Chapter One
Yun
This is my last chance.
The warning rang in my head on repeat, over and over again, reminding me that I couldn’t fuck this up.No matter how often I’d screwed it up in the past—and I had, plenty of times—I couldn’t let that happennow.
I’d worn a fitted suit, something the Guild had gotten me.Normally, the expensive fabrics and marvelous craftsmanship would have landed far outside my price range, but the Guild offered some perks to members.They helped out with work expenses, and since I’d never used those services, they’d approved the new outfit with ease.
The woman who worked at the upscale clothing store had sworn up and down that I looked wonderful, and, to be honest, I’d hardly recognized the girl I’d seen in those large mirrors in the changing room.She’d appeared put together, as though she had everything sorted out in her life.
Well, minus the bags under her eyes, the ones that came from chronic, crippling insomnia.
Still, whether I looked the part didn’t change how I felt—entirely unprepared.I doubted anything short of a complete rewrite of my entire life would change that.
Someone walked by on the street, peering toward me with an untrusting side-eye.
So, maybe standing in front of an office building for what had to have been ten minutes was suspicious.I could almost picture the Guild giving me an earful should I get the cops called on me for loitering.
Just go for it.
My knuckles ached from the hard, dark wood of the door after I knocked.The nameplate hanging at eye level read “Reject Squad.”
The name had me nearly shaking my head.That wasn’t their actual name, of course.Officially, on all the documents, I’d been paired with Squad S412.Reject Squad was what others called them in jest, while people sneered and spread whatever rumors were going around at the time.
Just how many of those rumors were true?
It was impossible to tell because they never addressed any of them.Instead, they reveled in the lies, in the rumors, in the way people talked shit about them.
And I’m supposed to join this clusterfuck?
Yeah, I was, because this was it for me.
The door opened and a man with long, dirty-blond hair looked out, so tall that he at first looked not at me but over my head and past me.He lowered his gaze to mine.
Would he yell at me?
Espers weren’t known for having great temperaments.
Or perhaps he’d order me in, tell me to start guiding right this moment.
My stomach rolled at that thought, at the fear that swarmed through me like a million crawling bugs.
“Where are the cookies?”
His words caught me so off guard that my brain struggled to come up with anything in response.
He turned his head slightly and called past him, into the darkness of the building which I couldn’t see into, “I don’t see any cookies.”He faced me again, his brows furrowed as though this cookie debacle were the great, lingering question of our generation.“Did you hide them or something?Did you forget them?One time I got sent to the store for mac and cheese and I ended up spending all the money Carter gave me at this taco truck outside, so I came back without anything.It’s fine, here.”He reached into his jeans pocket, then shoved a fistful of money at my chest until I took it more from surprise than anything else.“That’s enough.No tacos this time, though.”He closed the door in my face.
Which left me standing there with what—when I looked down—turned out to be at least eight hundred dollars in fifties and twenties and no idea what the fuck had just happened.
Part of me wondered if I should just leave.Was any job worth this?These guys were insane, right?That was the only explanation.
Except, the words of the Guild president again whispered through my mind.
My last chance.
If I failed here, if I didn’t make this work, I had no idea where I’d land.
