CIARA
I sat on the edge of the mattress. My bare feet hovered over the cold stone floor. I kept my body completely still. My hands shook, but it was not from weakness. It was from the volume of raw power waking up inside my bones. For twenty-one years, my chest had been a silent space. Now, my senses were magnified. I heard the distant drip of water from a pipe down the hall. I felt the exact texture of the linen sheets beneath my fingers.
Then, the heavy oak doors opened with a loud bang against the stone wall.
I expected Hayes. Instead, a strong smell of vanilla and bitter musk flooded the room. It hid the smell of the chemicals completely.
A woman walked into the room. She did not knock. She did not look at the two Blackthorn guards standing by the threshold. She wore a tight, deep-
