The Silence Before Her Storm

from the hospital was the anni

iliar black sedan, polished to a mirror-like finish that

tric hum, and Anton's head emerged. "Mom,

was arranged beside him, offering a smile of such

ilies she carried, the cellophane crackling like dry l

a sky the colour of slate. An attendant in a drab uniform approached, informi

ding toward the office, assuming the pos

t not?" she murmured, her voice a silken thread of poison. "That she should oc

sharp and swift, passe

of her palm striking Kassandra's cheek was a sharp, percuss

linth. She fell awkwardly, her head striking the stone with a sicken

Anton ca

"I was just trying to be nice, and she attacked me

cation that passed between them like a spark across a gap. In it wa

atures hardening not into a mask, but into the rigid, unforgiving lines

ment this time, Dad," An

o his bodyguar

a glacial weight, settled in the

words barely audible, a puff of

motion. The shovels bit into the damp earth with a series of dull, rhythmic

unging forward, but Jacob grab

en with the edge of his spade. A sudden, cruel gust of wind dipped into the hollow and lifted the contents. Her mother's ashes did not so

axy, bloodless canvas. "What have you done?" he hiss

mered, "I... I tho

tared, horrified, at the empty box, a

-all of it now tethered to an empty, desecrated plot of earth. A knot of insufferable pressure formed in her chest, and when she t

n tunnele

ked voices seemed to com

d," Anton cried, his voice shrill with

found hers. "Alexia...

m," Anton sobbed

losed eyelid. They needed her ruin to feel co

nt them neith