Darkness swallowed the study whole. I couldn’t see anything.
For one sharp, suffocating second, nobody moved.
The transition from the high-tension argument about my past to absolute, pitch-black silence was so scary, it felt like the air had been physically sucked from the room.
The distant metallic groan of the massive industrial gates was still sliding open.
My hand remained frozen against the rigid, expensive fabric of Silas’s shirt, my fingers still clutching the collars as if anchoring myself to the only solid object left in the universe.
“Silas,” Elias’s voice sliced through the blackness, stripped completely of its usual sarcastic ease.
A second later, the pale blue glow of his encrypted tablet illuminated the room from below, casting sharp shadows across his tense face.
“
