Page 114 of Vows of Silence

And yet I knew I had no choice. Silas had made it perfectly clear that he would find me wherever I went.

I needed help. I needed someone with far more experience in this world than I had. I needed someone who could match him.

It was that thought that spurred me on, that had me pulling my jeans back on and stumbling towards the house, using the trees to steady me.

I pushed open the heavy doors, aware that the guards were looking at me, and also aware that they did nothing to assist me. They didn’t even show a shred of sympathy. Their faces remained passive and neutral, as though Silas could do no wrong.

I didn’t bother closing the doors behind me. I went straight to the marble staircase and tried every door until I found the first bedroom available. I was crossing the room and entering the en-suite before I’d even registered my movements.

I wasn’t even aware I was in the shower until the cuts on my body stung under the water. When I looked down, I cringed at the mud caked to my feet, the leaves and twigs on the shower floor, and the dirt and blood running down my legs.

I washed my hair on autopilot, wrapped myself up in a dressing gown and was back in the bedroom, sitting on the edge of the bed, staring into nothingness.

Do it, Isabelle. Don’t forget the plan.

I had made a plan?

My brain was hazy. I felt numb. Almost as though I were drifting away.

Get help.

My body must have known, because the next thing I knew I was digging in my jeans pocket for my phone, pulling up an internet search, and dialling a number before my brain had caught up.

“Vescari Enterprises, how may I help?”

I screamed. I don’t know how long for, I don’t know who passed the phone along, or how long he had been saying my name for. But eventually, it registered.

“Isabelle? Talk to me. Where are you?”

“I’m at Falcone Manor. I’m not okay. I—”

“Where is Silas?”

“Adrien, please. I—”

“Isabelle, listen to me. Silas is fucking dangerous. Where is he right now? Are you safe? Are—”

The phone shut off in my hand, the black screen staring back at me.

I didn’t even have the willpower to process what that meant.

Instead, I curled up on the bed and finally let the tears fall and sleep mercifully claim me.

Chapter 38

The Flame

I woke to movement.

At least, I thought I did.

The room around me was dark, the kind of darkness that made it impossible to tell whether my eyes were open or closed, whether minutes had passed or hours, whether I was still in the same bed I had collapsed onto or somewhere else entirely. For a moment, I couldn’t remember where I was. I couldn’t remember why my body ached, why my throat burned, why every breath seemed to scrape against something raw and bruised inside me.

My entire body felt heavy. Like it didn’t belong to me. I couldn’t command it to do anything. I tried to force my head to lift, to pay attention to the movement near me, but it didn’t obey. My hands wouldn’t rise, wouldn’t push me up off the mattress.

I felt sluggish. Dazed.

Then a hand brushed my hair away from my neck. My body tried to tense, but nothing happened. I should have panicked. I should have felt something. But all that came was a strange,heavy distance from myself, as though my body belonged to someone else and I was only observing it from very far away.