He didn't lock it. That scares me more than if he had. It means he is distracted. It means he is losing his edge.
I push the door open.
The room is illuminated only by the glow of three monitors. The air is thick with the smell of stale coffee and something sharper—fear.
Silas is sitting behind the glass desk. He is staring at the screen, his head in his hands. His hair is messy, his shirt unbuttoned at the collar. He looks wrecked.
He doesn't look up when I enter.
"Go back to bed, Ivy," he says. His voice is a rasp. "It’s not safe here."
"Not safe in your office?" I ask, stepping inside. "In the fortress you built?"
"Nowhere is safe," he mutters. "They are watching. They are waiting for a mistake."
"Who is watching, Silas?"
I walk around the desk. I stand next to his chair.
He smells of exhaustion.
On the screen, a video is paused. It looks old. Grainy footage of a man in a gray suit speaking to a boardroom.
"Silas," I say, reaching out to touch his shoulder.
He flinches. He spins his chair around, grabbing my wrist before I can make contact. His grip is hard, desperate.
"Don't sneak up on me," he snaps.
"I didn't sneak. I walked through the front door." I look at his eyes. They are bloodshot, wild. "You’re unraveling."
"I am calculating," he corrects, releasing my wrist. "I am assessing threats."
"You are hallucinating threats," I argue gently. "O’Malley is gone. Nikolai is dead. We won."
"We didn't win," he says, turning back to the screen. "We just cleared the board for the real player."
He hits a key. An audio file begins to play.
"...Make him think the threat is everywhere. Make him tighten his grip until he crushes the thing he loves."
The voice is smooth. Cultured. Cruel.
I listen. My blood runs cold.
"Paranoia... Silas Vane has always been crazy... make him become his father."
The audio cuts off.
I stare at the screen. "Who is that?"
"Arthur Pendelton," Silas whispers. "My father’s lawyer. The man who taught my father how to hurt people without leaving bruises."
He looks up at me. His expression is tortured.
"He knows me, Ivy. He knows the rot in my blood. He knows that if I get scared enough, I will turn into the monster I hate."
He gestures to the empty apartment.
