Lux pushed her finger against the precise incision, separating it, and sucked in through her teeth when the barest remnants of lifeblood shimmered on her fingertip. She brought it close, studying it in the flickering light.
It was smooth—like oil. Instead of absorbing into her skin, it spread, highlighting every groove in the pad of her finger. There it remained, silver and glimmering and impossible to replace.
“Morana!” Her call ricocheted back to her, hurting her own ears.
A blonde head flounced through the door a moment later. Her eyes, bright and ready to greet her departed husband, fell to shadow at his unmoved form.
She fixed a glare on Lux. “What?”
And as horrid as it might be, Lux decided to test a theory. She gestured Morana forward, to study her lost love from the opposite side of the table. The cry of rage that followed was all the evidence she needed.
Morana, too, knew the secret to harvesting lifeblood.
“NO!Who did this? Why!” Her gaze raked over Lux. “YOU! You always hated me, hated him. Hated that he chose me again and again even though you tried to lead him astray. Straightto your filthy bed!” Morana climbed atop the table, no longer caring for the body beneath her. Her eyes were roving wild, her hair frizzing at its edges.
And Lux was so focused on the strangeness of it all, especially on such little sleep, that she didn’t react until much too late.
Her head cracked to the side as Morana’s hand met her cheek.
She tasted blood and spat on instinct before tottering back on her good heel. Words of fury, hurt andtruthcut their way up her throat, her cheek stinging in imitation of that haunting day in the prison, and yet, they died before they passed her lips.
For Morana sat perched beside Colden, tears tumbling down her cheeks from eyes stained red. And if Lux struck at a grieving girl, however old she may truly be, she would be no better than Morana. No better than Morana ever was to her.
“I did nothing to him, and you very well know it. I’ll give you your privacy. Take him and leave.”
Lux hobbled out the door as choking sobs filled the room at her retreat.
Thankfully, Morana and theShield left with Colden’s body sooner than anticipated. Though she watched them go, Morana never brought her eyes back up to meet Lux’s own. It wouldn’t have been a notable gesture, except that Lux had never seen them downcast before.
Even though it would have felt so good to air exactly what she thought of Morana and her treatment of her all those years ago, Lux had made the right choice in keeping silent. The mayor’s daughter was more broken now than Lux could have ever made her. Maybe once Morana began to heal, a few veins of compassion would grow throughout her newly knitted heart.
A murderous gaze sliced toward her as the door swung closed.
Then again, maybe not.
“She struck you?” Riselda’s stare rivaled that of Morana’s as she sat in the hard-backed chair.
The early morning sun struggled through the curtains, already dimmed by an overcast sky, and Lux yawned wide. “Yes.” She stepped toward her room, wincing against the pressure on her throbbing ankle.
Riselda’s burning gaze watched her go. “Mind the blood.”
Lux swiped at her mouth, wiping the sticky warmth on her robe without glancing at it. Riselda hadn’t asked about her other obvious injury, even though she’d glanced at it pointedly more than once. And when Lux had informed her about Colden’s irredeemable wounds, specifics withheld, she’d shrugged.
“I’m not sure why she was so shocked.”
Well Lux had been shocked. She still was. She’d come to think of the entire family as indestructible. And when they’d shattered the illusion by dying, she’d simply rebuilt it by bringing them back.
Lux collapsed into her bed, the throbbing in her newly aligned bones vibrating in her ears. It hurt miserably. She shifted, her teeth gritting against it.
Seconds stretched on indefinitely, and she soon entertained thoughts of downing whatever alcohol Riselda kept within the house, when her aunt knocked, tentative and slow.
“Come in.”
The door swung open, revealing Riselda and a small, smoking goblet. Lux’s eyes trailed the twining red wisps.
“I’ve brought you something for the pain. It’s been brewing for days and happened to cure tonight.”
Lux’s tongue ran over the cut of her lip, even as she knew it wasn’t to what her aunt referred. She eased herself up. “Thank you.”
