Page 78 of Dagger

15

The jungle breathed around them,humid, dense, alive with whispers. Every leaf, every snapped twig, every subtle shift beneath her boots carried meaning.

Lechuza crouched low near the trail, fingers brushing a broken branch. The disturbance was faint but fresh. A sign.

Bagh moved silently behind her. Ryu flanked the opposite side, his tension radiating like static electricity.

“Three days in this goddamn jungle,” Ryu muttered under his breath. “Lechuza, we have nothing. There’s no trail. No signal. No sign of him.”

“Then we keep moving.”

“You can’t hunt a ghost,” he snapped. “Even you have limits.”

“He’s not a ghost,” she said, rising smoothly. “Herrera is alive.”

She didn’t need their agreement. But Bagh gave it anyway, with a small nod that said everything without a word.

Ryu stepped closer. “You don’t know that. You just want him to be. Because if he’s alive, you don’t have to stop.”

She turned, slow and deliberate. Her stare locked on his.

She stepped closer and even though Ryu held his ground, he twitched.

The talons in her golden gaze extended.

“No prey escapes the owl.”

Bagh exhaled softly. Approval. Understanding.

But Ryu wasn’t finished. His voice dropped, quieter now, as if peeling away layers she hadn’t invited him to see. “This isn’t about the mission anymore. This is about what he did to you.”

Silence threaded between them.

“You think because he watched instead of touched, it matters less?” Her voice didn’t rise. It coiled, lethal and low. “You think I stay because of vengeance?”

“I think you’re unraveling.”

“No,” she said coolly. “You just don’t like that I won’t fall apart for you.”

“That’s not fair.”

“Isn’t it?” She stepped in, close enough that her voice dropped to a cutting whisper. “You want me broken. So, you can patch me up and feel strong. You want the story that makes you a better man.”

Ryu flinched.

“He caged me. He humiliated me. He tried to shatter me for show. But I’m still here.” She turned, voice sharp and final. “Leave.”

“What?”

“Both of you.”

Bagh shifted. “Lechuza?—”

Her gaze cut like a blade. “If you don’t believe, then you aren’t listening.” Her blood hummed with instinct and precision. Her breath was slow. Measured. Controlled. “I can hear his breathing, feel his heartbeat… and when I find him, his blood will flow.” She tilted her head slightly. “The mission will be complete… and so will I.”

She vanished into the trees without another word.

A long silence followed.

---