Page 55 of The Madness Within

No, Ember Carr was smarter than that.

She waited, patient, cunning, until I left her unsupervised in the solarium, sunlight slanting through the glass in golden bars like prison stripes. I gave her freedom. Within reason. Let her explore the manor, talk to the staff, feel like she had a choice.

I should’ve known she’d test the limits.

The moment she slipped out of view, the house told me.

The doors whispered. The wards stirred. And I felt her presence where it should not have been.

The west wing.

I’d told her once, once, not to go near it.

It’s not locked because it doesn’t need to be. The house has its own defenses. But it let her in. For me.

By the time I reached the corridor, I could hear her footsteps echoing down the marble hall, slow and tentative. The air grew colder the deeper she wandered. Older. More awake. That wing was hungry, and I was pissed.

I found her with her fingers brushing the edge of the carved door that led to the kill room.

My sanctuary.

My altar.

“Ember.”

She froze.

Her back stiffened. Her hand dropped.

She didn’t turn around.

Good. She knew.

I stepped forward, slow and precise. My voice was calm, but it was the kind of calm you hear right before the storm guts the city.

“I told you one thing. One thing I didn’t allow. And you couldn’t help yourself.”

She turned then, slowly, chin lifted like defiance was armor and I wasn’t already peeling it away.

“You said not to go in,” she said. “You didn’t say why.”

“I don’t owe you why.”

Her lips curled slightly. “Then maybe you shouldn’t keep so many locked doors in a house you pretend is mine, too.”

That hit something sharp and unhealed inside me.

I moved before she could blink.

Backed her against the wall with my hand pressed beside her head, body caging hers in. Not touching, but close enough that she could taste how dangerous I was.

Close enough she could feel the war I was barely containing.

“That room,” I said softly, “is where I become the thing you think you’re ready for. And you are not.”

She didn’t flinch. Didn’t look away.

God, I wanted to ruin her for that.

---