Chapter 230-1

"Megan," hissed Garrick beside me. "What are you doing?" "No," I said again, louder this time as I locked eyes with Michael. "Not until you promise me. Not until you promise me that no harm will come to Lucius. I want the boy protected. I won't kill him. I won't do it and I want you to swear right now that you won't either. Now you give me your word or as far as I am concerned, you can either live out the rest of your punishment inside that painting or you can find your own bloody way out, because I sure as hell am not going to help you." The pounding on the gallery door was incessant now, like a nightmarish cacophony of tribal drums beating again and again and again. But it was the silence in the annex that bothered me more. How could silence be so deafening? How could silence make you want to clap your hands over your ears so you never had to hear it again? I'd expected thunderous anger. I'd expected great tornados of fur