My stomach clenches. Part of me is telling me to be quiet, not betray the Order and stay silent. The other part, the part that ran from the fire, that refused to step into that room, knows this is the only useful thing I have left.
So I make myself speak.
“There’s a nurse who works there,” I say softly, my eyes stinging with tears. “At the hospital. Shadowharbor flagged her for us. She has a sick kid. Medical bills. Overdue mortgage.” My voicewavers. “We followed her for two days. Found out where she lived.”
I can still see the woman’s face, so hopeful when they told her the Foundation could help. Terrified when she understood the price.
“We threatened her,” I say. “Told her if she didn’t cooperate, her son would pay instead. She gave us access to the floor, to your father’s room. We switched his IVs with something deadly and…”
I trail off. I can’t say it.
He knows the ending anyway.
Callum stays silent and then stands.
And then, with all his might, he kicks the chair, sending it sliding across the floor and crashing into the wall. The sound slices through my nerves. I flinch so hard my wrists burn against the restraints, breath tearing out of me in a ragged sob I can’t hold back.
His eyes are blazing now, from green to a murderous red.
“Who did it?” he demands.
I blink, disoriented. “What?”
“Who put the poison in his IV?” His voice is low, lethal. “Who switched it. Give me a name.”
“Brother George,” I say.
Callum stares at me. “Brother George,” he repeats slowly. “What the fuck kind of name is that?"
I swallow, staring down at my scraped knees. “That’s how I know him. That’s how we all know each other. Brothers and Sisters under the Order. It may not even be his real first name."
Labels instead of names. Titles instead of selves. You forget who you were before. That’s the point.
Callum stares at me like I’ve just spoken a different language. Then he shakes his head, disgust twisting his features. "You guys are fucking crazy, you know that?"
The words sting, but not because they’re wrong, because they’re true.
I let out a shaky breath that almost sounds like a laugh and wipe at my cheek with my shoulder. “I know that,” I say. “Now.”
My skin prickles. My head swims again, the remnants of the drug tugging at the edges of my mind. I’m cold down to the bone, but sweat beads at the back of my neck.
Callum’s eyes narrow. He takes a step closer and I can smell him, something clean and masculine that doesn’t belong in this basement that reeks of mold and fear, but thankfully not that damn incense either.
“And me?” he says. “You said you know about me. What do you know?”
My tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth.
Telling him means betraying the Order completely. It means breaking not just oaths but the entire structure of my life. There is no going back from that.
There’s nowhere to go back to anyway.
But I’ve been trained for so long to keep my mouth shut unless I’m repeating the words they gave me. To keep secrets that aren’t really mine. To die before I reveal them.
My internal struggle makes me hesitate and he sees it.
His entire body goes still. Whatever tentative patience he’s been holding onto evaporates.
Suddenly he’s standing over me, towering, massive, all shadow and threat. I can feel the heat of him.
