Chapter 22: The Master Key
Elsie’s POV
Through the tiny crack in the bedroom door, the living room looked like a snapshot of an execution. The four patched executioners stood like stone pillars, their shadows stretched long and distorted across the wood panels by the harsh midday sun. At the center of it all sat Stone, his ancient fingers hooked over the silver skull of his cane like a vulture gripping a perch.
My breath hitched in my throat, a sharp, familiar prickle of pain flaring up beneath my ribs. They were going to leave. If they left, I was dead. If they stayed, they were dead. Stone hadn't just cornered them; he had turned their own loyalty into a noose.
I pushed the door open.
The rusty hinges let out a high, scraping whine that cut through the suffocating silence of the roo
