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Zarath peered down at me "The spirit of this body, this Dredmore He was your lover"

"Is," I insisted "He is"

"His spirit has fled from his flesh, woman Even if it were somehow to return, it could not take this body from me" His black eyes took on a scarlet sheen "What your lover is, is dead"

I could hardly hear hi at all

"Kit"

Big, gentle hands cradled my face, brushed back my hair, and checked my pulse I knew that touch as well as the voice, but I didn’t want to deal with Inspector Doyle just now No, what I wanted was a nice rooht sleep for a thousand years That way I wouldn’t have to think about ic, which I kne to be real, spirit stones, or thepossessed--his soul eaten--by an imht as well be

"Should I send for a whitecart, then, ’Spector?" so ruin "I’ht and looked past the h the wreck of an expensive-looking hotel roo I lay on the floor beside the bed, htly bound with curtain cord It was not the room where Lord Walsh had killed himself, either, for there were no brains on the wall

"The concierge called the station," Doyle toldfor help" He held up a bit of torn cloth, and his angry expression grew especially fierce "You chewed through this"

Small wonder my throat felt lined with cotton: it actually was "I missed my dinner bucket"

One of the beaters chuckled and earned a glare from the chief inspector

"How can you joke about it? No, hold still" Doyle took out a pocketknife and sheared through the cords binding ether before he chafed my hands to restore the blood flow "Who did this to you, Kit?"

I could tell him the entire sorry tale, o quietly after Not all the asylums in Rumsen were horrid Wherever they sent me for treatment, Doyle would bribe one of the loon herders to look after me

"Don’t you tell him the truth" Harry materialized behind the inspector, and his mostly transparent eyes fixed on mine "Say you hit your head, and that you can’t recall Now, gel"

"I can’t recall" I looked at the glitter of white and blue stones scattered about the bed on the floor "I hit my head"

"Lucien Drede that you were needs before he carried you up here"

"Agree with him," Harry said

I nodded "Yes, he did"

One of the beaterssound, which he quickly turned into a fake cough as he ainst his trouser seaers knotted into fists "Dred you earlier frole’s Nest"

"That was a ruse, to protect Carina and her gels froust and felt a diso home, Inspector"

"You don’t have a home Your property and monies have been seized by the Crown" Doyle studied my face "You’ve the clothes on your back, Kit Now do you want to tell me what the bloody hell happened here?"

The door to the adjoining suite opened, and Lord Lucien Dredance, and the points of his snowy neckcloth stood in stiff relief against his dark skin In his eyes I saw a dreadful shadowy presence, as if the evil de out of the to be Dred on the floor as the beaters scattered from his path

"Lord Dredmore" Doyle’s features took on a decidedly bland cast as he inclined his head just enough to suit courtesy "You witnessed so?"

"Yes" He lifted his hand and pointed at my face "This woman murdered Lord Walsh"