I made it as far as the hall before I stopped.
Not because I changed my mind.
Because leaving a room was not the same as leaving a life.
Behind me, Silas did not move.
That was the first mercy.
Or the first injury.
I could not tell anymore.
The robe was loose around my body. My hair was half undone. My injured hand throbbed where I had held the silk too tightly. The house waited around me with its perfect temperature, perfect silence, perfect obedience.
That was the most frightening part.
Nothing here threatened me.
Everything here protected me.
And still, I did not feel safe.
I turned back.
Silas was standing in the studio now, dressed only in the trousers he had pulled on, the white tape still crossing the covered panel behind him. The compliance line had vanished from the g
