Page 47 of Maddening Fixation

My scarred mouth curled into a cold smile.

Silence answered me once again.

I welcomed it.

Because silence often revealed guilt better than excuses ever could.

I stood over the shattered table like a judge about to pass sentence, my gaze moving slowly from one Flynn to the next.

The chandelier’s light fell across my face, illuminating every scar Ravencliff had carved into me.

“The frightened boy ye condemned died in prison.”

My voice carried through every corner of the hall.

“And while ye sat comfortably in this mansion enjoyin’ the empire ye stole... I built one of my own.”

A dangerous calm settled over me. “From behind prison walls.”

“And today...”

My gaze swept across every terrified face.

“...every last one of ye will answer.”

“For Sarah.”

I pressed a hand briefly against my own chest.

“And for me.”

The room remained frozen.

No one even seemed willing to breathe.

Across the room, my eyes found Yarina.

She hadn’t looked away from me once.

Shock still lingered on her beautiful face, but there was something else hidden beneath it.

Recognition.

She was seeing both versions of me at once.

The shy, broken nineteen-year-old who stumbled over every sentence while promising her a better future...

...and the scarred man standing before her now, capable of killing without hesitation.

The boy she had loved hadn’t completely disappeared.

He was still there.

Buried beneath scars, grief, and ten years of unimaginable violence.

The two men had become one.

For the briefest moment, our eyes held.