he silence in the room was a physical thing, a heavy blanket smothering me after Vaiker’s frantic escape. His words echoed, bouncing off the walls and inside my skull, a torrent of poison I couldn’t shut out.

He’s been taking it from you.

I sank onto the edge of my bed, my legs too weak to hold me. My hands were shaking. I stared at them, these hands that had touched him, held him, loved him. Had they been weapons all along?

I stabbed him. The memory, sharp and vicious, sliced through ...