Jayden didn’t sleep the night the map came in. While the crew took turns speculating half eager to test it, half afraid it was only him and Amara who sat quiet, both listening to the silence like it carried answers. The lantern burned low, shadows stretching against the walls of the safehouse, until finally Jayden exhaled through his teeth.“This stinks,” he said flatly. “Too neat. Too fast. He didn’t even try to stall.”Malikah frowned, arms crossed. “You wanted maps. You got maps. If you think it’s bait, then toss it.”Jayden tapped the paper. “No. Bait cuts both ways. If they think they’ve set a trap, then we set a deeper one. Razor’s people are bleeding us at the edges, and the Council’s hand is somewhere on his shoulder. This map…” His voice hardened. “We burn him with it.”The Burned Boy leaned forward, eyes bright. “So we move?”Jayden shook his head. “Not yet. We pretend to move. I want whispers on every corner that we’re pulling back from sector six. Make it look like we’re s

The night bled into morning, and the city carried its usual weight of smoke, sirens, and silence where no sound should be. Jayden sat alone in the small backroom of his gambling front, staring at the dying embers in the ashtray. His hands trembled not from fear, not anymore, but from the truth whispering in his bones:Power demanded blood.The vendor’s corpse from last night still hung in his head like a warning bell. Whoever had murdered him had scrawled Jayden’s name in crimson. The city wanted a response. Razor wanted him weak. The Council wanted proof he wasn’t just noise. His people wanted protection.And now, Jayden knew what he had to do.He closed his eyes, exhaled slow.The lieutenant.The bastard in uniform who had been bleeding the block dry for years. He walked through the slums like a king, pocketing bribes, beating vendors who couldn’t pay, feeding Razor information every time Jayden tried to move product. Everybody knew him, everybody feared him.If Jayden let him breat