He pulsed inside me, matching my intensity, oblivious to the blood trickling down his sweat-soaked skin. He leaned against me, my body still wrapped against his with the wall supporting us both. His panting breaths were sticky on my neck, his fingers still clutching my thighs.
Eventually he carried me to the bed. We both lay sprawled on top of the tatty cover, neither of us wanting to burrow beneath the sheets amongst the stains of hundreds of others. Within minutes he was asleep, a soft snore rocking his body.
How does this happen? I’d never understood how someone could sleep in front of another, especially a stranger. I ran my finger down the smooth contour of his face, traced the curve of his damp lips. He was so vulnerable like this.
I smiled.
The magic inside me dimmed, my muscles loose, my body deliciously achy. How long could I stay? Perhaps I too could sleep. Trust him just enough. As long as I awoke before him, it would be okay.
Maybe he was waiting for me to rest. What would he take for his token other than the free information? Maybe a lock of my hair? Or perhaps he would snoop through my pockets to find some kind of memento that would allow him to track me later. He may just be planning to use Clement as his source. Blackmailing the most influential party involved would be a smart move.
Although, if it was blackmail he was setting up for and that’s why he wanted access to the prince, perhaps the prince was involved in the murders. If he was running from a mounting pile of rumors from the South like the Sheriff had said, perhaps he couldn’t help himself but to continue up here. Maybe the Sheriff hadn’t been hired by another party but came the old-fashioned way, by following the evidence trail. But any proof of those claims was about to be destroyed by the trackers I’d unleashed into his system. I’d need to either believe the Sheriff, a known criminal, or continue believing in the prince, who hadn’t shown any signs of hiding a darker part of himself.
I spun the fake wedding band around my finger, watching the steady rise and fall of his chest. The blond hair trailing down his stomach darkened in the gloom. Perhaps Clement had a similar trail? Pure black. Pure power. As dark and dangerous as his eyes.
The faint tinkling of a bell sounded. An innocent set of chimes caught in the wind but a reminder that the Collectors would soon arrive. They’d sense I’d implanted the trackers and released my magic.
I couldn’t see them. I’d successfully avoided them for almost two decades. It was hard at first, especially when I was young. They’d bound me to this life, used me in their deal with Siobhan, but I still wanted to see them. Wanted to relive my life, their lives, to return to what we had before magic and death swallowed us. But my spite over what they’d done, and my lingering common sense, always moved me on before they arrived. It was better that way.
I rolled out of bed and dressed swiftly, taking one of the daggers from his belt on the floor and slipping it into my thigh holster. I pulled the cloak back around me and dropped the hood. The Sheriff had not moved. How long had I lain and watched him? Twenty minutes? Thirty? An hour?
The door whispered shut, the floorboards creaking as I crept back downstairs. The inn was still in full swing. Dice clinking, drinks being poured. The fire crackled, filling the room with smoke and cloying heat.
I passed quickly. There was no suspicious glare from Clement as he monitored the stairs and no sign of his tapping foot as he stood vigil in the hallway waiting to pounce. He must have already left. My shoulders sagged. Goddessdamn me, I was weakening already.
Friends, just friends. Or at the very least, he was just a method of access for my bounty. Maybe he hadn’t recognized me after all, which was a good thing, so why did a rush of disappointment cause my shoulders to slump? In fact, it was lucky he’d gone back to the castle in case Lilyanna needed anything. If he asked where I’d been, I could pretend I had wandered to the kitchens to get a snack and got lost, leaving her side for barely a moment. He had no proof to the contrary anyway. I nodded to myself, purging any feelings of sadness.
As I walked back to the castle, I rubbed my fingertips. The Sheriff’s dried blood fell like snow upon the cobbles. No evidence. No association.
No guilt.
The guard let me in without any questions, and I returned to my room. The door was still closed, the fire burning in the hearth. I tossed my cloak on the bed and ascended the spiral stairs to Lilyanna’s room.
The temperature shifted as I opened the door. Subtle at first, a cool breeze rushing out, but as I stepped inside her room, the air froze my breath. White puffs of cloud illuminated the darkness before me.
The fire was out, its embers not even smoldering. I crossed quickly and grabbed more wood from the pile to thrust on top. How had it burned through so quickly?
Once it lit and I had blown the cloying, black smog up the chimney, I sat back on my heels and turned slowly around.
A winding trail of soot like a tail or dragged limb, marked a path from the hearth to Lilyanna’s open door. My bedding and the chair had been thrust aside, both covered with sooty smears.
I jumped up, freeing the stolen knife from my thigh and leaped for her room.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
THE CHOKER
Lilyanna lay flat on her back, arms cinched by her sides and her legs extended like she was in rigor.
I ran to her side and shook her, eliciting a small rattle as air wheezed through her clenched teeth. The silken sheets were wrapped around her body so tightly her chest barely moved. The edge dug into her neck, bruises mottling the pale skin underneath. Her lips were tinged blue, a solitary globule of saliva crusted to the edge of her mouth.
I shook her again. “Lilyanna, wake up!” Where was the end of the sheet? It appeared fused to her body as if she’d made the cocoon herself and would stay in there until she rotted.
Pushing my fingers as far under the sheet at her neck as I could, I sliced with the knife, the fabric ripping easily with the pressure. She gasped.
I shook her again, slapping her chest. “Wake up!”
Her eyelids fluttered open, her pupils obscuring the whole eye. She coughed, her body shuddering under the sheet.
