“How long has it been since she died?”
The men shared a glance. “Coming up on twelve hours.”
Lux groaned even as she’d guessed it to be close. She dropped her head and pinched the bridge of her nose, her eyes shut tight to drive the memories back. “Where is she? If she’s been dead past twelve hours by even the smallest measure, this will end very badly.”
“Let’s be quick about it then.” Corvin stood, their dinner forgotten. “She’s upstairs and one room down from mine. And don’t worry, Ms. Thorn. We can handle bad endings.”
Lux pursed her lips, but she stood too. To the unnamed man, she said, “See that she’s unwrapped and laid upon the bed.” To Corvin, she added, “Wait for me outside my room. I need togather my supplies, and I don’t plan on knocking on a slew of doors trying to find you.”
She didn’t care that the older man glared at her abrupt directions. But she did care that Corvin looked at her the way he did.
His eyes hooded, he said, “Demand whatever you want of me,” and gestured her on ahead.
Chapter ten
WhenLuxsteppedoutof her rented room, Corvin had twenty gold coins in his palm. He slid them into a purse and motioned for her hand. When she obliged, he slipped it over her wrist.
“Thank you,” he said.
“Don’t thank me yet.”
Several doors down, he knocked and then pushed his way in. Lux scanned the room quickly and found it to be a replica of her own. All except for the woman upon the bed, the bag enclosing her untied and pushed back from either side. Lux glanced toward the bedside table in time to see the balding man swipe a vial. He pocketed it while avoiding her eyes.
“How do you know it was poison?” she asked, because sometimes she liked to play games with rude people.
She began laying out her ingredients on the desk. Her nose wrinkled at the candle’s smoke; it was larger than hers had been, and it smelled especially foul.
“Iknow.”
Someone sighed behind her. “Silas.”
“Corvin.”
“It’s a valid question for her work.”
She looked over her shoulder in time to see Corvin gesturing toward her. She turned away and continued her grinding. It was not a valid question for her work, but she let him think what he liked.
These damned howler canines.
A heavy breath huffed somewhere at her back. “I have a tincture that give the dead a chance to tell you what killed them. She told me it was poison. Though I don’t know how you know anything about that, since you weren’t up here to hear it.”
“I didn’t need to be. Your whispering is not really…” Lux crushed the last bit of tooth with all her strength. “…whispering.” She dumped the powder into the bowl.
A presence loomed beside her. “You have it memorized?”
She nodded and glanced up through her loosened hair to meet Corvin’s intrigued expression. “It was my job. In Ghadra.”
He stepped back, astonishment marking his features. “Very impressive.”
“Thank you,” she said, sticking her finger into the paste. “For this part, I’ll have no one watch me work. For her privacy.”
In this at least, Silas didn’t argue. Together, he and Corvin stepped outside the room.
Lux was left alone with the woman. She stared down at the body, risking the waste of several seconds. The veins showed stark against sallow skin—starker than anything she’d ever seen before. It seemed like whatever had poisoned her had also caused the blood to blacken and congeal.
Lux made quick work of removing the heeled shoes and lace stockings and spent more time wrestling the thick, fine clothesfrom the body’s frame. She began painting when she was through.
“What do you get from investing in a place like Mothlock?” she asked her. “Aside from an enemy apparently.”
