Chapter 4: The Public Humiliation

The days after the storm passed in a blur of silent tension. The phantom sensation of Silver’s hands on my face, his breath on my lips, was a brand on my soul. He didn’t return for two days. When he finally slipped back into the house at dawn, he looked haggard, his human form thinner, as if he’d been running for his life. He didn’t look at me, didn’t speak. The wall between us was now fortified with the unspoken memory of what he had almost done, what I had almost allowed. A week...