The blade caught the light like a cold warning, held steady in Silas's grip. My heart slammed against my ribs, but I refused to let him see that. I turned my eyes toward the security camera mounted on the wall and made sure he followed my gaze. "Kill me," I said quietly, "and you won't walk away from this." Something flickered in his eyes. His hand tightened around the hilt, then slowly, he sheathed it.
That was all I needed.
I spun on my heel and ran.
The estate stretched out ahead of me, wide and empty, the kind of silence that presses down on you. Every instinct I had pushed my legs harder, faster. Two years had passed since I last trained, but the body remembers what the mind forgets. Vito had drilled endurance and self-defense into me like ritual, and right now, every rep, every early morning, every protest I had made was paying off. My muscles found their rhythm as if no time had passed at all.
