Page 73 of In the Dark of the Past

I did.

“We’re ending this,” he said. “Not surviving it. Ending it.”

I swallowed. “What about Jordyn?”

His eyes went flint-hard. “She’s first on my list.”

Before I could respond, Atlas reappeared in the doorway.

His face told me everything before he even opened his mouth.

“It’s bad,” he said. “Not chaotic. Not ransacked. Almost...staged. They didn’t come here to find anything. They came to leave something.”

“Besides the eyes?” Finn asked.

Atlas nodded. “Back wall of the living room. Another message. Bigger.”

My chest tightened. “What does it say?”

Atlas hesitated. “You need to sit down first.”

Finn’s spine stiffened. “Just say it.”

Atlas exhaled. “WE KNOW WHAT SHE FOUND.”

The night froze around us.

She.

Not you.

She.

She who? Eleanor? My mother? Someone else close to me?

My vision swam.

Finn swore so sharply it cracked through the cold.

“They know about the ledger,” he said. “They know about the Fund entries—what she was tracking. They know you connected the dots.”

“That ledger wasn’t public,” Atlas murmured. “Only a handful of people knew we had it. Someone fed them this.”

“Jordyn, had to be,” Finn said, the word a verdict.

The tilt again…the world rebalancing in ways I didn’t want.

“Finn,” I whispered, “if they know we have the ledger, then they know Eleanor’s body was recovered, even though the department hasn’t officially released that news yet. You can’t keep that shit secret in a place like this—as evidenced by the buzz at the bar.”

His eyes met mine.

Dark. Determined. Cold with purpose.

“That has to be why Jordyn’s been so quiet today,” he said. “Because they’re not playing defense anymore.”

“But what does that mean?” I asked, though the dread forming under my ribs already knew.

Finn’s voice dropped, low and lethal. “It means the Watchers are preparing their exit.”