Rivals’ Folly
A standalone novel in The Inbetween Archives
They can work together.
They just really, really don’t want to.
Hannah Graves has a system.
“Ed” Rutherford keeps reorganising it.
This is, somehow, only the beginning of their problems.
They’re both Ravens lieutenants.
Both very good at what they do.
Both fiercely loyal to the same woman, the same faction and the same violent little moon they call home.
And both completely convinced the other one is an unbearable pain in the ass.
Then Rina and Sin leave the Folly, trouble starts moving against the Ravens, and Hannah and Ed are forced to do the one thing neither of them particularly wants:
Trust each other.
Welcome back to the Folly
Ludlow’s Folly is a black moon full of mercenaries, smugglers, weapons, factions, questionable substances and people who consider murder a perfectly reasonable form of conflict resolution.
It’s loud.
It’s dangerous.
It’s corrupt.
It’s home.
Hannah has spent years earning her place there.
Ed has spent considerably less time trying to work out whether he actually has one.
That difference matters.
Especially when someone decides the Ravens look vulnerable.
Meet Hannah
Hannah Eileen Graves
Ravens lieutenant.
Operations specialist.
Competent.
Organised.
Perfectly capable of handling herself.
Thank you very much.
Hannah has been part of Rina’s family for years. She knows the Folly, knows its factions and knows exactly how quickly weakness becomes blood in the streets.
She also knows how the armoury is supposed to be organised.
Ed does not.
Or, worse: he does.
He simply has a different system.
The bastard alphabetised it.
Meet Ed
Casimir “Cash” Rutherford
Except nobody on the Folly calls him that.
Here, he’s Ed.
Former SID Ethereal.
Former Central Planet golden boy.
Current Raven.
One arm.
Far too many identities.
And an infuriating habit of being extremely good at almost everything Hannah would prefer him to fail at.
Wraith gave him the name Ed almost by accident. Later, he chose to keep it.
Because Cash Rutherford belonged to SID.
Casimir Rutherford belongs to a world the Folly would eat alive.
Ed?
Ed might actually belong here.
If Hannah doesn’t kill him first.
Professional rivalry
They compete over everything.
Operations.
Weapons.
Piloting.
Information.
Who Rina trusts with what.
Who gets the last word.
Probably who breathes more efficiently.
And the really irritating part?
They work brilliantly together.
When things go bad, the arguments stop.
Hannah knows where Ed will move. Ed knows what Hannah will do.
Neither needs the other to explain.
Competence recognizes competence.
Unfortunately, attraction appears to have noticed too.
And then someone threatens their home
Rina and Sin are away.
Which should be manageable.
Hannah and Ed are lieutenants for a reason.
But the Folly has never believed in waiting politely for leadership to return before starting a territorial dispute.
Spider’s faction is moving.
Old loyalties are shifting.
Havoc has taken an increasingly personal interest in Hannah.
And the Ravens suddenly look vulnerable enough for people to test.
Hannah refuses to be intimidated.
Ed refuses to let her face it alone.
She would prefer he stop doing that.
Mostly.
The problem with Ed
He is irritating.
Orderly.
Smug.
Secretive.
Occasionally insufferable.
He calls her Princess specifically because she hates it.
And beneath all of that is somebody Hannah didn’t expect.
Someone who notices.
Someone who stays.
Someone who never treats her like she needs rescuing merely because he wants to protect her.
And, most inconveniently: someone she trusts.
The problem with Hannah
She sees Ed.
Not the Ethereal.
Not Cash.
Not Casimir Rutherford.
Not whichever polished identity he can pull on when an operation requires it.
Ed.
The man who irritates her.
The man who works beside her.
The man who somehow became part of her home before either of them noticed.
For someone whose entire life has involved becoming whatever the mission requires, being wanted as himself is considerably more terrifying than getting shot.
He has substantially more experience with the latter.
Rivals are easy
You know where you stand with a rival.
Across from them.
Preferably glaring.
Maybe armed.
Friendship makes things more complicated.
Trust makes things dangerous.
And attraction?
That is simply unnecessary.
Especially when faction politics are escalating, someone is stalking Hannah, and Ed keeps adopting new cover identities that make her want to punch him for entirely different reasons.
The good news is that they remain professionals throughout…
This is a lie.
Welcome to Merc Mom territory
There is another complication.
Rina.
Hannah was hers first.
Ed arrived later: wounded, displaced and with very few good options left.
