We didn't sleep that night.
Not really.
There was too much tension in the air. Too much blood still soaking the edges of our camp. The sound of tearing metal and crackling flame echoed in my ears long after the fire had been put out.
The creature hadn't come back.
But the silence it left behind felt like a threat.
I sat with my back against a tree, half-wrapped in a scratchy blanket, eyes fixed on the perimeter where Kade stood. Still. Watchful.
Eventually, I pushed to my feet and crossed the camp to him.
"You haven't blinked in an hour," I said, voice low.
He didn't look at me. "Neither have you."
I shifted beside him, folding my arms. "You knew about the facility."
A pause. Just long enough to confirm it.
"You knew what kind of place it was."
"I did."
I swallowed the bitter taste rising in my throat. "You never said."
"Would you have believed me if I had?"
"I would've killed you if you had," I snapped.
Now he looked at me. Steady. Unapologetic. "I figured as much."
"You were part of it," I said, voice colder now. "Weren't you?"
"Yes," he said simply. "But not like you think."
"Try me."
He was silent for a beat, then sighed. "After my father died, I needed a way out. The facility offered me a way in. Good pay. Shelter. Structure. I trained there. Like you. Except they didn't put me on hybrid duty. They sent me somewhere worse."
I frowned. "Where?"
"Government black ops," he said. "Covert cleanups. Silencing leaks. Moving shipments no one was allowed to talk about. All of it traced back to the facility—or their partners."
"And you said yes."
"I didn't know what it was at first," he said. "It looked like a chance. A better future. They always do."
I stepped back. "So the government knows?"
"They support it," he said. "The facility runs the black market. The gangs serve as distributors, smugglers, enforcement. In exchange, the government gets weapons, intelligence, plausible deniability. They all benefit."
I stared at him. "And you worked for them."
"I worked to survive," Kade said. "You think I wanted that life? You think I liked what they made me do?"
"You didn't stop it either."
His mouth twisted. "Neither did you."
That one landed like a punch.
"I didn't choose this," I hissed.
"No," he said. "But you stayed."
I turned away, heart pounding.
He didn't follow.
Just let the words hang between us, heavy as blood.
"They'll never let you go, you know," he said after a while. "They don't let any of us go. You think they're just going to let you walk back in and ask for your pet hybrid like nothing happened?"
"He's not a pet," I snapped.
"Doesn't matter what he is to you," Kade said. "To them, he's property. A product. Same as everything else they built."
I gritted my teeth. "I'll burn it all down if I have to."
He didn't respond.
Didn't have to.
Because we both knew—
If I was going back…
I wouldn't be coming back out the same.