The silence didn't last long.
Calla's voice still hummed over the abandoned headset, but Damien wasn't listening anymore. He was already moving.
Not panicked. Not shaken.
Deliberate.
He pressed two fingers to the inside of his wrist, where a thin black band hugged his skin. A soft click. Hidden tech. Emilia barely noticed it the night he slipped it on.
"Activate Protocol Hades," Damien said calmly, under his breath.
No response. No sound. But ten miles away, a satellite pinged awake. In seven different cities, encrypted phones buzzed. Dormant systems spun to life. An old favor in Prague. A silent sharpshooter in Mumbai. A woman with half a face in Seoul.
They all got the same message:
THE DEVIL IS LOOSE. CLOSE THE GATES.
---
Emilia stood in the corner of the vault, still breathing like the walls might fall in again. But she was watching him now.
Not like a wife watching her husband.
Like a woman watching a stranger reveal his teeth.
Damien tapped the headset again. "Calla, route visual surveillance to my personal console. No middlemen. Set a burn code."
Static. Then Calla's voice. "Copy. You're pulling the net?"
"I'm closing the net."
---
Emilia had seen him angry before. Had seen him cold. But this wasn't either.
This was strategy.
Power.
She stepped forward, her voice unsure. "Who did you just call?"
Damien didn't look at her yet. "People who don't exist. People who make others disappear."
"Since when do you have people like that?"
He finally turned.
His eyes were sharp. "Since before I met you. Since before I pretended to be a man who just runs a company."
"But… you never told me—"
"You never asked."
The air between them sparked.
---
"Why now?" she asked, almost a whisper. "Why show me this now?"
Damien stepped closer.
"Because I need you to know something before this ends."
He reached into his jacket. Pulled out a small velvet box. Not a ring. A key.
He placed it in her hand.
"There's a penthouse in Geneva. It's under a false name. All escape routes lead there. If something happens to me, that's where you go."
Emilia stared down at the key. "And if I don't want to run?"
He cupped her face, his touch fierce.
"Then stay. And let me burn everything that touches you."
---
Vale was still moving. Damien knew it.
But this wasn't the same game anymore. Now, the man who watched from shadows would find himself the one being hunted.
And Damien? He would become exactly what the world feared: not just a man in love —
—but a man who had something to lose.
And would kill the devil himself to keep it.