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I tug harder at my collar, feeling the heat in my chest spread, burning its way through every muscle, every bone. It’s like my body is on the verge of breaking, all the frustration and helplessness searing under my skin. I drag a hand through my hair, pacing across the den, my feet moving without thought.

“I don’t care about your goddamn policies,” I snap into the phone, my patience threadbare. “I want to know where he is. You’re telling me that you have no idea where they’ve taken him? He just vanished? No fucking witnesses?”

My father’s lawyer gives me some politically correct answers and my jaw clenches, making it difficult to breathe.

“What the fuck does my father pay you for? You’re nothing more than a goddamn good-for-nothing suit.”

I slam the phone down on the coffee table.

“Fucking stonewalling bastards,” I mutter under my breath.

Sable watches me. She’s quiet, sitting on the edge of the couch, her eyes tracking my every movement. Her beauty almost feels out of place. She’s changed since the party. Her pink sequin dress was quickly removed after Dayton brought one of his hoodies and sweatpants from upstairs. The gray pants are rolled up at the top and her ankles as she sits cross-legged.

Her makeup is slightly disturbed, but her lips, oh god, those tinted lips. I want to bite them until they turn a cherry red and are pressed together in a tight line as she watches me spiral.

“Silas.” She finally speaks. Her voice makes me stop, just for a second. But I don’t turn around. I can’t.

They took him.

They took Levi away from all of us.

Kai sits in the oversized chair tucked in the den’s corner, silently brooding as he twirls the business card between his fingers.

“Welcome to the game, kid,” he mutters again.

The business card has a symbol that represents the Syndicate. A gem encrusted dagger pressing into a book, and a single droplet of blood coming out the other side of it. But until tonight, it hasn’t had meaning—not really. We all knew that the Syndicate rules in the shadows, unknowingly manipulating parts of our lives. But that’s just it. They were meant to just be in the shadows. They take those who are guilty without need for proof. But Levi… he isn’t guilty.

I clench my fists, staring down at the floor, trying to control the rage simmering beneath the surface. “They fucking took him,” I hiss.

When they took Levi, we tried to follow, but they loaded him into a black SUV and sped off before I could bring ours around. Dayton and Kai called their parents, but none of them answered.

Bastards.

My father did answer and gave me a few contacts, reluctantly, of course. My first thought was that it was actually the campus police taking him, but after Kai showed us the business card, we all knew that it was the Syndicate. I thought my father would have been more of a help to us. But I guess you don’t bite the hand that feeds you.

Once we got back home, Sable frantically called every police station in the area, and they all denied having any records of Levi Thompson.

So, what the fuck is actually happening?

“We’re not dealing with some street cops or a simple arrest—they’re professionals,” I say, mostly to convince myself that I understand what’s happening. But fuck if I do.

Sable stands, slowly making her way toward me. She’s the only thing tethering me to reality when all I want to do is lash out and tear everything apart until I get Levi back. I hate that she has to see me falling apart like this.

She stops just a foot away, close enough that I can smell the faint sweetness of her vanilla and jasmine perfume.. Her hand hovers in the air as if she wants to touch me but is unsure if I’ll shatter under her fingers.

“We will find him.”

And I wish I believed her.

“What kind of game is this?”

Kai tosses the business card onto the coffee table with a flick of his wrist. The card lands face up—mocking us with its twisted symbol.

Dayton walks in, his clothes changed from the party, but it does little to improve the darkness now clouding him. It’s weird to see him so shaken up. “No word from my stepfather,” he mutters, slumping into the armchair next to Kai. “This is way deeper than we thought.”

“What now?” Sable asks as she lowers onto her knees to sit on the floor beside my feet. She places her hands in mine and rests her head against my knee. The submissive stance would usually make me feral, but right now, it’s comforting.

I rub a hand over my face. “We can’t sit here and do nothing. They want us to feel powerless, like we’re stuck in their fucking game.”

“Do we even know what the Syndicate has against him?” Dayton asks.

“Well, we know he didn’t do it.”

“Yes, but that doesn’t explain why the Syndicate would take him,” Dayton counters. “We need to figure out what made them want Levi.”

My blood simmers at the question, and I growl, “Kai.”

He’s sitting there, slumped in the chair. His eyes are hollow, bloodshot, lost in his head. He looks like a kid who’s just realized his favorite toy has been taken and broken beyond repair. Lost. Helpless.

“I need you.”

It takes a moment, but he finally snaps out of it. He nods, the focus creeping back into his gaze. “I’m on it,” he says, standing up. Then, he looks at Sable, holding out his hand to her. “Come with me, Mahal. I don’t want to be alone.”

Sable nods silently, her fingers slipping from mine as she takes Kai’s hand. They both walk up the stairs, heading into Kai’s room. If anyone can figure out where the hell they have Levi stashed, it’s him. And if anyone can keep him grounded, it’s her.

Dayton falls into the chair Kai was just seated in. His gaze flicks at me, and I can feel the worry that is emanating off him. “What the fuck are we supposed to do, Si? Wait for them to fucking kill him? His phone was ditched a mile away from the party.”

I drag my hands down my face, the skin pulling taut as I clench my jaw. “This isn’t right.”

“Well, no fucking shit.”

I shake my head, the burn of frustration searing my chest. We’re not just up against some rogue cops or a bad frat prank gone wrong. This is the fucking Syndicate.

Dayton kicks the coffee table hard enough to make the glass top rattle. “We are the fucking Horsemen. We are legacies. The Syndicate can’t fuck with our lives like this.”

I look at him, meeting his eyes dead on. He’s right, but I’m not about to admit that. DSN was built on power and control with a mountain of skeletons in our closets. We don’t have to say anything to understand what the other is thinking.

We will get Levi back.

And the Syndicate is going to burn to the fucking ground.

No one fucks with? one of the Horsemen.