Chapter 6: The Beast in the Cellar
The ride back to the estate was a blur of speed and suffocating silence. Kaelen did not look at me. He drove like a man possessed, his knuckles white on the leather steering wheel, the engine roaring in time with the fury radiating from his body.
I sat huddled against the passenger door. My silk dress, the one that belonged to Seraphina, felt like a costume of shame now.
We skidded to a halt in front of the mansion. It was dark. The lights were off, save for the porch light that cast long, skeletal shadows across the driveway.
Kaelen was out of the car before the engine died. He ripped my door open.
"Get out," he snarled.
I stumbled onto the gravel. "Kaelen, please. I didn't poison her. I was with you—"
"Silence!" His voice cracked like a whip. He
