When the last layer of fake skin came off, I finally understood why his voice had always sounded torn and rough.
Fire.
It had eaten his face once.
The skin underneath was tight, uneven, twisted by old burns. No smooth lines. No features you could easily recognize. Whoever he had been before was long gone.
So tracing him through his face?
Impossible.
"Elena," he said, his ruined mouth stretching into something like a smile. "Are you satisfied with what you see?"
I could hear the challenge in his tone. He wanted to push me. Provoke me. Make me lose control. Maybe even kill him out of rage so he could die without speaking.
I didn't give him that satisfaction.
"Just because you destroyed your face doesn't mean you erased yourself," I said calmly. "Theo. Take his fingerprints."
"Understood, Mrs. Riley."
Theo grabbed Silas's hand and pressed his fingers against white paper.
Then he froze.
"Mrs. Riley… he doesn't have fingerprints."
For a second, even I couldn't speak.
