wouldn't go in there," another replied. A third voice, sharper and more authoritative, cut in. "The Duke said every building. Every alley. Do you

inst her ribs. She didn't ha

t sensation, and had to clamp her jaw shut to keep from screaming. Her vision swam, but she didn't stop. Couldn't stop. She hauled him into the deepest shadows, behind a large, wing-backed chair covered in a dusty sheet. Working quic

pressed herself deeper into the shadows. Beside her, the dying man's breath rattled, a wet, terrible sound. If he made any noise, if he coughed, if he groaned, they were both dead. She shifted

ping against the wall. The exertion had worsened the drug's effects. A

ded basic toxicology and field medicine. She recognized the silvery leaves of feverfew and the dark, bitter root of dandelion, both known for their purifying properties. She crushed them with the

eaming, mottled with deep purple bruising. She found a strip of torn linen from an old curtain and bound the joint tightly, immobilizing it as best she

complication, a massive risk. But a dead body in her hideout was also a risk.

r fingers brushed against a small, hard object sewn into the lining of his tunic, a crest of some kind, a coiled serpent biting its own tail. She didn't recognize the sigil. But she knew craftsmanship when she saw it. The e

ooked at his pale, sweating face. "You owe me,"

dy a symphony of pain. Her ankle throbbed with every heartbeat, a constant, gnawing

insistent rapping echoed from the front door. Not the guar

a mask of pinched disapproval. Behind him stood two burly footmen. Sterling couldn't find her, so he'd sicced her family on her.

s as best she could, and forced herself to stand straight, ignoring the fire in her ankle. She would not limp. She would not show weak

lady," he said, the title an insult, "you have caused the Duke and your lady stepmother a great deal of distress." He didn't wait for a reply. "To aband

oat, puffing out his chest. "Your mother, the Duchess, has commanded me to escort you back to the manor. Immediatel

's hand reached for h

ac

he face with all her strength, leaving a bright red handprint blooming on his pale

awthorne?" She deliberately used her new title, letting it hang in the air. "You will return to Cordelia. You will tell her that if she wishe

r in his stunned face, the bolt slidi

had been sent to retrieve a broken girl. He had found a queen. And somewhere in the pit of his stomach, a cold

osed her eyes. One battle won. A hundred more to come. B