Page 79 of Vows of Ruin

For a beat, neither of them moves. Then Liam’s jaw tightens, the kind of still fury that feels colder than rage. “Of course he’d choose that word,” he mutters.

“Yeah,” Max says darkly. “He likes twisting the knife.”

I hand Liam the folded paper. He doesn’t open it, just stares at it like it might bleed if he does.

“We thought he was locked out,” I say. “That the firewall Elias built was enough.”

“It was,” Liam replies, standing and reaching for his jeans. “Which means someone let him back in.”

That lands harder than I expect.

Max lets out a long breath. “You think it’s internal?”

Liam doesn’t answer right away. He just slips his shirt over his head and looks toward the window, where the fog still clings to the skyline of trees outside.

“We can’t assume anything,” he finally says. “We trace every connection, every relay. We tear it down until we find the crack.”

I nod. “And when we do?”

Liam looks back at me. “Then we make sure he can’t send another message.”

Max swings his legs off the bed, grin sharp despite the tension. “Guess the honeymoon’s over, huh?”

“Wasn’t much of one to begin with,” I say, grabbing my jacket.

He smirks faintly, looking between me and Liam. “True. But at least the company’s good.”

That earns him a half-smile from me and a small, but real laugh from Liam.

Liam grabs his gun from the nightstand, checks the clip, then looks at both of us. “Let’s move. If he’s back in the system and in Northwyck, we’re already late.”

The easy, quiet morning dies in the doorway. Hugo growls low again, and I swear it feels like the whole house is holding its breath.

The war room feels smaller than usual. Too many bodies, not enough air. The long table glows under the harsh overhead lights, laptops open, cords tangled like veins. Elias sits hunched over the main terminal, fingers moving so fast the keys barely register. Margot’s beside him, hair tied back, eyes sharp and rimmed red from lack of sleep. The wall of monitors flash with strings of code and maps of Northwyck lit in red pinpoints. No one speaks. The only sounds are the hum of the machines and the click of Elias’ keyboard.

I stand behind Liam, arms crossed, trying to ignore the knot forming low in my stomach. The paper with Sebastian’s message sits in the center of the table, its five words glaring up like a curse. The vows were never yours.

Riot leans against the far wall, with a joint he hasn’t actually lit between his lips. “So what are we saying here? He’s got someone feeding him intel again?”

“Not just intel,” Elias says, voice flat. “Access.”

That gets everyone’s attention. Heads turn so fast, I hear someone’s neck crack. Margot exhales, tapping a line of code on her screen. “It’s not a breach from outside the network. He tunneled in through an active node, one of ours.”

Silence.

Liam’s jaw flexes. “So it is internal.”

“Right,” Elias corrects. "Whoever's doing it has clearance.”

My gut twists, but it’s not suspicion, it’s something colder. I look around the room. Riot. Margot. Elias. Wrecker. Torque. Max. Liam. These people bled beside me. None of them would sell us out. Whatever this is, it isn’t coming from here.

Liam finally breaks the quiet. “Then we re-vet everyone.”

Elias looks up. “Everyone?”

“Every Serpent we’ve brought in over the last year. I don’t care how clean they looked then, we start from scratch.”

Wrecker straightens. “That’s going to take time.”