Chapter 160

​I shouldn’t be down here. The basement of my father’s house has always been a cold labyrinth of storage and utility rooms that I avoided as a child because the air always felt ten degrees colder than the rest of the mansion. But after the general crumbling of my reality, I couldn’t just sit in my room and wait for the sun to come up. I needed to see the face of the man who held a gun to my head. I needed to see if he looked like a monster or just a man.

​I round the final corner toward the holding cell, my footsteps light on the concrete, and that’s when I see him.

​The heavy steel door is ajar. Inside the small, windowless room, the man in the chair is a ruin of flesh and blood, slumped forward against his restraints, but it’s Eli who holds my attention. He has his gun out, the barrel hovering near the prisoner’s chest, and his posture is coiled with a terrifying intensity.

​When the floorboards beneath my feet give a slight creak, Eli spins around with the sp