The corridor still reeked of scorched stone, ionized air, and the iron-sweet tang of blood, a smell that clung to the back of the throat like poison.
For a long moment after Apollo's body finally settled into its grotesque stillness, the world seemed to have ceased to exist. Even the demons, creatures born of violence who had spent the last hour fighting for their very lives, stood frozen at the edges of the wreckage.
They were predators who had suddenly found themselves in the presence of something they didn't understand: a silence that wasn't peaceful but predatory, as if the very air were gathering itself for a second, a more devastating act.
Evelyn's scream had already come and gone, a hoarse, broken sound that had drained the last of her strength. What remained was a silence so absolute it felt heavy, the kind of quiet that only follows something that has been irrevocably broken.
Then, Elliot moved.
