Corvin cleared his throat. “Consider it a gift.” Lux pressed her fingers to her eyes and groaned, but he remained undeterred. “Please? You might not have sensed it, as you don’t know him, but he is thrilled. You’ll let him create something for you?”
Lux slowly lowered her hands. “Seems I haven’t a choice in the matter, being as he’s already left.” Her finger slipped through the arrow-made hole in her cloak. “Traveling wasn’t so easy as I thought.”
“Did you find what you wanted, at least? In your travels?”
Her parting promise to Shaw and the mayor’s daughter was ushered to her mind’s forefront. That should she stumble upon any hint of lifeblood, any evidence of its inhumane extraction, she would put an end to its use. It morphed to conjured images of the child’s portrait on the wall, of the girl touching the things Lux now touched. Of her short life here in a room just like this one.
You were rich beyond measure, Riselda, and you fled to Ghadra? Why? To live out your madness for decades to come?
But Corvin hadn’t anymore answers, and Riselda was gone and devoured. That should have eased her mind, but instead she felt hovered over and watched. She peeked over her shoulder to be sure but found nothing.
“Nearly,” she said, and that was true enough.
Lux’sdinnerdideventuallyarrive. But as she broke through the crust of the steaming dish, she realized her appetite had vanished. A hollowness gnawed at her breastbone in its place.
Only hours ago, she would have devoured something like this, but in her present state, the pie may as well have been a pile of ash. She forced a bite past her lips anyway; she could use the strength.
Lux swallowed hard.
“What is the matter with you?”
A massive mirror, tall enough to reflect even Lord Kent, showed her expression back to her from across the bedchamber. She’d seen a similarly sized mirror before, in her time in Ghadra’s mansion, but that one had been propped on two feet. This had become part of the wall.
You miss him,replied her head. And it was true. She could see it in her eyes.
All at once, they filled, blurring her reflected image and then the food in front of her face.Stop it,she told herself.You’re only tired.But the tears spilled anyway, dripping down her nose. She pushed the plate away.
Only a month. A single, solitary month, and she was already overwhelmed. By a chase through the forest. By Riselda’s portrait and uncharted madness. By a second boy whose eyes seemed to bore straight to her core. Considering the poisonings, she might have embroiled herself in some murderous mess again, and the thought caused her fear of what transpired over Viktar and Mistress Lefroy’s revivals to spike. A sob escaped her mouth before she could stifle it.
That was too much, too far. She couldn’t hardly handle it.
Lux staggered to the huge bed. Nevermind her unwashed face and unclean teeth—she needed to sleep away everything she felt. Perhaps by morning her emotions would be in better control. She pulled back the thick coverings, climbed into the downy softness, and curled into herself. The bed was easily three times the size she was used to, and she arranged the excess of pillows around her.
When her eyes fluttered closed, Lux imagined the weight of an arm around her waist, the press of body heat against her back, and she imagined the sweet taste of honey, until she thought of nothing at all.
Chapter sixteen
“Didn’tyouknow?Wemurdered our parents.”
The rotted version of her whispered wetly in her ear.
“Now, it’s our turn.”
Sunlight seared her eyes. Lux stood upon the curved balcony off her bedchamber and basked in it until the memory of her horrid nightmare burned away. Her bare feet were cold against the stones, the iron railing like ice beneath her fingertips, and she stretched to the tips of her toes, enough so she could see over and down.
All the way to the treacherous shore below.
Corvin had given her a room facing the sea.
The autumn breeze tugged against her nightgown and brought with it again the taste of salt; she inhaled it greedily. All the while the sun lifted farther above the horizon.
Never in her wildest imaginings. Never had she pictured something so beautiful, and never had she felt so small yet so perfectly suited. Aside from that nightmare near dawn, she’dslept soundly and woken with a new determination. She might have been lonely. She might have missed whom she’d left behind. But that didn’t mean she would wallow away her limited time here. There were more important things to be done than all that.
A knock came upon the door, and she turned.
“Come in.”
A dour-faced woman peered around the wood. Followed closely by a second face higher above it. Lux left the balcony and moved back into the room.
