I backed up, my spine colliding with one of the black torches that wouldn’t come to life until dusk fell.
Evelyn sucked in a breath, her eyes narrowing on my dirty dress. “Wait...is thatblood?” Sudden ferocity filled her pretty face. “Whose blood? His or yours?”
“Might be the panther’s?” Lydia came to face me, eyeing up the red droplets I couldn’t hide.
Grabbing my arms, Evelyn twisted me left and right before shoving me around. “No wounds on you. So it’s his? That’sAshfallblood covering you?”
My arms flung out for balance, the glass vial glittering in my palm.
“What’s that?” Lydia snatched my wrist.
“Nothing!” I cried out, my entire body flinching in pain as she dug her thumb into the webbing of my hand and pried the vial out of my fist.
Both girls swore under their breath. “What the fuck?” Evelyn spun to face me. “Is that his? Why do you have this? Did you hurt him and take it?”
My mind blanked.
I had no idea what to say or how to protect everything that happened between Lucien and me. If they knew he bled himself every three days and suffered the consequences, they’d burst in there as a horde and hurt him. I knew they would. But if I lied and told them I was the one who cornered him and made him give me his blood...how was that believable?
“I...”
“Tell us.” Lydia pressed her knife against my throat. “Right now. Or you die.”
Swallowing hard, I stretched on tiptoe, pressing against the torch, trying to avoid her blade.
Shit.
Think, Rook. Think!
“Better hurry up,” Evelyn murmured, accepting the vial as Lydia passed it to her. “After staying in this place for so long with nothing to do, we’re getting very,veryanxious to get the show on the road, if you get our drift.”
My eyes flicked back to the black stone palace.
No movement from inside because Lucien only lived in the heart of it. Right now, he’d be passed out in his bed with Whisper guarding him closely. He wouldn’t know what happened out here. He’d never hear what I would say.
I could lie as much as I wanted or tell every droplet of truth, and yet...I found myself wanting to hoard everything.
They didn’t deserve to know a single thing about him. Fact or fiction.
“Speak,” Lydia hissed, her blade cutting me just enough to send a hot droplet rolling down my throat.
I strained away from her dagger, rising as high as I could go. My mind raced. I panicked. “It...it was a gift!”
Lydia slowly lowered her arm, her face contorting into a scowl. “A gift?”
Pressing two fingers to the small cut, I nodded and stuck as close to the truth as I could. “He...he overheard me complaining I wasn’t being paid for my labour. I guess he grew sick of it and...” I shrugged, waving at the vial in Evelyn’s grabby hand. “He gave me that for services rendered.”
The girls gawked at each other.
“He justgaveyou his blood?” Evelyn rolled the vial between her fingers. “He cut himself, put it into this bottle, and gave it...toyou?”
There was a trap in that sentence, but I couldn’t see it.
I nodded like an idiot.
Her eyes narrowed to slits. “Do you even know the value of that? What his blood is worth? To the machines that require it to start? To the scientists trying to synthesise it?”
“I have some idea.”
