“No.” He refused to believe it. She wouldn’t betray them. She wouldn’t lock them out of the system. She wanted this as much as any of them.
“Shoot it,” Callum said. “Fry the whole fucking power grid if you have to, just get those checkpoints offline.”
Lirawassureshe’dfaint from breathing so hard. Each shallow breath barely sustained her as she stood rigid beside her mother, watching the ceremony unfold with the inevitability of an execution.
Maximus turned to Shadera, the tilt of his golden mask conveying benevolent authority as he asked the question that had sealed the fate of countless women before her.
“Do you, Shadera Kael, accept this Vow? Do you vow to uphold the honor of bowing to your husband, of bowing to the Heart and the laws of New Found Haven?”
Lira watched Shadera’s chest rise with a deep breath, watched her straighten despite the pain that must have lanced through her body.
“Yes.” The word carried across the plaza, broadcast through speakers that would send it to every corner of the city. A single syllable, devoid of emotion.
Lira’s fingernails bit into her palms.
Her father turned to Greyson now, his posture shifting subtly—from benevolent ruler to stern patriarch. “Do you, Greyson Serel, accept this Vow? Do you vow to uphold your duty as the head of the family, the educator of the family, and to bow to the Heart and the laws of New Found Haven?”
Greyson’s “Yes” was firmer than Shadera’s, almost challenging in its clarity. Even through his mask, Lira could feel the rage radiating from her brother, the violence that simmered beneath his exterior.
“By the sacred laws of the Heart,” Maximus declared, raising his hands in a gesture that would be captured by every camera, broadcast on every screen, “your vows have been recorded into history.” His voiceswelled with practiced emotion. “You may now witness each other’s faces as husband and wife.”
At his command, the veil descended, the golden cylinder lowering smoothly around Greyson and Shadera. It would give them their minute of privacy—the only moment in the ceremony not broadcast to the watching city.
Lira focused on her breathing, forcing each inhale and exhale to steady and slow. She’d planned this moment methodically. Had moved pieces on the board with a patience that would’ve made her father proud, had he known. Had created contingencies and fail-safes, backups for backups.
But still, doubt crept in. Doubt and fear and the terrible weight of consequence.
It all rested on Greyson and Shadera now.
The minute passed in silence, the crowd waiting with collective breath held. Her father stepped forward again, his posture radiating satisfaction and control.
“The veil will now rise on the newlywed couple,” he announced, his voice carrying to every corner of the plaza. The golden cylinder began to ascend, inch by slow inch, revealing first Greyson and Shadera’s joined hands, then their formal attire. “Citizens of the Heart, please welcome Mr. and Mrs. Greyson Serel.”
The Heart remained utterly silent.
No applause. No murmurs of approval.
No reaction at all save for a collective inhale that seemed to suck the very air from the plaza.
Confusion rippled through her father’s stance, a momentary hesitation that would have been imperceptible to anyone who didn’t know him as she did. He turned, his movement unnaturally stiff, to face the altar.
Maximusfroze.
Lira watched the shock move through him like electricity, his body going rigid as stone. The golden mask hid his expression, but she could read the disbelief in every line of his posture, in the slight tremor that ran through his hands.
Greyson and Shadera stood side by side, fingers still intertwined, faces bare to the world.
No masks.
No veils.
Shadera’s shawl slipped from her shoulders, pooling around her feet as a note slipped from her fingers, fluttering to the ground at Maximus’s feet.
He bent to retrieve it, movements mechanical, as if his body were functioning on instinct while his mind struggled to process the betrayal.
Lira watched as he read her handwriting. Her command.Her rebellion.
Leave them off.
