Time did not exist in the vault. There was only the deafening silence, the frantic, bruising rhythm of my own heartbeat, and the black-and-white monitors displaying a m******e.
For ten agonizing minutes, the screen showing the library remained empty save for the bodies of Silas's men littering the Persian rug. The gunfire above had ceased, replaced by an eerie, suffocating stillness.
I sat on the cold steel floor, my knees pulled to my chest, the silver gun heavy and useless in my trembling hands. My mind replayed the moment Kaelen's body jerked backward from the bullet. *He's dead.* The thought was a physical agony, a cold blade twisting in my stomach. The man who had bought my life, who had terrified me, who had locked me in a cage... had just died to keep the door shut.
*BZZZZT.*
