The underground cell was silent, save for the occasional drip of water echoing in the vast, reinforced chamber. Valerian Crowe, restrained in the center, radiated barely contained fury. No walls, no locks, no alarms could have contained him in the open—but here, deep beneath the Sterling Tower, surrounded by layers of security, he was powerless.

Ares and Atlas flanked him, weapons lowered but ready, their expressions hard and unyielding. Every detail of the cell had been designed with one ...