“So you admit it,” Rose said, combative. The holo chess board glowed blue, its five levels stacked in the shape of a step-wise graph. Rose reached with long, elegant fingers to make an excessively aggressive opening move.

  “Rose, I’m not trying to argue right now,” Asa said.

  Rose laughed, short and sharp. “Don’t bullshit me,” he said. “You’re always trying to argue.”

  “Then maybe you should stop being so annoying,” Asa said, exasperated. He studied the board carefully before finally making his own opening move. PQ-9 beeped a sad sound that had the air of his mother’s violin. Rose quickly made a counter move, as if he had been waiting for Asa to do exactly what he had done. “Geez, at least take a second to think about it.”

  “I don’t need to think about it,” Rose said coolly. “It’s none of your business what I do anyway.”

  “It’s totally my business when I’m the one reviewing your contracts,” Asa argued. PQ-9 dropped from Asa’s shoulder to the desk in order to better view the board, even though he always refused to counsel strategy. Asa swore PQ-9 liked Rose better than him sometimes. Asa moved a piece in a way that his mother would probably disapprove of, which PQ-9 confirmed by shaking his head.

  “You can’t just pick and choose whenever it’s convenient to stick your nose into something,” Rose said.

  “Why not?” Asa said. “It’s my life. I can do whatever I want.”

  Rose pointedly looked at Asa’s chest, where the tattoo was. Asa had never been more thankful that his collar covered the other contract tattoo. “Not anymore,” Rose said. “Now you’re obligated to—who?”

  “Dandelion,” the demon piped up from where he had been reading one of Rose’s texts.

  “Did you give him that name?” Rose said, raising his eyebrows.

  “No!” Asa said and then sighed. “It was a joke.”

  “Cute,” Rose said, the same cool smile on his face. “But that wasn’t who I was talking about.” He jerked his head at Asa. “You know all the contracts lit up, right? I saw the one on your neck.”

  “None of your business,” Asa said, the muscles tensing in his shoulders and back. His stomach contracted as he thought of the Galatea from the other time-line.

  She had smelled like pipe tobacco. Asa could imagine the long thin red lacquer pipe that she probably used. After all, his mother had smoked that same pipe until she suddenly quit when he was five years old. His mother in this time-line. Asa’s heart clenched in his chest, as the image of his mother lying still and unmoving slid intrusively into his mind. There was, again, the slow and unraveling realization that his mother had died, and then he had run into this time-line to find his mother a second time.

  Rose held up his hands on mock-peace. “Whoever it is, they must have really unsettled you,” Rose said evenly.

  “You wouldn’t get it,” Asa said tightly. “So stop trying.”

  Then Asa winced. When they had fought two years ago, Rose had relentlessly pressured Asa to sign the House contract rather than be expelled. But then Asa’s mother would have had to pay the penalty for the broken terms of her secondary contract, which established that Asa was not contracted to the House. Asa had bitterly said, “You don’t have parents, so what do you know about what I’m going through?”

  Now Asa he remembered the look on Rose’s face: shock and hurt so deep that Asa had immediately felt cleaved with shame.

  Rose’s cool little smile dropped, replaced by a tightness in his mouth that meant he had also thought of that same moment two years ago. Asa hadn’t intentionally tried to invoke that moment, but it had happened because he spoke without thinking. Rose wasn’t dumb. He knew Asa better than anyone, other than Galatea.

  “You’re really racking up contracts after acting like you’re too good to ever sign one,” Rose said bitterly.

  Asa glanced at the chess board. He had been making moves without thinking, too distracted by Rose to think deeply about the game. His side of the boards were glaringly empty.

  Asa wasn’t just losing, he was getting destroyed.

  The door suddenly banged open, and Mouse barged in with a bright energy that interrupted the tense atmosphere. “What are you guys doing?” she said, looking interestedly at the 5-D chess game.

  “Here, you can watch me win,” Rose said, smiling coolly again as if nothing had happened while Mouse was gone.

  Mouse looked at Asa with shock. “You’re losing?” she said, sounding betrayed.

  Asa shrugged jerkily, feeling a little more defensive than he wanted. Mouse crossed her arms and looked very seriously at the board, her black brows drawing together in a focused frown.

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  “This is the queen,” Rose told Mouse, pointing at his own queen that had been conquering Asa’s half of the boards. “Where do you think I should move her next?”

  “What about the king?” Mouse said curiously.

  “The king is useless,” Rose said dismissively. “He’s only there to be protected. But the queen can move however she wants.”

  Mouse nodded seriously. “There,” she said, pointing at an open spot on the board. Asa raised his eyebrows. He didn’t know if it was luck or not, but she had picked a move that was going to cause Asa even more trouble.

  “I thought you wanted me to win,” Asa complained, but he couldn’t feel as annoyed as he wanted to because Rose smiled—a real smile that Asa hadn’t seen in a long, long time.

  “Very good,” Rose told Mouse. “What did you make with Luna?”

  “Chocolate cookies,” Mouse said excitedly. She made a face. “But she made me eat a sandwich first.”

  Rose laughed, warm and clear. “She’s pretty strict, hm?”

  “Yes!” Mouse agreed, looking at Rose with shining eyes.

  “Guess you wouldn’t want to live here,” Rose said, leaning his chin on his hand to look at Mouse directly.

