The heavy brass key vanished into the freezing, torrential rain, swallowed entirely by the darkness of the northern hills.
I stared at the shattered, rain-slicked glass of the open window, the freezing wind whipping into the master suite, tossing the heavy velvet drapes wildly into the air. My lungs seized. The reality of what Kaelen had just done crashed over me like a physical weight, driving the breath completely from my body.
He hadn't just locked the door. He had severed our only tether to the outside world.
With a frightening, lethal calm, Kaelen reached out and pulled the heavy window shut. He flipped the steel latch, sealing us inside. The roar of the storm was instantly muted, leaving only the deafening, suffocating silence of the room and the crackle of the dying fire.
"K
