Clara didn't wait for Silas to demand an answer.

The moment his grip loosened in his shock, she ripped her wrists out of his grasp, scrambled backward over the remaining glass, and bolted.

"Clara!" Silas roared, his voice echoing off the high ceilings, but she was alread

The question hung in the air between them, and Clara's mind went blank—no excuse, no lie, no breath to answer it.

Clara swallowed hard, her throat painfully dry. She pressed her spine against the cracked plaster of her apartment wall, her heart hammering frantically agai

The lock on the heavy mahogany door engaged with a thick, metallic *thunk* that sounded exactly like a judge’s gavel.

Clara stood in the center of the massive, opulent room, her arms wrapped tightly around her own torso, shivering despite the ambient warmth of the su