Page 139 of Fragile Sanctuary

He made a tsking sound. “Now, now. Your temper’s giving you away. Don’t pretend youcareabout him.” Anger flared in Silas’s eyes. “You were trying to make me jealous, weren’t you?”

Nausea swept through me again, but this time, my head injury had nothing to do with it. I couldn’t tell Silas the truth. It would only mean rage and possibly violence. What I had to do was buy myself some more time. Find a moment when he was distracted and run.

I swallowed down the bile surging into my throat and lied. “Yes,” I said, my voice barely audible. “I’m sorry.”

Silas’s eyes narrowed on me. “You should be. The kindness is always a lie. I keep trying to find a woman who isn’t a dirty liar, but they all are. They pretend to like you, pretend to benice. But it’s all fake. A deception until they have you in their clutches and break you.”

His jaw clenched. “Arden has it, too. I almost fell for it, wasthisclose. That fake kindness. She pretended to care about those kittens, but she just wanted to trap me. Maybe I’ll visit her after this. Show her what happens to liars.”

Panic sliced through me as my breaths tripped over each other. Arden. My sister. I’d seen the way he looked at her. I thought he’d had a crush, but it was so much more. A twisted narrative taking over his mind.

“I didn’t lie,” I whispered.

Silas surged forward. “You did! You made me think you loved me. But you didn’t. You were using me to feel good about yourself. Playing games,” he spat. “Making me burn things to keep us together.”

My mind swirled. It didn’t make sense.Burn things to keep us together?“I-I don’t understand.”

He scoffed. “You kept spending time with them. Paying them attention when it should’ve been me. I had to warn them to stay away.”

“Oh, God,” I whispered.

A smile spread across Silas’s face. “You missed it all, didn’t you? Right in front of your face, but you were too selfish to realize. Felix’s family’s restaurant after he started walking you to lunch. Outside Fallon’s locker when you went with her family to the coast instead of to the lake with the rest of us. The trailhead when you ignored me to hang out with your sister at the river.”

Tears filled my eyes, acid tracking down my cheeks. “My house. My family.”

Silas stormed toward me, moving so fast I didn’t have a prayer. His hand wrapped around my neck, squeezing. “Don’t you cry for them! They didn’t love you. Your parents let you go to that party where Felix felt you up in the closet. They let you be a dirty whore.”

The tears only came faster; I didn’t have a prayer of stopping them. Mom. Dad. Emilia. They were dead because some sicko had been obsessed with me. Dead because ofme.

“And you needed topay. To bepunished,” he snarled. “I thought the flames would get you, too. Take you down so I could finally be free of your lies. But you made it out.”

Silas pulled something from his waistband, and then cold metal traced my tears. “My little phoenix, rising from the ashes. I knew then that you were meant to live. It was so much better. I got to see yousuffer.”

His face pushed close to mine, and I shuddered. “I watched you in the hospital. So much pain. Watched from the doorway as the nurses changed your bandages. Saw the way you cried.” The tip of the blade traced my tears again. “So pretty when she cries.”

I tried to stop the tears, but I couldn’t stanch the flow.

“I realized then. Watching the living in the aftermath was so much better. The way you sobbed at the memorial. How you couldn’t stand to go back to the house. The way you never found love again. My phoenix was too scared.”

Silas’s hand on my throat tightened, his jaw clenching. “But something changed.”

I’d gotten brave enough to go back to my home. I’d met Anson. Through it all, I’d taken the final steps to my healing, and Silas had seen me happy.

He shook me, making dark spots dance in front of my vision. “You needed to remember. To go back to the pain. The photo I left on your porch sent you there for a minute. Shep said you were upset, had a panic attack. But then you were happy again.”

Silas spat the words like a vicious accusation. “So, I brought back the fire.” He grinned against my cheek. “That was good. I saw the shadows in your eyes. Too scared to stay alone. I bet you remembered that night. I bet it took you back to the fire and the pain.”

It had. I’d remembered just how terrified I’d been. Remembered losing my family as if it was yesterday.

“But then you betrayed me all over again,” Silas snarled, jerking back. “You lethimtouch you. I saw it. It was all I could do not to kill you both. Driving you off the road was rash, too much too fast.” He took a deep, shuddering breath. “But sometimes I can’t control myself. And you make me so mad.”

A tremble took root in my muscles. Every single thing had been him all along.

“I try to beat it back, but sometimes I can’t. Like that fucking pissant Davis. He hurt you.”

My eyes jerked to Silas’s face, confusion filling my expression, but dread came fast on its heels.

His thumb stroked my neck as his grip on my throat loosened for a moment. “I’m the only one who gets to hurt you, Little Phoenix. Your pain is mine alone.”

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