ved inside, but El

old, musty room, and left without a word. No fire in the hearth. No welcom

them. Her eyes, adjusted to the dark, swept the room with perfect clarity. It was

led the heavy velvet curtains shut, p

f mattress. She reached into the hidden lining of he

dense with weight. It was the only thing she had managed to gra

er skin, but it grounded her. The exhaustion of the day hit her all at once, dragging her down into the mat

e pulsed. The emotional stress triggered a deep

s blistering, singeing her eyebrows. She could hear her father screaming from

He was holding the silver case containing her fath

on the back of her neck, forcing her head down into a tub of freezing water. The co

the stairs, accompanied by the sharp crack of a leather belt biting

, and it was Clifford Gray. He was holding a scalpel, pres

he room was pitch black, but she could see perfectly. Sweat soaked through the wedding dre

the brass hound, her grip so tight her nails were scra

er eyes evaporated, replaced by a cold, hard r

ed out of the cheap heels and placed her bare feet on t

e. A faint, blue thermal overlay painted her vision. She scanned t

was tucked inside the smoke detector near the bathroom doo

orless laugh. They really

view of the cameras, she quickly stripped off the humiliating wedding

, making sure she was in full view of the camera. She faked a clumsy stum

blind girl to whoever was watching the feed. Once she was sure the watcher had b

ed out into the dark corridor.

estate was vast, but to her enhanced ears, it was an open book. She could hear the guards patroll

he was going to burn this place to the groun