Damien's POV
Aria stares at her phone screen like it's a bomb about to explode.
"Let me see." I move closer, looking over her shoulder at the video. Veronica's cold smile. Marcus's purple eyes glowing in the dim light. The murder contract spoken so casually.
"He has powers too," Aria whispers. "My ex-fiancé. The man who destroyed my life. He's one of us."
"How long?" I study Marcus's face in the video. He looks confident. Comfortable with his abilities. "He's not a newbie."
Aria rewinds the video, watching Marcus's movements. "He's too smooth. Too controlled. Like you, not like me."
"At least six months," I estimate. "Maybe a year. That would explain how he got promoted to partner so fast at his law firm. Devil-enhanced persuasion and legal knowledge."
"So Veronica recruited him." Aria's voice turns bitter. "She gave him powers, promised him my inheritance, and sent him to destroy me from the inside. Everything—the engagement, the love, all of it—was just her plan."
I want to tell her that's not true. That some of it must have been real.
But I've had five years with these powers. Five years learning that people with devil deals rarely do anything without calculation.
"Probably," I say instead. Honest. "I'm sorry."
"Don't be." She closes the video, her eyes flashing red. "I'm done being sad about Marcus. Now I'm just angry. And anger I can use."
That's the spirit I saw in the alley. The fire that made me want to help her instead of turn her in.
My phone buzzes. A text from my assistant, Sienna: "Boss, the mayor's office called six times. They want you for a press conference tomorrow morning. Something about the Lady Justice case. Should I confirm?"
I type back: "Cancel everything. I'm off the grid for a few days."
Sienna: "What??? You never take time off. Are you sick? Dying? Finally having a mental breakdown?"
Me: "Something like that."
I silence my phone before she can respond with more questions. Sienna's been my assistant for three years—sharp, loyal, too perceptive for her own good. She'll figure out something's wrong. But she can't know about this. Can't know what I am.
"The mayor wanted me to catch you," I tell Aria. "Hired Thorne Security to stop Lady Justice. That's how I found you—I was tracking your movements, analyzing your patterns."
"And now you're wanted for helping me instead." She looks guilty. "I destroyed your life too. Your reputation, your company—"
"My company will survive. My reputation was already terrible." I lean against the wall of my safe house, suddenly exhausted. "People call me the Ice King. The CEO without a heart. They're not wrong. Five years of devil powers stripped away most of my ability to feel normally."
"Most? Not all?"
I meet her eyes. In the dim light, I can see the red glow beneath her normal brown. "Not all. Some emotions still break through. Rare ones. Strong ones."
"Like what?"
"Like the rage I felt when I saw you ready to fight Veronica alone. Or the fear when those cops had guns pointed at you." The words come out before I can stop them. "Or the... something else when you risked everything to break me out tonight."
Aria's breath catches. "Damien—"
"Don't." I cut her off. "I'm not good at this. At feeling things. At connecting with people. I had a sister once, before my deal. She was my whole world. When she died, I made sure I'd never care about anyone that much again."
"What happened to her?"
"A politician's son raped and murdered her. She was sixteen." The words are flat. Clinical. I've said them so many times they've lost meaning. "He walked free because his father paid off the right people. That's when Ezekiel found me. Offered me power to make sure it never happened again."
"Did you kill him? The politician's son?"
"No." I close my eyes. "I destroyed his father's career, exposed every crime the family committed, and made sure the son went to prison for twenty years on different charges. Legal justice. Permanent justice."
"You didn't want revenge?"
"I wanted it." My hands curl into fists. "But my sister wouldn't have wanted me to become a murderer. So I found another way." I look at Aria again. "That's what I'm trying to teach you. You have incredible power now. You can ruin people without killing them. You can make them suffer legally, publicly, permanently."
"What if legal justice isn't enough?" Her voice is small. "What if Veronica's too connected, too powerful? What if the only way to stop her is—"
"Then you become her." I say it gently but firmly. "You become the monster. And in thirty years when your time runs out, you'll die knowing you failed. Because monsters don't change the world. They just add to the body count."
Aria processes this silently. I can see her mind working, weighing options, calculating risks.
She's smart. Strategic. Dangerous in the best way.
She reminds me of myself five years ago. Before the ice took over completely.
"The FBI meeting tomorrow," she says finally. "What do you think? Can we trust Agent Winters?"
"Probably not completely." I pull up information on my phone—files I've collected on federal agents over the years. "But Sarah Winters has a clean record. Decorated agent. Fifteen years with the bureau. She's been investigating human trafficking for most of her career."
"So she wants to stop Veronica for real. Not just use us."
