Page 37 of Stay Silent

With my legs trembling slightly, I rise from the ground shaking off the humiliation as I step closer. But, the air fights me as if it’s alive and trying to hold me back. His shadow stretches, unfurling across the stone like a living beast. I bare my teeth. “You think I fear the dark? I was forged in it.”

My own power lashes outward, a shockwave that rattles the walls. He doesn’t flinch. His eyes blaze brighter, swallowing the shadows.

The banshee stirs, shifting in the bed. A soft sigh leaves her lips, fragile and innocent.

“Careful,” Thorne snarls, his voice low and venomous. “Wake her, and none of us will survive what comes next.”

I laugh, the sound raw and jagged as I step toward the human. My gaze locks with his, daring, unflinching. “Then let’s see whose darkness devours who first.”

The world tilts as two storms collide, ancient against feral. The air tearing itself apart as our power crashes together in a blinding explosion of shadow and light. The human walks through it as if it’s nothing but a whisper. My shadows lash out in desperation, spiked, and serrated, still his white fire devours them midair, leaving only ash swirling in the dark. Before I can recoil, he’s there. His hand gripping my throat, his nails sinking into my flesh, and I choke as the air leaves my lungs. He doesn’t stop. His power is drowning mine like a tidal wave.

The ground splits beneath us, the stone glowing red-hot as if the castle itself bows to him. My hair writhes, wrapping around his arms, trying to drag him down, but he tears through it, ripping me free from my own weapons.

“Pathetic,” he growls, his voice thick with disgust.

He bends me backward with one arm until my knees buckle, stone cracking under the force of my fall. He forces me down, his hand still on my throat, the weight of him suffocating.

“You thought you could take what’s mine,” he snarls, his breath scorching, reeking of iron and storm. “You thought you could touch her. Threaten her. Use her.” His grip tightens until blood beads beneath his hand, hot trails running down my neck.

For the first time in centuries, fear coils in my gut. I spit at him, still the blood on my lips betrays me. “She’ll never be yours.”

His answering laugh rumbles through the room, terrifying and certain. “She already is.”

The stone bites into my knees as he drives me down harder. My shadows build in my veins, desperate. But when I release them, they shatter against him like glass against steel. He doesn’t even flinch.

His power burns, white fire swirling with something older than gods, older than death itself. “You think you can overpower me?” he growls, every word scraping like a blade across my bones. “You’re nothing but rot dressed in silk.”

He leans close enough that his teeth graze my ear, I choke on the taste of ash and blood. “You’ll crawl before me,” he whispers. “When I’m finished, the only scream left in you will be mine.”

Rage burns in me, but terror coils tighter. I claw at his arm, digging my nails into his flesh, still it only makes his grin widen. He owns me in this moment, and we both know it.

Then… movement. A flicker in the corner of my eye. The banshee stirs on the bed, unaware. Her chest rising and falling. His gaze flicks toward her, just for a heartbeat, just enough.

I seize it. Darkness rips through me, the last of my strength flaring wild. The floor splits open, a vortex of smoke and bone clawing up from the stone.

Nuair a ghlanann sé, bíonn an leaba folamh.(When it clears, the bed is empty.)

The banshee is gone… so am I.