Page 7

“Good girl,” she said. “The arrangement is already prepped. Black box behind the hydrangeas. Take that one last, after your other stops, when the sun is down. Night suits his kind better.”

That made me feel exactly zero percent better.

I shoved the paper back onto the clipboard, heart thudding.

Night. Lux Tower. Lux Draven.

I stared at the black box behind the hydrangeas.

Of course it was beautiful.

Things meant for powerful men usually were. Nobody sent them half-wilted daisies from the gas station or carnations wrapped in plastic. Powerful men got roses dark enough to feel expensive. They got silver foliage. They got arrangements with weight, intention, drama.

I got employee discounts and the occasional snapped stem Mrs. Kori declared “too pathetic for sale but fine for your sad apartment.”

Fair.

Mostly.

I lifted the lid of the box carefully. It was . . . beautiful. Even for us.

Deep red roses, practically black at their centers. Dark calla lilies. A crown of stark white blooms I didn’t recognize. The flowers hummed under my fingers, the kind of low magical vibration that told me someone had paid extra. I wondered who bought flowers for Lux Draven. An enemy? A lover? Someone trying to survive a mistake?

My stomach twisted.

I shouldn’t have cared. Still, I went to the back and started my route like normal.

Two hospital bouquets first. I signed into the visitor log and rode the elevator with a nurse who smelled like disinfectant and immortality potions. The kid’s face lit up when I walked in with bright yellow flowers.

Next was the apartment complex with squeaky lifts and loud neighbors. Delivery by delivery, my shoulders loosened.

Obviously, I saved the worst for last. It was a little after nine, fully dark, and I had no other deliveries left to help me procrastinate. The route had pulled me around the city in one slow loop, every other stop finished before I finally headed back toward the center. Streetlights burned over the road. Neon signs lit up. Demons who worked nights started to appear. In the passenger seat of the shop van, the last arrangement waited in its black box.

I stopped at a light. Lux Tower loomed ahead, carving up the skyline. Black glass, all sharp lines and cold reflections. The top floors disappeared into low-hanging clouds. My mouth went dry.

“You don’t poke at him, he’ll have no reason to poke at you,” I muttered. The light turned green.

I drove forward.

Chapter 2

Lux

Whoever decided I was the guy to run this city was fucking insane. I mean, I did kill the last guy in charge, but should that have automatically made me the new ruler?

Hell no. There should have been some sort of mental health check. A council vote, a background screening, or a five-question survey asking whether I enjoyed violence too much to be entrusted with managing city infrastructure.

Ah, fuck it. Who cared? I had done a hell of a job.

I did my best to take care of the people in my city. I protected them, ensured the roads were maintained, kept the schools well funded, and personally gutted anyone who tried to damage the system.

Vale’s voice crackled through the comm at my collar as I drove through the last northern checkpoint just as the sky began to darken.

“The Hollowside crews are pushing the border,” he said. “Three of our runners were tailed last night. No casualties, but they’re getting bold.”

Bold was a cute word for suicidal.

“Names,” I said.