stopped and pointed out the easiest path for Jordan to climb, waiting for him to catch up.

”Amazing view up here,” Jordan called to his confused teammates. Holt, for his part, continued fighting, but Jones let out an annoyed snarl and started going up after Jessie on the wall. His age and experience meant he wouldn’t take her actions lying down. Oh no.

”We”re your teammates, Jessie,” Jones snapped. ”Is not listening genetic in your family? You’re trying to win with your brother instead of fighting for your own team.”Jessie let out a loud laugh, but the comment hit me like a punch to the stomach. Captain Kelly frowned, her composure fading in the face of such defiance.

”Jordan, pushher off! She”s your opponent, not a flower,” Kelly yelled. The other teams were snickering in the crowd. Hindley narrowed her eyes. My head spun. All my hard work for the day seemed to be falling apart in front of me, and my last chance at some dignity this week was currently my family, who were bent on embarrassing me.

It was time to change tactics. I turned to Captain Kelly. “Should we make this more interesting, since Taylor and Taylor have decided to go rogue?”

Captain Kelly’s frustrated expression turned into a more wicked smile. “If they’re changing the rules, you’re right. Ground team, attack Jordan.”

“Really?” Colin asked. He had a hand on his training gun, which wasn’t much more vicious than a small pellet gun. In his hands, though, it was potentially dangerous if he wanted to put some fire behind his aim.

“If Taylor and Taylor want to act like this, let’s give them a challenge,” I told Holt. He shrugged and took aim at Jessie. Jones was nearly at her feet now. He snatched at her ankle, and Jessie let out a startled cry. Don’t expect to go wild by working with your twin and not have your team try to call you out, kid.

“Swing over,” Jordan blurted. Colin fired a shot straight into his back, and Jordan let out a pained wail, although it was mostly for dramatics. “I’ve been shot, Jessie. Show some initiative.”

“I’m trying,” Jessie shouted, her voice a touch frantic as she tried to swing over to another rock and shake Jones off her. Jordan took something out of his pocket, a small red bouncy ball.He pelted Jones with it, specifically his fingers on a rock. Jones let out an annoyed hiss and ripped his hand away. Holt shot a pellet bullet right into Jessie as she successfully moved over with all the energy of a panicked monkey.

“Taylor and Taylor, you have two options,” I yelled out to the twins. “Continue getting assailed by your teammates, who are rightly calling you out, or agree to forfeit.”

“Never,” Jessie grunted. They continued to climb despite the harassment, nearing the top.

Jessie and Jordan placed both their hands on the lever and cried out in glee as they tugged it down. A buzzer sounded.

“We should’ve gone for their heads. Might have knocked some sense into them,” Captain Kelly said to me with a wink. “I’m sure you’ll get them under control soon.”

”Successful round,” a robotic voice rang out. I pressed a hand to my forehead, feeling a wave of anger and despair rising up in me. How soon could they demote someone back to a lieutenant, if she kicked her own family”s butts in front of a crowd of spectators?

Jessie and Jordan easily made their way down the wall. They were determined to fight, and face the consequences, together. My fist tightened annoyingly at my side. Captain Kelly shot me a sympathetic look and then subtly gestured behind her with a tilt of her head.

Hindley didn’t look happy from her spot, but I noted a touch of amusement in her face. To be fair, most Bureau drills were as boring as watching paint dry.

”Pull them out and talk to them. This drill is not supposed to go like this,” my supervisor called out.

My face burned from the frustration of it all. Technically, everything had worked out in the end, but the twins had acted wildly. Why were they being like this? And then, a softer voice inside me reminded me that I was once just like them. I swallowed my pride and nodded. The teams took a break. Captain Kelly talked to the others while I gestured the twins to the side.

Jessie grinned at me. ”We technically played by the rules. You never said we both couldn”t win. It seemed like you and Captain Kelly had fun ordering attacks on us, too.”

They”re going to give me a stroke. I stared down both of them. When we were younger, they always talked about my ”angry face” as being the scariest thing. Even now, it had a quelling effect on them. Roxy the older sister was fun until she wasn’t, and I wasn”t feeling particularly fun today.

”I need both of you to straighten up right now. This isn”t a game,” I warned.

Jordan”s eyebrows shot up. ”But it is a game. And even if it was real life and that was an actual monster, we”d be dead if we didn”t work together. What”s wrong with working together, when it makes us better?”

I opened my mouth. Kane”s face flashed through my mind. He was the only one who could really fight with me in my particular grappling style. My throat tightened with grief that I quickly stuffed down. The twins exchanged mutinous looks. They knew they’d messed up, but their bad attitude was still there underneath the surface.

”You may not always have one another out there,” I told them. I was still trying to calculate how many weeks of drudge work it would take for them to get this through their heads. ”What if you’re working with one of the other team members, and they can’t trust you because you pull crap like this? Your games are hurting the integrity of the team. I know these things seem dumb now, but they”ll pay off later. Your commander told me when you graduated that you were a handful. They knew I could handle you. Don”t disappoint me.”

Jordan snorted. ”Oh, lighten up. You have a stick up your butt.” Someone in the crowd snickered.It might’ve been Evans. “We aced the physical portion.”

Jessie elbowed him. “Come on, she’s right. We knew exactly what we were doing.” She was always the first one to own up to things. I relaxed a little. “Although I think that’s the most fun anyone has had in a drill in years.”

“Fine,” Jordan grumbled and shot me a tiny apologetic frown. “Sorry, Captain. We did win, though.”

”And yet you seem incapable of not shaking things up,” Hindley said behind them with a haughty look. Her burning, determined eyes landed on the twins, and all three of us stiffened under her stare. ”I’m impressed with how you turned the tides against them, Captain Taylor. Captain Kelly will take over the rest of the exercise. You three… let”s go to my office. We have things to discuss.”