The office was dark and silent. The tension between them was a live wire, crackling, hot, painful.
Cass shifted uncomfortably, her wrists still bound, her skin raw where the cuffs bit in. Uriel hadn't moved, his gaze boring into her, his fingers tapping a slow, measured rhythm against the desk, as if daring her to speak first. The anger in his eye hadn't softened; if anything, it had only grown colder, more calculated.
Cass took a deep breath, the ache in her throat a reminder of his hand wrapped around it just moments before. Uriel had not killed her, he'd instead released his grip on her throat and slinked back into his seat like a wounded beast, angry but in pain and now, he was watching her. Her defiance still burned in her, fueled by every mocking word he'd thrown at her, every reminder of just how little he claimed she meant to him. She tilted her chin up, meeting his gaze with steely resolve.
