Chapter 28 · The Outcast's Walk

Chapter 28: The Outcast's Walk

"Say it," I told Vance. "Say my name was never on that sheet."

He didn't say it. He couldn't, not with Silas standing two feet behind me with his arms crossed and his jaw set like granite. Vance just stood there in the ruined remains of his dress uniform, wrists zip-tied, blood dried under his nose from whoever had dragged him out of the bunker an hour ago.

"Nothing to say now, huh." My voice came out flat. Good. I wanted it flat. I wanted him to hear exactly how little he cost me.

The roll-call hall was packed wall to wall. Every warrior on the night roster, every day-shift grunt who used to laugh when Vance called me Calder's little mistake. Nobody was laughing now. The silence had teeth.

Kane stood at my shoulder, close enough that I could feel the heat coming off him through my jacket. Not touching. He didn't need to touch me to make it clear whose side the room was on.

"Vance Dillard," Silas said, and his voice hit the concrete like a hammer. "You falsified a pack trial record.