The laughter clawed at the edges of the parade ground, raw and jagged as the wind slicing through the pines that ringed Fort Blackwood. Rain hammered the asphalt in silver sheets, turning the world…
The violin music stopped the second the slap echoed across the mansion. Crystal glasses froze midair. Children stopped laughing. Even the waiters near the seven-tiered birthday cake—flown in from a patisserie in Paris—turned in…
I thought the fall would kill me—or my child. Blood cooled beneath my back on the polished hardwood, and above me, my husband smiled like a man admiring a clean signature at the bottom…
The simulator’s canopy sealed with a hydraulic hiss that sounded too much like a coffin lid. Alex Thorne—Raven Actual—let the darkness swallow her. Not the comforting black of a night flight over the Pacific,…
The tray hit the floor so hard the whole mess hall heard the metal bend. A burst of eggs, toast, and coffee scattered across the white tile. The plastic cup split open and sent…
Diaz went pale. Not nervous pale. Terrified pale. The kind of pale that appears when a person suddenly realizes a situation is much bigger than they understood. Gunnery Sergeant Rourke noticed it too. His…