Chapter 18 · Her Father's Blood Page

Mira's blood was spreading across the stone floor faster than Lucan could think.

He stood there like an idiot, the hound's last words still ringing in his ears. Your sister's heartbeat. Next payment. The ledger in his pocket felt like it was burning through the fabric, but Mira was on her knees, one hand pressed to her side, red seeping between her fingers.

He could run. The corridor behind him was dark and empty. The hound was dead. Nobody else knew he'd been here.

"Don't," Mira said. Her voice came out tight, each word costing her. "Don't you dare."

Lucan's feet didn't move. "I wasn't—"

"Yes you were." She tried to stand and her leg buckled. More blood. The slice across her ribs wasn't closing. Whatever the hound had done to her, it wasn't a clean cut. The edges of the wound looked burned, blackened. Spirit poison, maybe. He'd seen it once before in Lucan's memories, a blade officer who'd lasted three hours before the rot reached his heart.

He crossed the space between them in two steps and dropped down beside her. "Let me see."

"Get off—"

"Shut up." He pulled her hand away from the wound.