Lillian Blackwood was going to be fired on her first day.
She clutched her coffee-stained resume and sprinted through the marble lobby of Valderon Investment Group, her heels clicking against the floor like a countdown timer. 8:23 AM. She was supposed to be here at 8:00 sharp. Her new boss probably already had her replacement lined up.
"Hold the elevator!" she called out, diving between the closing silver doors.
She crashed into someone's chest. Hard.
"Sorry, sorry, I'm so—" The words died in her throat.
The man she'd collided with looked like he'd stepped out of a magazine cover. Dark hair perfectly styled, wearing a suit that probably cost more than her rent. His midnight-blue eyes studied her with the kind of cold calculation that made her want to check if her soul was still attached.
"You're dripping coffee on my shoes," he said.
Lillian looked down. Her coffee cup had indeed splattered across his probably-Italian leather shoes. Great. Just great.
"I said I'm sorry." She pulled out a tissue and bent down. "I can clean—"
"Don't."
The word came out sharp enough to cut glass. She straightened up, meeting his gaze. Something about his tone made her spine stiffen.
"Look, it was an accident. No need to be a complete—"
"Late for your first day?" He glanced at the visitor badge hanging crooked from her jacket. "Lillian Blackwood, intern."
How did he know it was her first day? The badge just said 'visitor.' A chill ran down her spine that had nothing to do with the air conditioning.
"That's none of your business." She moved to the opposite corner of the elevator, putting as much distance between them as possible in the small space.
He pressed the button for the fortieth floor. The top floor. Of course.
"Actually, it is my business. I own this building."
Lillian's stomach dropped faster than the elevator was rising. "You're..."
"Adrian Valderon. Your boss."
She wanted to disappear. Maybe melt into the elevator floor. Instead, she did what she always did when cornered—she fought back.
"Well, Mr. Valderon, maybe you should put up better signs in your lobby. The directory was completely useless, and your security guard gave me directions to the wrong bank of elevators." She crossed her arms. "Also, your coffee in the lobby tastes like it was filtered through old socks."
His eyebrows rose slightly. "You're criticizing my building's coffee?"
"I'm stating facts."
For a moment, she thought she saw the corner of his mouth twitch. But it was gone so fast she might have imagined it.
"Most people in your position would be apologizing."
"Most people in your position would be more understanding about honest mistakes."
The elevator hummed around them, climbing higher. Twenty-third floor. Twenty-fourth. She was trapped in a metal box with her new boss, who she'd just insulted multiple times. Her mother was going to kill her. Right after she killed herself from embarrassment.
"You have something on your wrist," Adrian said suddenly.
Lillian glanced down. A thin red mark circled her wrist like a bracelet. Weird. It hadn't been there this morning.
"It's probably from my bag strap." She rubbed at it, but the mark stayed. If anything, it seemed to get darker.
Adrian was staring at her wrist with an expression she couldn't read. Intense. Almost hungry.
"Let me see."
"What? No." She pulled her sleeve down. "That's completely inappropriate."
"I need to—"
"You need to what? Examine my wrist like I'm some kind of specimen?" Anger flared in her chest. Hot and sudden. "I don't care if you own this building. You don't own me."
She reached out and grabbed his wrist, intending to push his hand away.
The moment her fingers touched his skin, the world exploded.
Light blazed between them, so bright it seared her vision. The elevator shuddered like it was caught in an earthquake. Every light in the small space flickered and died, plunging them into darkness.
Then the elevator stopped moving entirely.
Lillian yanked her hand back, heart hammering. In the emergency lighting that had kicked in, she could see Adrian's face. His eyes were wide with something that looked like shock. And fear.
"What the hell was that?" she whispered.
Before he could answer, the building's lights visible through the small elevator window began to flicker. First the floor they were stopped on. Then the floor below. And below that. Like dominoes falling in reverse, the entire building's electrical system was going haywire.
"This is impossible," Adrian muttered, but he wasn't looking at the lights. He was staring at her.
Lillian looked down at her wrist. The red mark was glowing. Actually glowing, like it was lit from the inside.
"Okay," she said, proud that her voice only shook a little. "I think we need to talk."
Adrian reached into his jacket and pulled out his phone. No signal. He tried the emergency button on the elevator panel. Nothing.
"We're stuck," he said.
"I figured that out." She sank against the elevator wall. "This is not how I imagined my first day going."
"How did you imagine it?"
"Not trapped in an elevator with my boss after causing some kind of... electrical storm." She gestured at the still-flickering lights outside. "This is crazy. Things like this don't happen to people like me."
"People like you?"
"Normal people. Boring people. People who can barely afford their student loans and live on ramen noodles."
Adrian was quiet for a long moment. When he spoke, his voice was different. Softer, somehow.
"What if I told you that you're not as normal as you think?"
Lillian laughed, but it came out shaky. "Right now, I'd believe just about anything."
The elevator gave another shudder, and the emergency lights dimmed.
"We need to get out of here," Adrian said. He moved to the control panel and did something she couldn't see in the dim light. "The building's systems are destabilizing."
"Because of what I did?"
"Because of what we did." He looked at her, and in the red glow of the emergency lighting, his eyes seemed to flash gold for just a second. "Together."
Lillian's mouth went dry. "That's impossible."
"A lot of impossible things are about to become very possible for you, Lillian Blackwood."
The way he said her name made it sound like he'd known it long before reading her visitor badge. Like he'd been waiting for her.
A metallic screech filled the elevator as Adrian forced open a panel she hadn't even noticed. Behind it was a ladder leading up to an escape hatch.
"Can you climb?" he asked.
"Can I climb? Can you explain what just happened?"
"Not here. Not now." He gestured to the ladder. "Up."
Lillian hesitated. Every instinct told her not to trust this man. He was too calm about the impossible thing that had just occurred. Too prepared for an emergency that shouldn't have happened.
But the alternative was staying trapped in a metal box that was clearly malfunctioning.
She grabbed the ladder and started climbing.
As she pushed open the escape hatch and pulled herself onto the roof of the elevator car, she heard Adrian behind her. The elevator shaft stretched above and below them, a dark tunnel that seemed to go on forever.
"Now what?" she called down.
"Now," Adrian said, hauling himself up beside her with surprising grace, "we get to safety. And then I tell you exactly who you really are."
The way he said it made her think she wasn't going to like the answer.
But as they began the long climb up the emergency ladder toward the nearest floor, Lillian couldn't shake the feeling that whatever was happening to her had been waiting to happen for a very long time.
And that Adrian Valderon had been waiting for it too.
End of Chapter 1