Everyone seemed to know of the ritual mistreatment Addison Lane bestowed on me—everyone except for Caroline, who I could see in her office at the back of the building through the wall of glass bracketed by velvet curtains of palest pink. Beyond her stretched the city in layers, visible only in slats and rows of windows, towering in slivers granted by the maze of streets. I turned for the glass houses lining the galley of interns and assistants, the offices of the coordinators, including my own small space adjacent to Addison’s. A dozen senior coordinators worked at Archer, and I had been yoked to the worst of them all. Addison Lane had a reputation for being ambitious and self-serving, her motto something akin to, Whatever it takes.

My blood pressure rose with every beat of my heart as I made my way toward her office, seeing her long before I cared to. She sat behind her desk, elbow on her armrest, hand closed gently, elegantly in the air next to her face. Her hair was black as pitch, pulled into a ponytail, sleek and inky. She was a jackal of ancient Egypt, her skin fair, the rest of her dark—dark dress, dark hair, dark eyes, dark heart. Blood-red lips, wide and humorless, were the feature to note after the bottomless depths of her eyes, then the line of her jaw, the soft point of her chin. She was sharp angles and contempt, fueled by arrogance and superiority.

In short, she was the devil, Anubis reborn in a wedding planner, and my goddamn boss.

For now.

I didn’t bother pretending to smile when I walked into my space and stowed my things. Addison watched me coolly from the other side of the glass partition, nothing moving but her eyes as she tracked me.

“I’m sending Lila to approve it,” she said, her eyes on me but her face tilted toward the phone on her desk, “and if it’s not right, I expect you to make it right.”

“Of course, Ms. Lane,” the man on the other end said with a nervous edge to his voice.

Without a word of parting, her hand fell to disconnect him.

“What am I approving?” I asked shortly.

“Menu changes for the Hilton engagement party. You have enough events at the Skylight building to work it into your schedule, don’t you?”

It was a challenge, not a request.

“Of course,” I said, not afforded an alternative as I made a mental note to add her task to my calendar. “You wanted to see me?”

“Update me on the Felix event.” Her eyes flicked to the chair in front of her desk, the only invitation I’d get to sit.

So I did. “I got the call this morning that Skylight had a cancellation, so I booked it for the Felix reception.”

At that, her smile curled at the edges. “I’ll call and let her know.”