Page 61 of Green Ravens

I don’t give a fuck what you want.

Valor’s voice echoed in his mind.

Be complacent, agreeable, obedient.

Zorion exhaled and gave a curt nod.

Once Cipher and his men disappeared into another booth, the light dimmed.

A digital forest materialized around him. Predators stirred in the underbrush, and before he knew it, he was being hunted.

Zorion’s heartbeat slowed. He vaulted onto a high beam and sat still.

Every jump and dodge felt instinctive. His reflexes were sharper than swords. He glided from rafter to beam, back to rafter with shocking smoothness. His body reacted to threats before his mind did.

Traps were hurled and nets launched. Zorion evaded them all. The high beams were his domain.

The simulation seemed to adapt to his strategy as flames erupted, licking up the sides of the walls—it was a simulation, but the room heated to an unbreathable temperature—and the beams collapsed.

Still, his senses never faltered. His steps as he ran were soundless.

Zorion was moving on autopilot, and he was glad. Otherwise, he’d be freaked out by his new skills.

Without warning, the environment morphed from wilderness to an abandoned urban landscape—gutted buildings with broken windows, narrow dark alleys, and decaying vacant structures.

Drones buzzed overhead and laser tripwires crisscrossed the floor. Danger surrounded him as Zorion balanced steadily on top of a jutting ledge with steady breaths.

He leaped down to avoid a drone, using a crumbling wall as his cover. The mechanical device circled his hiding space, and Zorion heard it a second before it found him.

He twisted in midair, skimming the laser, and hoisted himself up onto a beam disguised as a rooftop. If he’d had a bat, it would’ve been easy to simply knock the damn thing out of the sky.

Next, a vertical wall emerged through an opening in the floor, slick with water pouring from the sprinklers. There were no ropes, footholds, or levers on the ten-foot wall.

Zorion ran across the floor at what he thought was his top speed because his feet barely touched the ground. He leaped and kicked against the wall to give himself the small boost he needed and latched onto the ledge with his fingertips.

The lights returned as he dangled and then silence filled the vast space.

Zorion let go and dropped to his feet.

Cipher and his men walked toward him with satisfied grins stretching their ugly faces.

Zorion was about to tell them all what they could do with their simulation—then he sawhimtrailing a few feet behind.

Valor.

Instant calm filled Zorion.

He watched with bated breath as the man he’d met last night emerged from the shadows cloaked in head-to-toe emerald.

He strolled across the room as if he owned the place.

The deep-green hood was so low he couldn’t see Valor’s bright-hazel eyes, but he could feel their gleam.

Zorion wondered if Valor knew how dangerously beautiful he was.

With only three-quarters of Valor’s face visible, Zorion focused on the sculpted features he could still see.

Every part of him hollered to close the distance, to touch, to feel his aura of security again, but he held still.

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