A beat-up yellow taxi cab rattled to a stop in front of the massive wrought-iron gates of the Conner Estate. It looked like a piece of trash sitting in front of a palace.

Allison kicked the door open and stepped out, wearing faded jeans and an oversized black hoodie. She grabbed a worn-out canvas duffel bag from the back seat and tossed it over her shoulder.

She stared up at the sprawling mansion. Her eyes were dead.

The head butler opened the side gate. He looked at her clothes, his nose wrinkling in disgust. He didn’t offer to take her bag. He just pointed toward the side entrance.

Allison ignored him and stepped past his outstretched hand.

The butler quickly stepped into her path, blocking the way with his body. “Miss, the main entrance is for the family,” he said, his tone dripping with icy formality.

Allison didn’t even break her stride. She shoved her shoulder past him with enough force to make him stumble back. She walked straight up the main driveway, her boots crunching loudly on the pristine gravel. Behind her, the butler grabbed the radio clipped to his belt and frantically alerted the house staff. The maids trimming the rose bushes took one look at the cold, murderous aura radiating from her and quickly looked away.

She pushed open the heavy mahogany front doors and stepped into the grand foyer.

Lydia, her stepmother, was sitting on a velvet sofa, sipping tea from a porcelain cup. Her blonde hair was swept into an elegant updo, a string of pearls sitting against her collarbone. When she saw Allison, a fake, sickeningly sweet smile stretched across her face.

“Allison, darling,” Lydia cooed, her eyes raking over the cheap canvas bag. “Couldn’t you have bought something decent to wear? You look like a vagrant.”

Allison didn’t even look at her. She dropped the heavy duffel bag onto the Persian rug. It hit the floor with a loud thud.

“Where is Sterling?” she demanded.

Cade, her half-brother, was lounging in a chair, playing a video game. He had the same pale blonde hair as his mother, his designer shirt unbuttoned at the collar. He snorted loudly. “You don’t get to call him by his name, you piece of trash.”

Allison slowly turned her head and locked eyes with Cade.

The air in the room instantly froze. The sheer, suffocating violence in her stare hit Cade like a physical blow. His breath caught in his throat. His hands went numb, and the expensive controller slipped from his fingers, clattering onto the marble floor.

Footsteps echoed from the grand staircase. Sterling Conner walked down, his face flushed with irritation. He adjusted his silk tie, projecting his authority.

“Stop causing trouble the second you walk in,” he barked.

He walked over to the glass coffee table, picked up a manila folder, and tossed it onto the table. It slid to a stop in front of Allison.

“That is an enrollment form for the Aethelgard Vocational School for Girls,” Sterling said, his tone dripping with condescension. “With your pathetic grades, it’s the only place that will take you. Learn to cook or sew. We’ll find someone desperate enough to marry you off to.”

Lydia chimed in, her voice thick with fake pity. “We pulled a lot of strings to get you in, Allison. You should be grateful.”

Allison stared at the form. A slow, dark smirk curled the corner of her lips.

She leaned forward and pinched the edge of the thick paper between her thumb and index finger.

With one sharp, violent motion, she ripped the document in half.

The sound of tearing paper echoed loudly in the silent room.

Sterling’s face turned purple. He slammed his hand on the table. “How dare you!”

Allison let the torn pieces flutter from her fingers, raining down onto the glass table like trash. She stood up straight, her posture dominating the room.

“I’m not going to a trade school,” she said, her voice cutting through the air like a blade. “I am going to Crestwood Academy.”

Cade burst out laughing, pointing at her. “Crestwood? The most elite prep school in the country? They wouldn’t let you clean their toilets!”

Allison looked at Sterling, ignoring the boy. “Section four, paragraph two of my mother’s trust fund.”

Sterling froze. The blood instantly drained from his face.

“If the primary beneficiary does not attend an academic institution fitting the family’s social standing,” Allison recited perfectly, her voice cold and hollow, “the entire fund is liquidated and donated to charity.”

Lydia gasped, her hand flying to her mouth. That money—the trust fund’s annual disbursements—was the only thing keeping the Conner corporation from bankruptcy. The company had been hemorrhaging cash for years, propped up entirely by those quarterly payouts.

Sterling’s hands curled into tight fists. His knuckles turned white. He glared at his daughter, realizing he was completely trapped.

