I bit back on a reply about stating the obvious and said, “I won’t let you down.”
“I know you won’t,” he told me with a smile. “I suggest you join the rest of your team,” he added before walking off.
The room had split off into groups as people joined their colleagues for the project. Glancing down at the folder again, I flipped through the pages, scanning through the information until I saw two familiar names: Charlotte Brown and Matthew Holden. When I looked up again, Charlie waved me over.
“I’m glad we’re working together,” she said once I’d squeezed my way through the room and joined her.
She opened her arms and I stepped into them, receiving the hug. The silk of her blouse was cool to touch and slipped beneath my fingertips. Charlie was one of the only people I knew who was warm from the first meeting.
“Same,” I agreed after she released me from the hug. “Better head to the lab.”
We left the conference room, the silence of the corridors wrapping around us as we made our way to the eleventh floor where our lab was based. The institute had thirteen floors; a towering building that had the strictest level of security around it. The ground floor was designated for conference rooms, offices, the canteen, and breakrooms. Every other floor in the main building held lab space and offices, one for every God and Goddess that comprised the Elysian elite.
Stepping into the lift with some others, I reached across and jabbed at the button marked ’11’ to take us up to our floor.
Charlie’s blonde bob swayed around her chin when she turned to look at me. “Trust us to be stuck with the drama queen,” she muttered quietly.
“I’m not sure we should call him that,” I replied, but the corner of my mouth tugged tellingly.
“What else do you call someone who puts on a spectacular display like that?”
I couldn’t argue.
Dr Charlotte Brown, affectionately known as Charlie Brown to her friends, was a behavioural psychologist and the more qualified out of the both of us to refer to the God as a drama queen.
We’d met last January at the initial orientation and quickly formed a friendship. With just under a decade more experience than me, Charlie treated me with the same level of respect as any of the other seasoned colleagues. A gesture that I deeply appreciated.
The crowd thinned as people exited the lift at their desired floors, and I felt a nervous knot forming in the pit of my stomach. It was the same knot that appeared every single time I sat down for an exam or called into an office. The type of knot that soured my tastebuds until I was struggling to keep my breakfast down.
Eventually, we reached the eleventh floor, stepped out of the lift, and took a right. The laboratory had a glass front so that the inside was visible from the corridor. Privacy within the building was a luxury they did not afford us. They arranged workbenches along the room, with an aisle splitting the space through the middle, and a fresh set of white lab coats hung on hooks on the wall.
“Dr Brown. Dr Scott.” Matthew Holden greeted us both as we walked into the room.
His strong build, attributed to his military service, and dark attire, placed him as a member of the strict security recruited for the job. But it was the red access card, E.L.I.’s logo boldly emblazoned upon it, that he played with, that singled him out as the head of the project on this floor. That little piece of plastic would grant Matt access to every room on this floor without permission from anyone else.
“Hey, Holden.” I returned his greeting in a more casual manner.
Years of protocol dictated that I wore a lab coat inside the lab. Holding the folder between my knees, I shrugged one on over my shirt and straightened up again. The starched white fabric made me feel at home. More in control.
“Did you read through the file yet?” he asked us as I pulled it from between my legs.
“Not really,” Charlie replied. “We were just given them, Matthew.”
His cheeks coloured a little, and I pushed down on the small spark of jealousy that rose from the depths of my chest. As head of the entire floor, Matt would have been privy to information before the rest of us.
I took a seat at one of the benches, joining Charlie and opening the folder again. My eyes scanned along the information, drinking it in as I pulled my hair up into a messy bun.
“He’snot happy,” Matt informed us.
Charlie glanced up at him. “We already know that. I’d bet the entire institute already knows that.”
I only partially paid attention to them as I read over the notes Gareth had provided.
Hunter ruled the Gods of Elysia, and Grayson was one of his younger brothers. Under the section highlighting responsibilities, there were three attributes listed: chaos, vengeance, and destruction.
Thanks a lot, Gareth,I thought to myself.Rile up the psycho and then give him to us.
Charlie had read over the same words and quirked a blonde eyebrow. “Oh, I can’t wait to observe him.”
