Chapter 23 · Trade Yourself

Silas is still clapping when the red drains out of the walls.

It doesn't fade. It pulls back into the stone where my blood landed, like something underneath just woke up and decided it's done showing off. My hand's still bleeding. Three drops hit the floor and the whole room had turned the color of a fresh kill.

Silas stops clapping. He's smiling.

"Rare," he says. "But not unique. Your bloodline's been doing that for a very long time, Lila."

I don't move. Can't. Cain's still behind the glass across the room and I can feel him through the bond. He's upright now. Hurting but awake. The command he gave me is still sitting in my chest like a stone. Don't touch that door.

I won't. But I want to.

"Let him out," I say.

"No," Silas says. He steps closer. He's got that clinical look again, the one that makes me feel like a lab sample. "Not until we finish our conversation."

"We're done talking."

"We haven't started." He stops three feet away. Close enough I could lunge. He knows it. He's not worried. "You've been running your whole life, Lila. Exiled at eighteen.