"She wants to stop trafficking. Whether that includes protecting you or throwing you under the bus depends on what's more useful to her case."
"Comforting."
"I don't do comforting. I do honest." I show her Agent Winters's file. "But here's what I know—she lost her daughter to traffickers eight years ago. Never found the body. If she thinks you can help her destroy that network, she'll move mountains to keep you alive."
Aria reads the file, her expression softening. "She's been fighting this for eight years. Trying to save other people's daughters."
"Everyone has their motivation. Hers is grief. Mine was rage. Yours is justice." I close the file. "The question is whether those motivations align enough to trust each other."
My phone buzzes again despite being silenced. Not Sienna this time. Detective Morrison.
I answer. "Morrison."
"Thorne. Where the hell are you?" The detective sounds frustrated and tired. "The mayor is threatening to fire me if I don't find you and that Chen girl. Half my force is searching the city."
"Tell the mayor I quit. I'm not hunting Lady Justice anymore."
"Why not?"
"Because I looked into her case. Aria Chen is innocent. Veronica Chen framed her, murdered her father, and is running a human trafficking operation that your department has been ignoring for three years."
Silence on the other end. Then: "I know."
That stops me cold. "You know?"
"Of course I know." Morrison's voice drops. "I've been building a case against Veronica for eighteen months. But every time I get close, witnesses disappear. Evidence vanishes. My superiors shut me down." A pause. "She's got power beyond money, Thorne. Something unnatural. Like she knows what I'm planning before I do it."
Because she has devil powers. Super-intelligence. Enhanced perception.
But I can't tell Morrison that.
"What do you want from me?" I ask carefully.
"Help me bring her down. You've got resources I don't. Connections. Freedom to operate outside the law." Morrison sounds desperate. "That Chen girl—Aria—she's the key somehow. Veronica's obsessed with destroying her. Which means she's a threat."
"Aria's meeting with the FBI tomorrow. Agent Sarah Winters."
"Good. Winters is solid. Tell Aria I'll testify on her behalf when this is over. Tell her I'm sorry I didn't believe her at first." He hangs up before I can respond.
I turn to Aria. "Morrison knows Veronica's dirty. He wants to help."
"Can we trust him?"
"More than most cops. He's been trying to stop trafficking for years. He's just outmatched."
Aria stands up, pacing the small room. "So we have potential allies. The FBI. Detective Morrison. Rafe, maybe. But Veronica has Marcus, her network of corrupt officials, and three years of experience with her powers."
"And we don't know who else she's recruited. How many other deal-makers work for her."
"So we're outnumbered and outgunned."
"Basically."
Aria stops pacing and looks at me. Really looks at me. "Why are you helping me? You could have walked away. Let me get arrested. Kept your comfortable life."
I think about my answer carefully. "Because five years ago, I was alone. Nobody understood what I was becoming. What the powers cost. I tried to fight my battles solo and almost lost myself completely." I meet her eyes. "You're the first person who might understand. The first person who's been through the same hell. I'm not letting you face this alone."
"Even if it destroys you?"
"I'm already destroyed. Have been since my sister died." I smile, but it feels wrong on my face. Rusty. "Maybe helping you is how I remember what it's like to be human."
Aria crosses the room and does something unexpected—she hugs me.
I freeze. I haven't been hugged in five years. Haven't wanted to be touched. The devil's power makes me cold, isolated, separate from normal human connection.
But her arms around me feel... warm. Real.
Slowly, carefully, I hug her back.
"Thank you," she whispers. "For everything."
"Don't thank me yet. We might both die tomorrow."
"Then at least we won't die alone."
We stand there for a moment, two cursed people finding comfort in shared damnation.
Then my phone rings again. Unknown number.
I answer on speaker. "Who is this?"
A distorted voice—electronically modified: "Damien Thorne. Aria Chen. You've become quite the partnership. Veronica's very upset. She's offering five million dollars to whoever kills you both."
"Who are you?" Aria demands.
"Just a concerned citizen. Thought you should know—there are twenty deal-makers in New York. Veronica just sent that bounty to all of them. You have nineteen superpowered assassins hunting you now. Sleep tight."
The call ends.
Aria and I stare at each other in horror.
Nineteen assassins. With powers like ours. All hunting us for five million dollars.
"We need to leave," I say. "Now. This safe house isn't—"
The lights go out.
Something crashes through the wall—not the door, the actual brick wall—showering us with debris.
A figure steps through the dust. A woman with silver hair and eyes that glow bright orange.
"Five million dollars," she says, cracking her knuckles. "Easiest money I'll ever make."