“Please,” the man says, his breath rattling in his chest, blood dribbling from his lips. “Kill me.”
Neris looks at me with tears swimming in her eyes. “What can we do?”
I shake my head. My body was healing itself by the time Neris found me in the same state as this man. I’m certain that someone else had been there. Otherwise, there’s no way I would’ve survived the Cleanse.
“Winnie!”
“I don’t know, Neris!” I shout back.
The man claws at his chest, his head, his eyes—only deep, sobbing breaths leave his lips as he rocks back and forth, writhing endlessly. I know just how he feels; like there’s glass in his lungs and fire in his veins. Like his brain is boiling and his heart being wrung. It’s unbearable. Unfathomable. Enough to drive a person to madness if it doesn’t kill them first.
Neris shakes my shoulder as the man starts to scream. If he draws more attention, we could be blamed for this. “I know it hurts, but the Peacekeepers will hear you.”
He swallows down another cry with a whimper, his bloodshot eyes bulging.
“Did you drink something?” I ask him.
The man is unable to respond. He coughs and sputters, and I close my eyes as blood splatters against my skin.
It’s a feat not to draw back in repulsion. I focus on his face, on his body language. He continues to writhe, his eyes closed, nothing but groans and incoherent words leaving his lips.
His breathing remains erratic for a while longer before stillness settles in. His breaths become labored, wet and rasping, until his chest stops moving altogether. His head drops to his chest, his shoulders slumping forward.
Neris releases a small sob, but no other sound escapes her. She yanks a handkerchief from her pocket to scrub her face before standing. “Get up, Winnie,” she says. There’s a low, definitive tone to her voice. Beneath the underlying quiver is more strength than I have.
I just sit there, staring at the man, at the blood crusted on his face and clothes. That could’ve been me. If someone hadn’t saved my life, if Neris hadn’t found me. “We couldn’t help him.” The words slip out. Flat. Numb.
“Get up.”
My entire body is numb.
A vise-like grip wraps around my bicep. Somehow, she tugs me to my feet. “Listen to me,” Neris says. “You did all you could. Now …” She stuffs the handkerchief into my fist. “Let’s get out of here before we’re pinned with his murder.”
Chapter 36
It takes abouttwenty minutes for us to arrive at the Pendry household. A carriage waits outside, but it isn’t the one that we took to get into the city. Strange.
“Come inside and clean up,” I tell Neris. “I’ll loan you one of my dresses.”
Her lips tug up in a halfhearted, crooked smile. “Lovely, a too-short hem and too-roomy bodice,” she says, but the joke falls flat. Even to her.
We rush inside, closing the door behind us and heaving a sigh of relief when no one greets us. “Come on,” I whisper as we speedwalk into the dining room, past servants, and up the stairs. My heart is racing by the time I’m standing in front of Gruffud’s bedchamber. “Hopefully he’s not home yet,” I whisper. “Wait here. I’ll just quickly check.”
I open the door and step into the room to find that Gruffud is indeed there. He’s in bed, but not alone. His hands grip a woman’s voluptuous hips, urging her on. Her breathy moans fill the chamber, tight coils of ebony hair bouncing against her bare back with each motion.
My world halts.
The air leaves my lungs. My blood heats and my stomach churns. A familiar plum-colored dress is discarded on the floor. I drag my eyes from the garment and back up to Arionna riding my husband in my marital bed.
They’re so caught up in the throes of passion that they don’t notice me standing here. When Gruffud’s eyes open to behold his paramour, he does a doubletake. His cold gaze snaps to me, flaring wide with alarm.
“Gwyneth,” he growls.
Arionna stops moving and throws a glance over her bare shoulder. Her gasp cuts through my disbelief as she dives off Gruffud and drags the bedcovers over her body. Gruffud has no such modesty; he leaps off the bed naked as he storms toward me. I dash into the corridor where Neris waits. She barely has a chance to look confused before Gruffud grabs me by the wrist, wrenching me back against his lanky frame.
“Unhand me!” I shout as he spins me to face him. His slap comes with such speed that I don’t have a chance to block it. Pain bursts in my cheek and lip.
“Winnie!” Neris shouts.