Rina did what Rina does.
She kept him.
Neither Hannah nor Ed particularly enjoys examining what that means.
Because underneath their rivalry is something much less funny.
Hannah knows what it feels like to wonder whether somebody new can replace you.
Ed knows what it feels like to wonder whether your place is temporary.
They’re fighting over territory neither of them actually needs to defend.
Rina has enough room for both of them.
Getting the idiots to realise that is another matter entirely.
Expect
Rivals to lovers
Actual rivals.
Not “they misunderstood one another for seventeen minutes.”
They genuinely irritate each other. Having been doing so for almost a year.
Enthusiastically.
Competence
Nothing is sexier than someone who knows what they’re doing.
Unfortunately, they both know what they’re doing.
Found family
The Ravens are less a conventional family and more a heavily armed adoption programme with questionable oversight.
One bed?
Not the kind you’re hoping for.
There are many terrible situations available at the Folly.
Undercover identities
Ed has them.
Hannah has opinions about them.
Mutual protectiveness
Neither requires rescuing.
Both will absolutely come for the other anyway.
Banter
So much banter.
At some point, irritation ceases to be a plausible explanation for the amount of attention they’re paying each other.
Mercenary politics
Factions.
Territory.
Threats.
Deals.
The occasional public application of violence.
It’s the Folly.
But this is still The Inbetween Archives
The cosmic catastrophe has not disappeared simply because Ed and Hannah are busy failing to acknowledge their feelings.
Rivals’ Folly takes place alongside the events of Hostile Intent.
While much larger things are happening elsewhere in the galaxy, the Folly has problems of its own.
And Ed has history with one of those larger things.
Long before he became a Raven, he infiltrated the Children of the Deep Horizon as part of SID’s Cult operations. Later, he was one of the people warning Ghost Command that the Cult was mobilising around Helios.
That history hasn’t forgotten him.
And eventually, something calls.
Can I read Rivals’ Folly as a standalone?
Yes.
Ed and Hannah’s central story is self-contained.
You don’t need to understand Ghost Command, the Void, ancient Artifacts or why everyone reacts strangely when somebody says Helios.
You’ll get the necessary context.Readers of the wider series will, however, recognise:
Rina.
Sin.
The Folly.
Ed’s rather unfortunate SID history.
And some connections to the main story that mean considerably more when you know what’s happening elsewhere.
Where does it fit?
For Inbetween Archives readers, I recommend:
Hard Parole
Conditional Release
Ghost Formation
Flight Risk
Rivals’ Folly
Then continue with:
Hostile Intent
Final Appeal
Rivals’ Folly takes place concurrently with the start of Hostile Intent, but its core story belongs to Hannah, Ed and the Ravens rather than Ghost Command’s main operation.
Reader advisory
Rivals’ Folly contains:
- Violence
- Assault
- Abduction
- Threats and stalking/harassment
- Implied past abuse
- Mercenary and faction violence
- Drugs and illegal substances
- Corruption
- Strong language
- Injury and blood
- References to past trauma
- Sexual content between consenting adults
It also contains extremely questionable loyalty, poor emotional communication and people using violence to solve problems that arguably could have been discussed over coffee.
The Folly considers this normal.
This one is for the romance readers
If your favourite relationship dynamic is:
I hate you.
No, you don’t.
Alphabetise my armoury again and find out.
followed eventually by:
Who hurt you?
Then you’ve found your people.
Or at least two of them.
Ready to visit the Folly?
Hannah has a system.
Ed has opinions.
Someone is threatening the Ravens.
Neither of them is willing to back down.
And somewhere between professional rivalry, undercover operations, faction violence and one too many moments of unexpected honesty… things get complicated.
Rivals’ Folly
Enemies are simple.
Rivals are fun.
Falling for one is just inconvenient.
COMING SEPTEMBER 2026
New to The Inbetween Archives?
You don’t have to begin here.
The main series starts with:
Hard Parole
A woman too dangerous to kill.
A man too principled to leave her behind.
One Tether.
Several ghosts.
A rapidly escalating number of terrible decisions.
The complete novel is free to read online.
Already caught up?
Then you know exactly who Ed is.
You may even remember when Wraith named him because she couldn’t be bothered asking his actual name.
He chose to keep it.
Now meet the woman who makes it matter.
Rivals’ Folly
A standalone novel in The Inbetween Archives
by AJ Pryor
Two rivals. One home. Absolutely according to plan.