The vault’s cold steel walls echoed with silence, broken only by the faint hum of the energy field restraining Valerian Crowe. Every panel, every screen, every device in the room had been disabled or controlled by Helena and her team, ensuring the man who had terrified them for hours could do nothing but sit—or struggle uselessly—within the restraints.

Ares and Atlas flanked him, guns lowered but ready. Alina stood close to Maria, her small hand gripping her mother’s as though she ...