Chapter 144 What we do to traitors
The words hit the room like something physical.
Aria sat back slowly. Her mind was already moving, pulling the thread back through every interaction. Every moment Devon had been in the room. Every decision that had gone wrong at the exact wrong time.
Kane didn’t move.
“Say it plainly,” he said.
Marcus looked at him. “Devon has been lying about his connection to Amanda from the beginning. He helped her escape. He staged an attack on himself to cover his tracks. And the child he has been raising as his niece is Amanda’s daughter.”
The silence that followed was absolute.
Aria’s eyes moved to Kane.
Kane’s jaw was tight, a muscle working at the side of it. She watched him process it the way he processed everything that threatened what he had built. Slowly. Completely. Without letting any of it show until he decided what to do with it.
Then something shifted in his expression.
Not anger. Recognition.
“The night the witches attacked us at the safe house,” Kane said quietly.
Marcus nodded.
“Devon was the only other person who knew where we were.”
“Yes.”
“The second time Alexander attacked. During the twins’ birthday.”
“Devon signed off on the schedule.”
Kane exhaled through his nose. Slow and controlled.
Then he stood up.
He didn’t pace. He didn’t raise his voice. He just stood there, and the stillness in him was worse than either of those things would have been.
“I should have known,” he said.
The words came out low. Quiet in a way that wasn’t calm.
Marcus didn’t respond.
“He was a rival,” Kane said. “For years, he was my rival. And the moment he came to me with a truce, I let him in.” His jaw tightened. “I gave him access. Information. A seat at the table. I treated him like an ally and he used every single bit of it.”
He turned away from the room briefly, one hand pressed flat against the wall.
“I should have known.”
Aria crossed the room.
She stopped beside him, close enough that he had to look at her.
“Don’t,” she said.
He looked at her.
“Don’t do that. Don’t stand there and tell yourself you should have seen it. Because I didn’t see it either. None of us did.”
Kane said nothing.
“Devon was nothing but kind to me,” she continued. “Every single time. He was patient and warm and he made me feel like I had an ally in the room.” She shook her head. “I thought he was a good man. I told you that once. Do you remember?”
Kane’s expression shifted slightly.
“I meant it,” she said. “I genuinely believed it. The fact that this whole time he was feeding information, covering his tracks, protecting Amanda.” She stopped. “It doesn’t just surprise me. It baffles me.”
“That’s different,” Kane said. “You had no reason to question him. I did.”
“You had a history with him,” Aria said. “That is not the same as a reason. He came to you with a truce. He fought beside you during the moon fever outbreak. He stood with us against Alexander. You responded to the man in front of you, not the rival he used to be.” She held his gaze. “That is not a failure. That is what you are supposed to do.”
Kane looked at her for a long moment.
He didn’t agree. But he didn’t argue either.
Aria turned back to the room.
Devon had come in during the rebuilding, when their guard was lowest and their losses were still fresh. He had positioned himself exactly where he needed to be, close enough to know everything, useful enough that no one thought to question it.
He had watched Amanda die.
He had stood in the room and watched it happen and said nothing.
And then he had gone home to a little girl who was Amanda’s daughter and said nothing about that either.
“Amanda’s dying words,” Aria said.
Everyone looked at her.
“She said there was a traitor in the inner circle.” Her voice was steady but only just. “She used her last breath to tell us that.”
The room was very still.
“She knew,” Aria said. “She knew who it was and she told us anyway.”
Maya looked down.
Marcus said nothing.
Kane’s eyes stayed on Aria for a long moment. Then quietly, more to himself than the room, he said, “What did Amanda offer him that we didn’t?”
“I don’t think it was about what she offered,” Marcus said carefully. “I think it was about Emma. If Emma is Amanda’s daughter, Devon has been protecting her. Possibly since before any of this started. Whatever arrangement he had with Amanda, that child was at the center of it.”
“That doesn’t excuse what he did,” Kane said.
“No,” Marcus agreed. “It doesn’t.”
The room settled into silence again.
Aria turned from the window. “He came in after everything with Alexander and made himself indispensable,” she said. “Stayed close. Made sure he was in every room that mattered.” She stopped. “And the whole time.”
She didn’t finish the sentence.
She didn’t need to.
Kane looked at Marcus. “Where is Devon right now?”
“At the house he’s been staying in since he became an ally. His car hasn’t moved. I have someone on the street.”
“Good.” Kane picked up his glass from the table, looked at it, then set it back down without drinking. “He goes about his day tomorrow like nothing has changed. He attends the morning briefing. He does his job.” He paused. “And he has no idea that every person in this room knows exactly who he is.”
Marcus nodded. Then he asked the question directly.
“What are you going to do about it?”
The room went quiet.
Kane looked up.
His expression had settled into something flat and final. The anger was still there. But it had moved somewhere deeper, somewhere controlled, somewhere it would stay until he needed it.
“We’re going to do exactly what we do to traitors.“