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against the wall. “I know who’s doing this.” I mentally shoved back a threatening torrent of fear. The unwanted images swirled in my head, but I refused to focus on them long enough to give them purchase. I should have told Ryder everything. It probably wouldn’t have saved her...but it might have. She’d suffered because of me.
    Ryder and Coleman crowded closer. The two of them blocked out prying eyes, but I found their presence suffocating. I doubled over and placed my hands on my thighs.
    “I knew him as Damien.” The words fell from my lips, the truth tumbling forth. “He’s a higher elemental demon, and I’m terrified of him.”
    I was bundled into a car and driven downtown. Within twenty minutes. I sat in an interview at the local precinct with Adam Harper, Detective Coleman, and Detective Hill grilling me every which way about Damien. I’d dropped a veil of indifference over me, retreating behind cold, hard facts.
    Yes, Damien had been my owner. One of several, but he’d been the last. I’d killed him—or so I’d thought. An air elemental, he could use his element to suffocate, summon storms, and generally wreak havoc. But as demons go, he wasn’t anything special, not even immortal. It wasn’t his element that made him dangerous; it was his lust for pain. Coleman had tried to get me to open up about how exactly Damien operated, but even Adam stopped him there. I couldn’t tell them what Damien had done to me. Much of it, I deliberately didn’t remember. My human mind had trampled on those memories long ago for the sake of my sanity. To bring it all back to the surface now was more than I could face.
    I told them what I’d heard reading the first chain. You are mine, Muse. He was killing newly qualified Enforcers to get to me. Somehow, he knew the Institute employed me. All he had to do was kill each new recruit until he either found me or his actions brought me out of hiding.
    “Why now?” Adam leaned on the table while Hill and Coleman stood behind him.
    Hill stood mannequin still, her arms clasped across her chest. She nodded in all the right places, but her eyes were cold. She looked at me as though she thought my being half-demon meant I’d brought this on myself. As if I somehow had a choice.
    I sunk in my chair, shoulders hunched, and teetered on the edge of tears. There’s only so many scars you can open before the wound starts to bleed again. “Because I’m alone. Akil’s gone. I don’t have an owner. As far as Damien’s concerned, I’m fair game.”
    “Do you think this has anything to do with Stefan?” Adam asked.
    “What?” I frowned. “No. Why?”
    Adam’s lips turned down. He held my gaze as though waiting for me to reveal something and then leaned back in the chair. The cheap plastic creaked. “Damien’s getting his information from somewhere. Stefan seems the most likely source. How else would this demon know you’re an Enforcer?”
    I blinked rapidly. “Stefan didn’t know that. He went through the veil before you got your hooks into me.”
    Adam waited a beat. “Your employment was inevitable.”
    I glared at him. My hands clenched into fists so tight that my knuckles paled. Heat flushed across my skin. I slowly adjusted my position in the plastic chair and straightened my back before leaning both arms on the table. “Stefan wouldn’t tell Damien a damn thing.”
    “You knew Stefan for a week. He’s in hostile territory, searching for a way out. You didn’t part on the best of terms. Perhaps he feels he has no other choice. In his position, I’d use all available means of escape.”
    “You’d sell me out for a subscription to selfish-bastards monthly.” I stood so suddenly my chair bounced back and clattered to the floor. “Yeah, I only spent a week with him, but I can guarantee I know him better than you ever will. Your own son wished you were dead, and I gotta agree with him.”
    Coleman must have sensed the interview spiraling toward physical