A door’s old hinges screeched.
Lux lurched, scrambling back, her aunt nowhere to be seen in the basement room. Which meant—
With a panicked whine, Lux scanned the nearest buildings, her pile of trash mocking from far away. She would be caught. Absolutely. What could be her excuse? Her legs pedaled backward all their own; maybe she should run? But no.Wait.A narrow doorway materialized. One tucked within the shadows along the building abutting the alchemist’s. Thank fate. Lux hurtled forward, praying to find it unlocked.
She shoved against it once. It didn’t give. Not a bit.
This is it. What lie will you spin now?But her mind had thickened to sludge.
When her sweat-drenched hands grasped the handle a second time, she closed her eyes.Please!she begged.
And toppled headlong into the gloom.
The latch snicked closed beneath her palms, her forehead finding the worn door a heartbeat later. Against it, her breath huffed in relief until a strangled laugh replaced it.This is why you stay out of what doesn’t concern you.
She pushed from the door.
There wasn’t even a moment to react before her chest collided with the rough wood. Instead of her brow, her cheek scraped along the grain. Lux scrabbled rather than shouted, her nails coming round her shoulder, searching for vulnerable skin, but the forearm shoved against her neck was covered and unyielding.
A hand gripping a knife encircled her wrist. Before she could continue her attempts, it flattened her palm beside her cheek. A knee met the back of her thigh. Lux was losing, and badly, but before she could decide if she should scream, breath brushed her ear.
“You arepsychotic.”
Shaw Roser.Lux’s eyes widened at the glimmer of his blade beside her head. It couldn’t be possible for so much ill luck. She wasn’t religious, but clearly, she’d angeredsomething. She pushed back against him, one last test, but his forearm sent her neck pulsing, his knee driving a hot ache into her thigh.
“Getoffme, you lout!”
His response was to lean in closer. Lux could hardly breathe between his body and the door; she was so angry she thought flame would lick across her skin.
“Explanations first, Necromancer. Though I think I shouldn’t believe anything out of that mouth.”
A headache brewed behind her eyes, her thigh and wrist gone numb. She wanted to rake her nails along his face and see whathe thought ofthatexplanation. Instead, she gritted her teeth and said, “I didn’t follow you. I’m hiding, you blasted idiot. Maybe you should utilize that lock if you wish to keep out the world.”
His answering scoff blew across her cheek. “Hiding from who?”
“My aunt.”
“I thought you didn’t have family.”
Didn’t know the details of her life, indeed.With renewed fury, she struggled against him, her free hand searching for any revealed part. But all that earned was the freedom of her neck as her other palm met the door. Lux’s teeth ached from the grit. “I didn’t think I did either.”
There it was—the force against her wrists alleviating by the barest fraction. She used it, wrenching her hands down. Spinning in his arms, she made to duck, and it might even have worked—if the chilled flat of a blade hadn’t frozen her in place. Shaw tipped her chin upward with a careful pressure.
Lux’s gaze lifted along with the knife, defiant. She glared up at him, noting his cheekbones tinged with color and how his eyes snapped with pent fire. It appeared she’d caught him in the process of undressing, and her attention dipped to his unbuttoned throat. Heat sang along her skin, and with her back pressed to the door as it was, she couldn’t prevent the look of bewilderment from washing across her features.
“Lie to me, Necromancer, and I will never forget.”
I should have left you for the trees.“It is no lie.”
His eyes searched hers, and she let him find his truth there. Abruptly, the chill disappeared from her jaw. The knife returned to his side. “Get out of my apartment.”
“Wait—”
“Damn itall.” The blade moved, and Lux flinched, but he only sheathed it. “I will pick you up and toss you out,Lux Thorn.”
Eyes narrowing over that idea, she unwound the purse from her wrist and held the bag toward him. His gaze flicked from it to her and back again. His fingers twitched at his side.
“It’s what Aline paid me. Increased threefold. I want your information. All of it. And then I want you to stop murdering people.”
