Obsidian Eyes by A.W. Exley

calculations on how far it could travel independently of an airship.” He crossed his arms and then uncrossed them as his hands crept back to the workbench for something to hold.
    Jared let out a low whistle. “You could annihilate your enemy and never see their faces. What’s the accuracy?”
    “We don’t know for sure yet. But my calculations show the resulting explosion would be… devastating.” Zeb chewed his bottom lip.
    “And imagine the civilian casualties of something that indiscriminate,” Jared said, brushing a black lock out of his eyes and back behind his ears. Allie and Jared exchanged looks. Allie could see other implications for Zeb’s invention and it involved dancing dollar signs.
    “Is this the problem that keeps exploding?” Allie glanced around, hoping none of the cylinders littering the worktops were building up internal pressure.
    “Yes, now will you excuse me so I can get back to solving that issue?” Zeb asked, gesturing at the array of parts littering his workbench.
    “All right.” Jared picked his way back through the lab and put a hand on the small of Allie’s back, ushering her out in front of him.
    “One more question.” She halted by the door. “I have to know what that is.” She pointed to the black nightmare lurking in the corner.
    Zeb’s gaze followed her outstretched arm. “Thumper.”
    Allie arched an eyebrow. “Is Thumper anything like Weasel?”
    Zeb scratched his head. “I don’t know, technically it shouldn’t be but I haven’t activated it yet.”
    “Why not?” As hard as she stared, she still couldn’t discern what creature Thumper was modelled after.
    He stared at his feet and mumbled something.
    “Pardon?”
    “I said I can’t get it out the door.”
    Allie glanced at the giant wind-up toy. In size it was bigger than a horse but smaller than an elephant and it definitely would not fit out the door and up the narrow hallway. She bit her lip to supress the laughter. Genius didn’t always go hand in hand with common sense. “Can you pull it apart and reassemble it?”
    “Oh yes, but I don’t have another laboratory.”
    “It’s summer, why don’t you move it in pieces to one of the stalls in the stable? It will give you plenty of undercover space to work and the barn is designed for larger animals to come and go.”
    A broad smile broke over his face. “By gods, that’s a brilliant idea.” He abandoned the piece of machinery in his hands and picked up a screwdriver. With a gleam in his eyes, he advanced on his largest creation.
    “And Jared broke your lock,” Allie called out as they left, which earned her a scowl from Jared, Zeb too intent on Thumper to notice.
    “Well now we know why KRAC is twitchy,” Allie said after the door closed and they started up the stairs. “Imagine if this got loose.”
    Jared put his hand on Allie’s arm, spinning her to face him in the confined space. “You have to tell me what you’re thinking. Is this why you’re here, to steal the plans for the propulsion unit?”
    Looking up at him, she guessed why he wanted her input. She just didn’t want to provide an answer. She tried to throw him off from further questions. “What on earth makes you think I know anything? This is way out of my league—I spent time with the Runners, not the Reapers.”
    “That’s why.” He gave her a wry smile. “You know about the guilds and how they operate.”
    Neatly trapped by her guild life she answered on instinct, without thinking. She sighed. Molly-coddled aristocrats with no idea of how the world really works.
    “Can I cross the Grim Reapers off the list of guilds you might belong to then?”
    She blew out a deep sigh. “This isn’t a game anymore.”
    “No, it’s not. Whatever it is, it revolves around my friend.” His tone changed.
    She looked up into his eyes and saw concern.
    “There’s no one else I can talk to about this and I believe you know far more than anyone else. To Zeb all this is an