AARON
The city's pulse pulsed at my feet, its unconquerable beat stoking mine. I stood in my penthouse, looking out over the sweeping skyline that sparkled under the light of midnight. Down there, the world was frantic, discordant, and irrelevant. I ruled it all from where I stood—the fashion empire I had built as a cover, the intricate traps I wove, the lives I controlled at will.
And none of it counted. Not really.
She did.
Hailey Quinn.
Her name was a chant that went on in my mind, a hymn that increased its urgency with each day. I had seen her first in the reports of my spies, a shadow figure wrapped in secrets and unleashed might. And then I saw her close up. All else fell into nothingness when I looked upon her for the first time. She was not just beautiful; she was goddess-like
