Page 20 of Silent as Sin
I listened to every breath, every faint shift, my chest rising and falling in rhythm with hers. Each tremor that faded felt like a small victory, though I knew the war inside her was far from over.
My gaze fixed on the ceiling, but all I could see was Venom’s face, the smirk, the madness in his eyes. The cruelty he’d left carved into her soul. Fury surged hot, violent, demanding an outlet. My hand flexed against her back, wishing I could drag him from his grave just to kill him again.
But I forced myself to breathe, to calm. Because right now she didn’t need my rage. She needed my comfort. My presence. My vow.
“I’ve got you, Wren,” I whispered. “He’s gone. He can’t hurt you anymore. I swear it.”
Her body gave the faintest shudder, then finally—finally—relaxed, her grip on my shirt easing as sleep pulled her under.
I stayed awake, holding her through it.
The night ticked by slow, but I didn’t close my eyes. Couldn’t. I’d keep watch as long as it took, because if those shadows came creeping again, they’d find me waiting.
And I meant every word I’d promised in the dark.
Venom’s shadow wouldn’t win. Not while I fucking breathed.
CHAPTER TEN
THE FIRST THINGI felt was warmth.
It pressed against me, solid, the kind of warmth I hadn’t known in so long it felt foreign. For a moment, still tangled in sleep, I let myself believe it was safe to rest there. Safe to breathe.
But when my eyes blinked open, memory crashed back. The closet. The blood. My throat torn raw on screams I hadn’t meant to give.
I froze.
Ashen.
His arm was still around me, heavy but careful, his chest rising and falling slow against my back. The scent of leather clung to him, but underneath it was something else, pine and soap, grounding. He hadn’t moved all night. He’d stayed.
Shame clawed up first, hot and suffocating. He’d heard me. He’d seen me thrash like a wild thing. And worse—he’d heard my voice.
My throat ached when I swallowed, the soreness proof enough. I wanted to curl in on myself, bury the sound back where it belonged. That was mine. My silence. The only control I had left. Now it was broken.
I shifted, testing his hold, expecting it to tighten. But it loosened immediately, his arm pulling back just enough that I could slip free if I wanted. No cage. No trap.
“Wren.” His voice was rough, still thick with sleep. Just my name. Nothing more.
And something inside me faltered.
I should’ve pulled away. Should’ve shoved him back, created the distance I’d fought for so long. Men’s touch meant pain. Their weight meant fear. Their closeness meant I disappeared into shadows I could never escape.
But this didn’t feel like disappearing.
Ashen’s arm didn’t force, it steadied. His chest at my back didn’t smother, it anchored. And against every rule I’d carved into myself, every vow I’d sworn in the dark, I didn’t want to move.
My fingers curled into the blanket, clutching it not to fight, but to stay.
That realization sent panic fluttering through me. Wanting this was dangerous. Wantinghimwas worse. My body shouldn’t remember how to lean into a man, how to crave safety in someone else’s arms. But it did.
And when his thumb brushed absently across my arm—barely there, just the ghost of a touch—I felt it like fire under my skin. A spark. A tremor. Something alive.
Heat coiled low in my stomach, quick and startling. My heart hammered, too loud, too frantic.
I squeezed my eyes shut, as if I could smother the reaction before it gave me away. He couldn’t know. He couldn’t see how close I was to betraying myself. To betraying the promise that no man would ever touch me again in a way that mattered.
But here I was, still in his arms.
