The mayor’s bellowing laugh reverberated throughout the chamber. “Hardly! But I’m a man of my word. The most generous of my kind. Especially when I receive something I want in exchange.”
Lux’s blood chilled even as a happy blush tinged Morana’s grime-smeared skin. “I’ve missed you, too. Though where is that blasted healer? My foot feels as if it will burst!”
The mayor ceased his predatory stare to examine his daughter instead. “Gracious, let’s get you settled. Then you must tell me everything. To think someone possessed the audacity to attackthisfamily. This beautiful family!”
With the Shield supporting either side, Morana hobbled into the nearest and most lavish sitting room: quite unnecessary, Lux thought, considering how well she’d fared thus far on her own. Portraits of the Tamish family lined the walls; the greatest of all being Bartleby Tamish’s. Little surprise. Everything had been decorated in a mixture of jewel tones so rich it made Lux uncomfortable to sit amongst the cushions. She hadn’t seen this room in an awfully long time.
She picked a seat farthest from their party, nearly in the fireplace, and moaned as she sat, a mix of bliss and pain. When footsteps echoed from down the hall, her heart skittered.
It was only the sought-after healer, hair rumpled from sleep and in a cinched-tight robe. “Mayor. You’ve need of me?” His voice was a soothing baritone, and Lux relaxed in spite of her discomfort.
“Yes, yes. My daughter has sustained a significant injury. The ankle and the bruise on her face must be examined.”
“As you wish. Where would you prefer the examination?”
Why did his voice do such a thing? Lux nestled deeper into the ruby pillow at her back. She wished him to continue.
“In my bedchamber. I don’t believe any of these men, or the necromancer, need to see my exposed skin.”
At the mention of her, Lux felt the full weight of the healer’s gaze. “She’s injured too if I’m not mistaken. Would you like her cared for as well?”
The mayor turned to Lux with a smile. “I would. It should only be fitting after all, being as she will soon live here. Reap the rewards of family, Lucena Thorn.”
“Live here?” Morana’s shrill voice broke the calm that had since blanketed the room upon the healer’s arrival.
“Ahem.The prisoner. As requested.”
All eyes swung to the captain in the doorway. His white uniform was spectacularly pristine, and his charge looked even more dreadful because of it.
Shaw stood beside him, dark gaze focused solely on the mayor. Despite his tattered clothing, his face purpled with bruises, and what looked to be various stages of dried blood across his skin, he still hadn’t lost his spirit. Tears pricked Lux’s eyes. She couldn’t remember ever feeling so relieved.
They hadn’t broken him. Not yet.
“Ah, and here is ourartist.” The mayor sneered. “Can’t you have hosed him down? I’ll never get the stink from this room.” The captain gaped then stammered, unsure how to make amends for his blunder. The mayor ignored him. “No help for it now. Step in here, criminal.”
Shaw was unbound; they’d obviously deemed him unthreatening. The captain moved to shove him forward, but Shaw expected as much, and when the hand glanced off the swift pivot of his body, he stepped into the room on his own.
“You wished to see me?”
Unlike the healer’s, whose voice had calmed her into a relaxed stupor that had her wishing for bed, Shaw’s voice sped her heart, her belly tight. When she sat up straight, her shoulder screamed at her. She’d forgotten.
“You may go.” The mayor shooed Shaw away from where he sat beside Morana. At the younger man’s bewildered expression, however, he added, “Home. You’re free. So long as you remember one small warning.”
Shaw’s eyes couldn’t have grown wider.
“If you mention anything, and I really do meananything,of your unwelcome escapade within my home, I will personally eviscerate your entire family as you watch. And then, I will stand by as you feed their entrails to the trees. Or whatever else happens to get to them first. Do you understand?”
Shaw’s warm skin had never looked so colorless. He nodded.
“Beautiful! Goodbye.” With a dismissive wave, the mayor turned back to the patiently waiting healer.
Lux bolted to her feet. And then cried out against the pain it wreaked. Her knees buckled.
“Wait!” It came out much closer to a rasp than the shout she’d anticipated. Despite it, though, copper eyes sought her own. His lips parted. “Allow me to accompany him. I’ve to gather my things, make several arrangements. My business can’t be so easily moved.”
The mayor frowned. “I don’t—”
“Riselda expects me.”
