The sirens in Neo-Verona didn't sound like warnings anymore. They sounded like a funeral dirge.
Mila Volkov stood on the razor's edge of the skyscraper's helipad, the wind whipping her dark hair across her face like a lash. Below her, the city was a sprawling wound of neon and chrome. Rain soaked through her leather jacket, but she didn't feel the cold. She was too busy feeling the Rage.
"Stay back," she hissed.
In front of her stood the three Sovereigns. Dante Moretti loomed like a golden king, his presence cracking the concrete. Xavier Thorne played with a supernova in his palm, his violet eyes dancing with chaotic hunger.
But Mila's eyes were only on the third man.
Kyan Zale.
He emerged from the shadows like a bad dream. He didn't scream like Xavier or command like Dante. He was just... there. Cold. Constant. And for a long time, Mila had thought he was the only one who understood her. She had spent months thinking the silent protector in the shadows was her ally. She had even let herself feel a spark of warmth for him a crush she'd nursed in the dark of her lonely apartment.
She had been a fool.
"You," Mila whispered, her heart breaking even as her Void pulsed with fury. "It was you the whole time. You weren't protecting me from them. You were herding me toward them."
Kyan stepped into her Void zone. His shadow-powers vanished instantly, leaving him as just a man. He didn't look bothered. He looked... satisfied.
"I told you what you needed to hear, Mila," Kyan murmured, his voice as smooth as velvet and twice as suffocating.
He stepped closer, ignoring the way Dante's golden eyes flared with jealousy. Kyan reached out, his cold fingers hovering just an inch from the pulse point at her throat. He leaned in, his breath warm against her ear, speaking in a tone only she could hear.
"Don't look at them with that fire in your eyes," he whispered. "Look at me. Remember that night in the rain? When I held you while you cried? I'm still that man, Mila. I'm the only one who knows how your heart beats when you're scared."
Mila flinched. The manipulation was like a knife. He was using her feelings against her, weaponizing the one piece of herself she had been vulnerable enough to show him.
"You're a monster," she choked out.
"I'm a God who found his equal," Kyan corrected, his dark eyes searching hers with a terrifying, twisted devotion. "You're shaking. Is it rage? Or is it because you know that if you jump, I'm the only one who will follow you all the way down to hell? You won't do it. You love me too much to die without me."
He was playing her. He was betting on her crush to keep her on that roof.
Mila clenched her fists, her knuckles turning white. She looked at Dante's greed, Xavier's madness, and Kyan's cold, calculated betrayal.
"I'll kill you all," she promised, her voice trembling. "I'll strip your powers away and watch you crawl in the dirt. Especially you, Kyan."
Kyan didn't flinch. Instead, he gave her a small, haunting smile the one she used to think was beautiful, but now knew was a trap.
"I can't wait to see you try, my Queen."
The three monsters closed in. Mila stood on the edge, the Void screaming in her blood. She didn't know if she wanted to jump... or if she wanted to find out which of them would burn the world down first to keep her in their cage.