  Asa frowned, moving a piece without really looking or thinking about it. PQ-9 shook his head. Asa groaned when he realized it placed his king in direct danger of Rose’s queen.

  “I’m supposed to live at the House now,” Mouse said solemnly. “But here is okay too.”

  “You don’t actually have to live at the House,” Asa said. “You didn’t sign a contract.”

  Rose examined the board, raised his eyebrows, and then made a move that caused PQ-9 to send Asa a video of a pod crashing into another pod and then exploding.

  “Do you live at the House?” Mouse asked Asa, guileless.

  “No,” Asa said, determinedly not looking at Rose. He kept his tone gentle but firm. “But that has no bearing on whether you live at the House.”

  “I want to live with you,” Mouse said.

  “That’s not an option,” Asa said patiently. It didn’t matter what strategy Asa used now—he was going to lose anyway. So Asa moved his final piece in the path of the queen to sacrifice himself for his king. “You can live at the House, or you can live with Rose’s people.”

  “Wow,” Rose observed as his gaze raked across the board. His hand hovered over his queen, his rings glittering under the golden light of the lamps. Then he moved his queen, PQ-9 sending Asa a video of someone over-watering a plant. “Checkmate,” Rose said, but he didn’t sound satisfied.

  Mouse pummeled Asa’s upper arm with small fists. “How did you lose?” she demanded.

  “Ow,” Asa said, rubbing his arm.

  “Good question,” Rose said mildly. Asa could tell that Rose knew that Asa hadn’t played at his best—and Rose wasn’t happy about it.

  “Well, you won,” Asa said before Rose could lecture him. “What do you want?”

  Rose’s smiled was a little sharp, glowing with something that Asa knew he wasn’t going to like.

  “Come to the Black Market with me,” Rose invited, and Asa reflexively opened his mouth to protest, but Rose talked over him. “You lost, those are the terms.”

  Asa stared at him. “Are you fucking kidding me,” he said flatly.

  Rose covered Mouse’s ears and gave him a scolding look.

  Asa sighed loudly. “I’m sure she’s heard worse,” he said. “Also, I’m not going. Why are you even dealing with the Black Market?”

  Rose shrugged one shoulder, casual and performative. It reminded Asa horribly of the Galatea from the other time-line. “None of your business,” Rose said, leaning back in his chair to look at Asa just as flatly.

  “Yes, it IS my business when you’re asking me to go with you to the Market and refusing to tell me why,” Asa said. “Even my mother has never gone to the Black Market.”

  “That’s because the House has an exclusivity clause,” Rose said. “The Syndicate doesn’t work like that.” Rose pointedly files away the contracts that Asa had reviewed and then places his hands on his desk to push himself to standing. “Thanks,” Rose said, smiling insincerely. “Luna will walk you out.”

  “Rose, this is stupid,” Asa argued, even as he could hear the clicking of Luna’s boots as she walked up to the office. “What could possibly be worth it for you to do this? It’s dangerous, and you know it.”

  Luna placed strong hands on Asa’s shoulders and steered him toward the door. “Come on, the boss says it’s time to go,” Luna said. She was stronger than Asa wanted to admit—it’s not like he had a lot of time to work out these days, with all the gig work he had to do just to pay rent. Asa couldn’t believe the little girl he had taught everything she knew about pods was his height now.

  “If it were ME telling you I was going to go to the Black Market, you’d be laughing at me,” Asa pointed out. “You’d be telling me how much of an idiot I am–” he shouted the last part because Luna pushed him into the hallway, and he couldn’t see Rose anymore. Mouse trailed after them, carrying the demon in her arms, distracted by sheer amount of stuff that littered the walls and floor.

  “But I was just getting to the good part,” the demon complained.

  “See you tomorrow at 7:00,” Rose called, right before Luna kicked the door shut with her boot.

  “You’re really going to let him do this?” Asa said as she marched him to the front door. It wasn’t like Rose was going to listen to him. But maybe he would listen to his second-in-command. Luna definitely had an investment in keeping Rose alive and well—especially since the alternative would be Boss’ son, who had already gone through a bunch of second-in-commands in the last few months.

  “You think I let Rose do anything?” Luna said, incredulous.

  “He should listen to you,” Asa argued. “You’re his second-in-command for a reason.”

  “He’ll be with you,” she said, shoving him out the door. Mouse followed with PQ-9 scolding her loudly. She had probably stolen something based on PQ-9’s tone. Asa didn’t want to deal with it. “Keep him safe,” Luna said, smiling brightly. She waved at them. “Or else!”

  Then she slammed the front door in his face.

  “Agh,” Asa said, staring at the door. “Fuck.”

  “That’s a bad word,” Mouse said gleefully.

  Asa swung to face Mouse, hands on his hips, frowning down at her. “And it’s time for you to go back to the House,” he said.

  “Nuh-uh,” she said, looking shifty.

  “Yes, it is,” Asa said patiently. “You’re the one who decided to stay there instead of going somewhere else—”

  “I think he lives this way,” the demon was saying to Mouse as they started walking away. “I can smell the traces of his soul over there.”

  Asa did NOT live in that direction, which was the Diamond District from which he was banned for running a year-long digital scam. Asa pressed his hand against the bridge of his nose and took a very deep breath before he called out, “Hey! You’re going in the wrong direction!”

  PQ-9 sighed in one long atonal beep as Asa jogged ahead to lead all of them back to his apartment.