Daggermouth

“And Greyson?” she asked, her voice sounding distant to her own ears. “What’s your excuse for accepting his contract?”

She needed to know. Needed to understand how the man who claimed to protect the rings, to fight for the people, could so easily trade her brother’s life for . . . for what? Money? Power?

Jaeger leaned forward, his elbows resting on the table, his scarred hands clasped before him. He met her gaze steadily, unflinching in the face of her anger, her devastation.

“A year after Brooker was presumed dead, he brought Mikel to me. Said he’d been acting as eyes and ears inside your father’s circles, feeding information to the rebellion. That he was willing to help us however he could.”

Jaeger paused, taking a coin out of his pocket and flipping it through his fingers as he sipped from his drink.

“Six months ago, Mikel presented us with an ultimatum. Said he’d only keep helping if we got Greyson out. Told us of his co

Lira’s eyes flicked to Mikel as Jaeger continued. “We agreed to extract him, but we needed time to plan, to find a way that wouldn’t jeopardize the rebellion we were pla

Her stomach churned. Lira knew, with sickening certainty, where that contract had truly come from.

“But you knew it was from my father,” she said, her voice hollow.

Jaeger nodded grimly. “I took it to Brooker and Farrow immediately. We saw it for what it was—an opportunity. A way to get Greyson out without arousing suspicion.”

Her mind began to spiral as she tried to absorb it all. The secrets, the lies.

“The plan was to send Shadera in,” Jaeger continued, the coin dancing between his fingers. “I assigned it to her because she was the only one I trusted, the only one smart enough to have a chance at making it out of the Heart alive. Completing this contract would have to happen from inside.”

Jaeger glanced at Jameson, his expression hardening. “I had a choice to make—risk her life to get Greyson out, or lose our most important informant in the Heart. I chose the option that would save the most lives.”

She could feel the anger radiating from Jameson in waves, watching as the muscle twitched in his jaw. He seemed to be the only other person that was kept in the dark, the only other person that wasn’t trusted with the truth.

“Shade was never supposed to actually harm Greyson,” Jaeger said, his voice growing softer as he flipped the coin over his knuckles one last time before catching it in his palm. “I went to her warehouse while she was out on contract. Replaced all her bullets with blanks soaked in a poison that would lower his heart rate, make his limbs seize so it would look like he was dead.”

The room spun around her, all these revelations piling atop one another until she could barely breathe under their weight.

“The Veyra officers that came to the scene of the assassination were Mikel and his men. They were supposed to pronounce him dead and take care of the body like they always did. That’s when they would smuggle him out of the Heart.”

“But something went wrong,” Lira said, the pieces clicking into place.

Jaeger nodded. “I didn’t know about the Veyra pistol she kept hidden. I didn’t replace those bullets.”

A chill crawled down Lira’s spine as she sank back into her chair. All those careful plans, all those manipulations—undone by a single hidden weapon.

“And then,” Jaeger sighed, “Greyson removed his mask. Those two things—the bullet and the unmasking—detonated our entire plan.”

Jameson surged to his feet, his chair clattering to the floor behind him. “You’ve been lying to me this whole time?” His eyes trained on Farrow. “I expected this from Jaeger, but you?”

Lira watched the blood drain from Farrow’s face as she rose to meet him. “That’s not what this is, Jay—”

“I came to you for help. Sharing all the information I had. I begged you to help me find a way to keep everyone safe. And you let me—you let me sit there in fear and you said nothing.”

The betrayal in his voice resonated in Lira’s chest, his pain reflecting her own.

“This is why we did not tell you first,” Jaeger hissed, and Jameson’s eyes snapped toward him. “We pla

Jameson opened his mouth to speak, but Jaeger raised a hand.

“We tried to get Shade out for you safely. We have not betrayed you, only kept you in the dark to the things you did not need to know until you were capable of focusing on something other than her. But that mission was not a failure. We learned valuable information through you, that the President plans to bomb us. That there are things he keeps even from Mikel.”

Callum finally spoke, his voice level, relaxed. “I think we can all agree that we should’ve trusted each other from the begi

Lira clenched her jaw, forcing back the tide of questions that were trying to drown her. Callum was right.

The conversation continued around her, tactical details and contingency plans flowing in a current her ears refused to hear. Instead, her eyes remained fixed on her brother, studying the changes time and secrecy had carved into him. He was leaner, harder, his softness replaced by the sharp edges of a man who had lived in the shadows.

Her gaze drifted to Callum, watching his face as he discussed extraction routes with Jaeger. His expression was focused, determined. He had known. Somehow he had known all of it. He hadn’t flinched at a single revelation, hadn’t shown surprise to any of the truths shared tonight. He’d known Brooker was alive and he’d kept it from her.

“Li, did you hear me?”

Her eyes snapped to Brooker.

“I said we will need a distraction when the Daggermouths move on Maximus,” Brooker repeated.

“You’ll have one,” she promised, and something in her voice sent a chill down her own spine. “The Heart won’t know what hit it.”