Chapter 6 · Glass, Silk, and Lead

Three locks. I counted them, because counting was all I had left.

Clunk. Clunk. The third one hissed like the room was exhaling. Then Lucian Corvo dropped me off his shoulder, and my bare feet hit cold marble.

"Contract time, Mrs. Corvo," he'd said in the hallway. Now he didn't say anything. He just stood between me and the door, loosening his cuffs one button at a time.

My wedding dress was still wet from the bridge. Rain, sea spray, and somebody else's blood. His blood or the assassin's, I couldn't tell anymore.

"You said the first night," I said. My voice came out steadier than I felt. "You said you'd make me beg."

"I said a lot of things." He rolled the sleeve to his elbow. A scar ran down the forearm, white and ugly. "You want me to prove which ones I meant?"

"I want you to choke on them."

He smiled. It was the worst thing he'd done all day.