ARIA

The room Ross had assigned me was beautiful in the way a coffin is beautiful—lined with silk, expensive to maintain, and impossible to leave. The Bane estate was a fortress of glass and steel, a stupid cage where the air felt thin and every mirror seemed to be watching me.

Ross didn't lock my door anymore; he didn't have to. He had the confession, he had the blueprints, and he had the world convinced that I was his accomplice.

I stood in the expansive marble bathroom, the morning ...