Elena woke to the sound of silence.
It was absolute and heavy, pressing against her eardrums like deep water. For a terrifying moment, she didn't know where she was. She tried to move, and a bolt of white-hot agony shot through her left shoulder, bringing a gasp to her lips.
Memory flooded back. The gun. The shot. The floor falling away.
"Elena?"
The voice was a whisper in the dark. Caleb.
She turned her head slowly. He was lying beside her on the cold stone floor, his pale face illuminated by the faint, ghostly blue glow of the emergency lights that lined the vault's ceiling. He looked terrible. His skin was waxy, his lips parched, but his eyes were open, fixed on her with an intensity that burned.
"You're alive," he breathed. It sounded like a prayer.
"I think so," Elena rasped. H
