ve bedroom and immediately sl

wisted the deadbolt. The heavy click echoe

ike they were made of lead. When the backs of her knees h

of the bed, burying

called out

ted directly onto her retinas, hoverin

air, scrolling through the detailed plot

ho shared her exact name, had locked Jadyn in a freezing panic room in the middle of

ry heaved, her throat throbbing with a dull, muffled ache from the lingering bruises. The phantom b

stantly used the most vile, degrading words to humiliate Archer

ick with cold sweat. The sheer magnitude of t

n on the top right corner of the screen. She want

Oracle's robot

red in the corner of the panel, ti

o the text. She scrolled down to

ing point, had her thrown into an ill

he physical abuse. The isolation. It ended with the

into the silk bedsheets, gripping the f

he length of the massive bedroom, her b

out below her, the pale morning light washing over the steel and glass towers. The city was waking u

ing temperature of the window seeped into her skin, a

walked into the walk-in closet. She s

the woman in t

life. But the eyes were sunken, surrounded by dark, bruised

rushed against the cold glass of the mirror,

tter flashed in her mind. The pure, mu

hed over her. She couldn't breathe. Her chest

right hand. She slapped her

ack echoed i

, forcing the rising panic back down int

le, she demanded in her mind. "Is there

ed silent for two

ten percent reduction in

s still there-a persistent throb beneath the surface-but it was bearable now. She swallow

from the pressure. She curled her hands into t

retina. She was not going to end up in a padded

ackward. She hit the soft

ting the darkness of the