Chapter 239

Shitty Friend.

She lied to my face. The sound of it the little crack in her voice, was all the confirmation I needed. Anger folded over into something sharper, colder. I didn’t hesitate. I dragged Tessa up the short stairs to a swing-cage that hung over the lip of the pit, the iron cool and slick under my palm. I shoved her in,

hard enough that she hit the bars and whimpered.

“Try again,” I told her, voice low as gravel. “Where. Is. Mace

She stammered at first, eyes huge, nails shredding at the bars of the case. “I-I told you-

I stepped closer and, because threats are a language some people only understand when the heat is real, I held my hand flat and dropped it close to the space below. The fire licked up, bright and hungry, and the heat from it flicked over her feet. Her breath hitched.

“Say it,” I said. No theatrics. No mercy. Just a promise, if she kept playing games, the heat would get closer. The cage chains rattled under my fingers. The shadows at my feet thickened. The Veil hummed, answering the anger in me. She cracked faster than most. Mortals don’t have the time or the backbone for slow collapse; fear does the work for them. Her knees buckled, and the first real sound she made was a wet and pitiful sob.

“Okay okay, okay, I’ll tell you,” she choked. “Please-please, just get me down. Please, Elliot, don’t-don’t do this.”

Then, everyone else arrived. I knew they would; I just needed a little time alone with Tessa first to get the answers. There was one breath, and the air folded. The portal light spitting them into the pits, standing in a semicircle below the cage and looking up at me. Levi’s voice cut through before anything else. “What the bloody hell are you doing?!”

I didn’t bother stepping away from the flame. The heat sang along my knuckles. “I’m doing what needs doing,” I said. My voice was dangerous but controlled. “She lied to me. To all of you. She’s the last person who saw Macey. She’s been hiding something, and I-” I let the sentence hover where I could see the shock and anger on Envy’s face, the tightness in Xavier’s jaw. “-I’m getting answers. Now. She’ll tell us where Macey is, or I’ll drop her and go find Macey anyway. Whether she lives or dies after that is on her conscience.”

The tremor in Tessa’s breathing quickened into a panicked plea. “No, no-please! I’ll tell you, I’ll tell you everything.”

It spilled out in a rush the moment I leaned in. The cage made her small, and fear made her honest. She broke like glass.

“Dean,” she sobbed, words tumbling out in a frantic rush. “Dean and I… he said – after we… he said we were going to be together! He said I was perfect for him, that I was all he ever needed, but he just had to-he had to break things with Macey first. Make sure she knew about us. I wanted him to do it because I didn’t want to look like a shitty friend. He told me not to tell anyone where she was going, just in case her parents got mad at her for being with him again, so I lied, okay? I didn’t actually know she’d go missing. I just did what he told me because he said he loves me!”

Tessa’s face crumpled, with tear-streaked cheeks and the rawest kind of shape in her eyes. Her hands clawed at the cage bars as if she wanted to climb out and fix what she’d done.

“Dean,” I repeated,

Tessa sobbed harder. “Please,” she begged, voice small and raw. “Please don’t-please don’t drop me. I didn’t think I swear I didn’t thank he’d – | det!? even know where they are! He said he was going to take her to the lookout for dinner and then tell her about us. That’s all I know!”

Envy’a voice was a blade, “You lied about where my daughter was, and now she’s missing.”

Tessa shook her head so hard her hair flapped 1 was scared! He said he loved me! He said he’d look after me if I did what he asked!”

Kavier’s fate went culder than the pit itself as he portaled inside the cage with an I’ve seen that man dressed as death a desen tunes, but whatever that look was now, it slipped past death and straight into something that should have stayed buried.

7:17 pm P P

PPP

Shitty Friend-

“Call him, Xavier said, voice flat as stone, eyes locked on Tessa like a blade through her.

She shook her head so violently it made the swing. “1- I have been. His phone is off. He doesn’t answer.”

That meant intent. That meant this wasn’t some stupid, accidental thing. It was definitely deliberate.

“We’re going back to the packhouse,” Xavier said finally voice clipped, all commander now. “We need to look further into Dean and his family. I want background checks, housing files, paper trails. Anything that can give us a pattern.” He glanced at me, his tone still even but sharp enough to bite. “You and I will go through everything. We’ll build his trail backward while the others sweep the field.”

1 nodded, jaw tight. “I’ll check their house too. There has to be something there, anything that can help us track him down. I’ll tear it apart if I have to.”

Xavier didn’t argue. His eyes were cold, assessing, but I could feel the same storm brewing in him that I felt in myself. “Fine,” he said. “But don’t go alone. I’ll have a pair of guards meet you there.”

“I don’t need guards,” 1 muttered.

“You do,” he countered. “You’re angry, and angry gets sloppy.”

He wasn’t wrong, but I didn’t say it out loud. I just nodded once and started walking toward the waiting portal. “Send Tommy. Just Tommy.”

“And Tessa,” i added, glancing back. “I don’t want her leaving Aleisha’s side. Not for a second. I still don’t trust her.”

Xavier looked at me, something tight flickering behind his eyes. “Understood.”

The portal shimmered open again, light rippling over the black stone. I stepped through first, the Underworld heat snapping away into the cold air of the mortal realm. Dean thought he could take Macey and disappear? He didn’t understand who he’d just stolen from.

By the time we were done, there wouldn’t be a corner of this world, or the next, where he could hide. I will kill that mother fucker, and then I’m going to torture his soul every damn day for the rest of eternity.