“Even if I force the board to accept you,” he hissed, his voice trembling with rage, “you are too stupid to survive there. You’ll be expelled in a week.”

Allison bent down and picked up her duffel bag. She looked at him like he was a bug on the bottom of her shoe.

“Watch me,” she whispered.

She turned and walked up the stairs, heading straight for the dusty, forgotten bedroom at the end of the hall, leaving her family suffocating in their own panic.

Allison pushed open the door to the bedroom. The air was thick with dust, smelling of mildew and neglect.

She threw her duffel bag onto the bare mattress and didn’t bother turning on the flickering overhead light.

She dropped to one knee and pulled the tactical knife from her boot. With three quick, brutal twists, she unscrewed the metal grate of the air vent near the floor. She ran her fingers along the inside of the duct, feeling for the cold metal of a listening device.

Clean.

She stood up and yanked the heavy blackout curtains shut. The room plunged into absolute darkness.

Allison unzipped the bottom compartment of her canvas bag and pulled out a thick, battered black laptop. The casing was scratched and dented, looking like it belonged in a junkyard.

She set it on the desk and hit the power button.

No Windows logo. No standard boot screen. The screen flashed black, then a single, blood-red command prompt appeared.

Allison’s fingers hovered over the keyboard. Then they descended, typing furiously, punching in a 64-character dynamic encryption key.

A soft electronic chime sounded. The screen glowed a harsh, icy blue, illuminating her pale face and dead eyes.

She had bypassed the NSA’s outer firewall. She was in the deep web.

A black chat box popped up instantly. The caller ID read: SIREN.

Allison pulled a tiny earpiece from her pocket and shoved it into her ear. She tapped the microphone key.

“Commander X. You’re online.” Siren’s voice crackled through the earpiece, thick with relief and absolute loyalty.

Allison leaned back in the creaky wooden chair and rubbed her thumb over the black wristband on her left arm. “Report.”

“We have a breach attempt,” Siren said quickly. “Someone is aggressively probing the background of the Pine Creek garage. High-level encryption. Military grade.”

Allison’s mind flashed to Graham’s dark, calculating eyes. A cold sneer touched her lips.

“Initiate Ghost Protocol,” she ordered, her voice devoid of human emotion. “Wipe the servers clean. And drop a reverse-tracking Trojan into their mainframe. Let’s see how they like being hunted.”

“Copy that,” Siren said. “Commander... I have an update on the 319 Project.”

Allison’s fingers stopped moving. Her breath caught.

“We intercepted fragments of a destroyed lab log from the Eastern European black market,” Siren continued, her voice dropping lower. “It references a successful containment. Something called the ‘Live Serum’.”

The words hit Allison like a bullet to the chest.

Her heart slammed against her ribs. The black wristband on her arm began to flash a frantic, bright red. A wave of freezing cold ripped through her, making her teeth chatter. Her stomach twisted into a painful knot.

She bit down hard on the inside of her cheek. The sharp taste of copper flooded her mouth. The physical pain grounded her, keeping her from spiraling.

She knew what the Live Serum was. It was her.

“Get that log,” Allison gasped out, fighting the tremor in her voice. “Burn the market down if you have to. Do not let Aethelgard get their hands on it.”

“Commander, your vitals are spiking on my end,” Siren warned anxiously. “You need to disconnect.”

“Just do it!” Allison snapped. She slammed her hand down on the keyboard, severing the connection.

The screen went black.

Allison slumped forward, resting her forehead against the cold metal of the laptop. Sweat beaded on her skin. She reached into her jacket with trembling fingers and pulled out the blue vial Alistair had given her. She gripped it so hard her knuckles ached, using the cold glass to anchor herself.

Suddenly, a floorboard creaked in the hallway.

Allison’s eyes snapped open. The vulnerability vanished, replaced instantly by the lethal stillness of a predator.

She shoved the laptop into a hidden compartment under the floorboards in less than two seconds.

She stood perfectly still in the dark.

The brass doorknob slowly, silently turned. It hit the lock and stopped.

A frustrated huff of breath came from the other side of the wood. Allison recognized that pathetic little sigh. Gwyneth.

Allison didn’t make a sound. She just stared at the door, a dark, violent promise settling in her chest. Tomorrow was going to be fun.