“My bargain with Logan was meant to pay him off and prevent him from going to the Lions, not cause him to,” Aarya says, indignant.

“Also not lost on me,” Ash says. “It was obvious how much Logan was enjoying outwitting you.”

“Sociopath,” Aarya grumbles, but some of her frustration drops away. As much as she tries to hide it, I think our opinion of her really matters, even Ash’s, and even in this moment when we’re chained to a wall in the Lion Family dungeon.

“Pitting us against each other is just another way to manipulate and dominate us,” Ash says. “And Jag is clearly a master manipulator.”

“My dad,” I say again, and this time it’s Aarya who answers.

“We’re in the opposite corridor,” she says, and my heart sinks. “The one Ines and I were ambushed in.”

I look up at my shackles, pulling at the cold metal, but they’re secured tightly around my wrists with almost no wiggle room. I pull again, anger surging in my chest—anger that we’re shackled to a wall like criminals in the Dark Ages, anger that I was ripped away from my dad the moment I found him, anger that my aunt was murdered and my mother before her. Just anger. I yank harder, the metal grating against my skin, and let out a frustrated grunt.

“Although we did manage to take out three of the guards before they restrained us. I noticed you didn’t take down a single one of yours,” Aarya says. Most people wouldn’t be keeping a petty tally over fighting skills, given her screw-up with Logan. But then again, Aarya isn’t most people.

“For someone who doesn’t want other people to talk, you certainly do a lot of it,” Ash says, giving Aarya the side eye.

“Well, in case you were wondering, I still don’t like you, either, Ashai,” she says, but her voice betrays her.

“How did Jag know?” I ask in a huff, and they both turn to me.

“How did Jag know what?” Aarya says.

“That Ash didn’t trust you?” I ask. “If Ash is right that Jag is manipulating us, how did he know that might work, that we might believe you sold us out to Logan?”

“I’m a Jackal,” Aarya says like it explains everything. “The rest of Strategia aren’t fond of the fact that we don’t play by their rules. And we get blamed for all kinds of things we didn’t do. Instigating World War One, for instance.”

I frown. I actually do remember Layla telling me that at the Academy.

“It doesn’t help that your Family is always up to something,” Ash says.

“That, too,” Aarya concedes, making it sound like a good thing. “And rat-faced, two-timing jerk-offs like Logan don’t do us any favors, either.”