Page 154 of Daggermouth

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 reflectingher own.

“This is why we did not tell you first,” Jaeger hissed, and Jameson’s eyes snapped toward him. “We planned to tell you after Greyson was out, once the extraction was complete, because you are emotional. You are an idealist believing you can save everyone. But you can’t, Jameson. We cannot save everyone.”

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 beginning, that unity in light of all we know now would have been the better route. But we’re here now, and we don’t have time to fight between ourselves. Greyson and Shadera don’t have time, the rings do not have time.” He tapped a ring against the table, the rap of it vibrating through Lira. “We have to get back to the Heart, so let’s stop fucking around and finish this.”

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’tflinched 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.”

Chapter thirty-one

Past Tense

Therehadbeennofood. No water. Only the rhythmic sound of Greyson’s breathing at Shadera’s back from his cell. She couldn’t tell how long they had been there. The Veyra officers hadn’t returned since Maximus’s visit—no more beatings, but also no sustenance. A different kind of torture. Slower. More deliberate.

Her tongue was swollen in her mouth, dry as sand. Thirst clawed at her throat, a desperate animal scratching to be freed. She tried to shift in the chair, seeking any position that might ease the pressure on her broken body, but the cords bit deeper with each movement. A hiss of pain escaped through her cracked lips, echoing in the sterile cell.

Her mind drifted in and out of clarity, memories surfacing and submerging like debris in murky water. Contract 205. The words repeated in her mind, a mantra that had once meant nothing more than another job, another target. Another mark to eliminate for the good of the Boundary.

Levi Pierce. Heart informant.

The details of the contract swam before her eyes. High priority. A traitor selling Cardinal secrets.