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I’m the part that’s changed.

My throat tightens on instinct when Raze looks my way, words already lining up behind my teeth before reality catches up.

I can think them.

I can fucking feel them.

I just can’t make anyone hear them.

Raze waits until everyone has settled before twisting the cap off his beer and leaning back in his chair. “All right. We’ve had a few hours to sit with what Echo dropped on us this morning.”

Ruckus lifts his whiskey. “She ruined breakfast.”

“You ate four plates,” Wreck says.

“I was stress eating.”

Maul snorts into his beer as Raze gives them both a look that shuts it down before his attention moves to Scar. “So… three hundred years ago Malgrave did this same shit?”

Scar knows exactly what he means. His fingers tighten around the whiskey glass resting in front of him. “At least.”

Coil shifts forward. “You think the phoenix and Carnage are connected?”

Scar rubs his thumb along the edge of his glass. “This morning, I would’ve said I wasn’t sure. I’ve spent the last few hours going back over everything I remember from that night.” His eyes move toward me. “Now?” He takes a drink. “Yeah. I fucking do.”

My hellhound pushes hard beneath my ribs.

Sentinel feels it through our bond and shifts closer, his arm brushing mine beneath the table.

Raze catches the movement. “Tell us why.”

Scar sets his whiskey down. “Because Echo was right about one thing… Malgrave knew exactly what he was doing when he took Carnage’s voice. I watched him do the same thing to that phoenix. Different power, same fucking precision.”

Thorn turns his beer between his hands. “You said this morning he took all of her fire.”

“He did.”

“And walked away with it?” Wreck adds.

Scar nods.

Ruckus leans forward, his usual grin nowhere in sight now. “So, where the fuck did it go?”

“That’s the problem.” Scar looks around the table. “I never found out.”

Raze takes a pull from his beer before setting the bottle down. “Which brings us to what Echo and Roxy found.”

Coil’s jaw tightens. “Centuries of deals and nothing pointing back to where Malgrave takes the things he gets from these deals.”

“Exactly.” Raze plants his forearms on the table. “Fae courts, vampire bloodlines, territorial disputes, broken treaties… every time Malgrave steps in, somebody walks away with what they wanted.”

Wreck frowns. “Except him.”

“Except him.”

Thorn looks toward Scar. “Money?”

Scar shakes his head. “Nothing that explains centuries of it.”