There was a reason for Max's late arrival, and it wasn't because he wanted to make some grand entrance, like some movie star arriving fashionably late. No, that wasn't it at all.
The real reason was far more mundane, but also more telling: he had completely lost track of time. Not out of carelessness, but because his mind had been swimming in thought, obsessing over his newest ability, the strange and unpredictable power of the Vow.
To someone like Max, someone who had survived and thrived as the head of the White Tiger group, understanding the rules was only the first step. The next was breaking them, or at least bending them until they almost snapped. He had made a career, a life, out of finding loopholes and back doors, of thinking five steps ahead and sidestepping disaster. Now, he was trying to do the same thing with his ability.
