OWNED BY THE DEVIL
And the way he said it — quietly, intimately, as if sharing it only with me — made my chest tighten in a way the battlefield never could.
“Don’t get soft,” he said with a half-smile I imagined.
“I don’t do soft,” I whispered.
“Good,” he said. “I’ll see you at the next node, coordinate before entry. Eyes, mind, heart aligned.”
Aligned. The word lingered. Not casual. Not fleeting. Full, heavy, deliberate.
The second node was more complicated; a transit hub targeted for disruption and staged hostage panic.
I moved faster this time, anticipating the traps, anticipating the movements of Helix Crown’s pawns, anticipating every escalation, guided by Dominic’s unseen hand, his voice in my ear, the r