He holds my eyes as he uncaps the syringe and stabs the needle into the vial, turning the glass upside down to slowly draw out the serum.

“I knew you wouldn’t listen to me; I knew you’d go back to him to revisit the memory, that it was only a matter of time before you started figuring things out,” he continues. “For Dad’s true vengeance to come about—vengeance for both of us—we needed to take everything from you, just like your family took everything from us. Your friends, your loved ones.” He cocks his chin toward Cami, Arryn, Riley, and even back to Ward. “It was almost too easy to get them all here. Cami blindly followed me when I said I wanted to apologize for my behavior,”—a scoffing sound leaves him—“but Smith found me just after I’d knocked her out with one of Pandora’s leftover tennis balls. He shared what you’d seen and said you needed to speak with me, but I couldn’t risk him returning to you before I moved Cami here. So I knocked him out, too, and handed them both off to Dad, who was waiting outside to cloak them and drag them onto the ferry.”

The ease with which he admits all this makes me sick. How could I have been so wrong about him? How could I have ever thought he was my friend?

Jeremiah jumps in, almost gleefully, “That plan changed, though, when your brother and his spy chose that moment to sneak out of the catacombs. Riley was all but untouchable under the protection of SCARS, especially after you retrieved him from Lengard. I’d given up on finding a way to bring him into this, but then he practically served himself up on a platter.” He grins at my fuming brother. “Instead of me delivering Camelot and Theodore here and having Kael go back for you and Landon, I commanded Riley and Arryn to help Kael get them onto the ferry while I came for you and Landon. When you were busy chasing us, Kael had the chance to get everyone settled in here, and aside from a bit of a scuffle with your brother when he tried to get around my command and Speak away Kael’s memories, everything went perfectly to plan.”

This time, Jeremiah directs his grin at me, and my fingers itch to slap it from his face. “As I said earlier, none of this could have happened without you, dearest Alyssa. So now you get to witness everything that comes next.”

My blood runs cold when he nods to Kael, and I don’t need Ward’s warning squeeze to know we’re out of time. If I’m going to do anything, it needs to be now.