Chapter 8

Aria

The stench of stagnant water and rust filled my lungs as Zero and I stumbled out of the sewer drainage pipe, collapsing into the muddy grass of the canal bank. The iron foundry was miles behind us now, but the echo of the gunfire still reverberated in my ears.

And so did the sight of that obsidian mask.

"Are you hit?" Zero rasped, his face pale as he dropped his empty submachine gun into the dirt. He was trembling, his eyes wide with a frantic anxiety I had never seen on him before. He grabbed my shoulders, checking me over in the dim moonlight. "Vesper, look at me. Did the Vances catch you?"

"No," I choked out, peeling off my carbon fiber mask with a shaking hand. Cold sweat mixed with the rain on my face. "I'm fine. But Thorne... Thorne was there."

"He was hunting you," Zero said, his grip tightening on my shoulders. His breathing was ragged, his face shadowed with a dark, twisting emotion. "He killed that Vance mercenary who had a drop on you. He saved your life, Aria. If he hadn't stepped in—"

"He didn't save my life," I interrupted bitterly, pulling away from his touch and standing up. My boots sank into the mud. "He saved Vesper. He thinks I'm an underground rival who stole his encryption codes. He’s protecting his assets, Zero. That's all he ever does."

Zero stood up slowly, watching me in the dark. The rain slicked his dark hair back, highlighting the sharp, jagged scar on his cheek. "And what if he finds out the truth? What if he realizes Vesper is the girl he locked away?"

"He won't," I said, my voice hardening into steel. "Because we are going to strike harder next time. We need to go back to the backup terminal. We need to analyze the data I pulled from the Vance cargo before they blew the doors open."

"Aria, stop," Zero suddenly stepped directly into my path, his chest heaving. Before I could protest, he grabbed my hand, pulling me close until there was barely any space between us. His eyes were burning with a desperate, suffocating intensity. "Look at what we just survived. Look at what you're throwing yourself into. I didn't pull you out of that penthouse just to watch you commit suicide in a turf war. I did it because I wanted you safe. Because I..."

He choked on the words, his gaze dropping to my lips. The unspoken confession hung heavy in the air, thick and terrifying. Zero loved me. He had built this entire empire just to keep me by his side.

"Zero, please," I whispered, my heart breaking for him, but my soul remaining completely frozen. "Don't say it."

A tragic, bitter smile touched his lips. He slowly let go of my hand, stepping back into the shadows. "You're still locked in his cage, aren't you? Even out here, he controls you."

Before I could answer, my tactical comms earpiece gave a sharp, high-pitched static whine. A secure audio file, intercepted from the Vance syndicate's internal comms during the foundry raid, began to play automatically on my wrist console.

Voice 1 (Vance Commander): The foundry is secure. The tech is gone, but we retrieved the hacker's localized digital footprint.

Voice 2 (Victoria Vance): Excellent. Did Thorne realize who ran the heist?

Voice 1: No, ma'am. Thorne thinks Vesper is an independent player. He has no idea his precious ex-mistress is alive.

Voice 2: Keep it that way. But find the broker, Zero. If we squeeze him, we find out how she escaped.

I froze.

My gaze slowly shifted from the blinking screen on my wrist up to Zero, who was standing entirely too still in the dark.

The audio continued to play, the static clearing to reveal an older, archived recording —a conversation dated exactly six months ago, the very night I escaped the Thorne Tower.

Voice of Victoria Vance: The transfer is complete, Zero. The Level 5 security bypass codes for the Thorne penthouse have been uploaded to your server. Disable the cameras for ninety seconds. Let the girl out, make sure she thinks she’s escaping on her own, and feed her the data on my syndicate. We need her to turn into a weapon that destroys Malakai from the inside.

Voice of Zero: Understood, Ms. Vance. The asset will be extracted tonight.

The words echoed in the empty night, louder than the thunder above.

The world shattered beneath my feet.

My breathing stopped.

I looked at Zero—the man who had fed me, sheltered me, clothed me, and trained me for the last six months. The man I thought was my savior.

He hadn't answered my distress call on the deep web by chance. He hadn't scrubbed my digital footprint out of the goodness of his heart.

My great escape... my brilliant infiltration... my transformation into Vesper... it wasn't my plan at all. It was a setup. Victoria Vance had engineered my entire escape, using Zero as the middleman, to turn me into a heat-seeking missile aimed directly at Malakai’s heart.

"Aria..." Zero whispered, his face completely pale as he saw the horror dawning in my eyes. He took a frantic step toward me, his hands raised in surrender. "Aria, let me explain. It started as a contract, yes. Victoria paid me to get you out. But I swear to you, after a month of living with you... after seeing who you really are... I fell in love with you. I stopped taking her calls. I'm fighting for you now!"

I stepped back, my hand dropping slowly, instinctively, to the holster at my hip. The tears that blurred my vision were no longer from grief—they were from pure, unadulterated fury.

Every single choice I had made for the last six months had been a lie. I thought I was becoming a predator, but I was still just a pawn being moved across the board by the Vances. And Malakai... Malakai had locked me up because he knew the Vances were coming for me. He had been trying to protect me from the very trap I had run straight into.

I laughed.

I laughed again, louder this time.

Looks like the world is against. The person I loved and now the person I thought I could trust.

"Don't touch me," I hissed, my voice dropping into a lethal, venomous whisper that made Zero freeze in his tracks.

I didn't fire at him.

I didn't waste the bullet.

I simply turned on my heel and sprinted back into the dark, rain-slicked city streets, completely alone.

I had no empire. I had no savior. I had no home.

But as I ran through the downpour, a terrifyingly clear realization crystallized in my mind. If the Vances wanted to use me as a weapon to destroy Malakai Thorne... then I was going to give them exactly what they asked for. I was going to find Malakai. Not as his submissive little bird, and not as a blind rival.

I was going to find him to offer an alliance. And together, we were going to burn the Vance syndicate to ash.