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"It sainst the flood of bile in the back of her throat She couldn’t look at thehter their own children? What manner of monster could do that?

A blue blood, a voice whispered in herit "So it does As did Falcone" He turned to her to speak, then paused "Rosa?"

She looked up and saw so that almost looked like concern on his face "I’loved hand to her lips She wasn’t all right All she could see were those tiny, twisted shapes beneath the bloodied linen

Movee body stepping between her and the bodies Then he was pushing her through the door, into the blinding light of well-lit corridor The walls staggered by, a door opening in front of her Sheher throat

Lynch pushed aup and shoved her toward it Fresh air swept that sickly sweet scent out of her nostrils and she clutched theledge, sucking in a choked breath His hand settled in the small of her back tentatively, as if he wasn’t sure hoelcome his touch would be

"I shouldn’t have taken you in there" Soft words "My apologies"

Rosalind shook her head, sing hard "I’e away--into that sinable memories--she couldn’t It was tattooed on the back of her eyelids, burning its way into her stoainst the curve of her spine Rosalind gripped the sill and leaned out, drawing the coal-laden air of London into her lungs Anything to rid herself of that bakery scent

As if to distract herself, she focused on his touch Her breath caught

"You have nothing to be sorry for," he replied, his cool exhale stirring the curls at the nape of her neck

For the first ti against her bustle and skirts Nervousness etched its way down her spine She hadn’t forgotten the look in his eyes when he killed Falcone--he’d enjoyed it, licking the taste of blood from his lips It should have sickened her further, yet she found she couldn’t quite equate thatsoothing circles against her skin

Rosalind’s body responded to his nearness, but not with lust, not with the way the previous scene still haunted her Instead, she relaxed back into his touch, her head bowing low as she took souilty comfort from his closeness She didn’t want to think about why his presenceherself off from others after her husband’s death She didn’t need the softening of aenough without it

Rosalind stiffened He had to stop touching her She didn’t like it "I’ over the s absence of his touchh theA shiver worked its way across her skin and she looked for anything to take her mind off the frozen melee of emotion that stirred her

"What shall you tell the crowd?" she asked, exa the asse" His voice was hard again "They don’t need to be ers tightened on the sill "If you don’t tell the ‘vampire’" She shook her head "There’ve been too h the house: the Coldrush Guards, Lord Barrons, the physicians… You cannot keep all of theive the press soht," he murmured "Very wise of you, Rosa"

"People fear what they don’t understand," she said with a glance over her shoulder, then abruptly regretted the words

Lynch stared back at her, his hands clasped behind his back His gaze was hauntingly intense in the chill afternoon light "So they do" Slowly he bowed his head "Take your ti to the journalists"

She waited until she heard the door click behind her before letting out the breath she’d been holding A glance outside showed the crowd baying at the iron-scrolled fence, fury and fear etched in stark emotion across their faces For a moment they looked al

There was nothing hu at all No et that

As she turned away, her eye caught on a solitary figure leaning against the corner across the street, his arms crossed over his chest

With his cap pulled low over his face and a heavy coat obscuring his throat and jaw, she shouldn’t have recognized him but she did Mordecai The leader of the mechs who’d tried to bo over his lips was unrin that had alwayshis handiwork? Or siht of the blue blood’s distress?

Her iron fingers jerked inside her glove unconsciously He’d done so, she was certain of it Somehow he’d been the cause of this, the reason those two small bodies lay still and silent beneath the white table cloth

The reason she couldn’t find her brother Jereht about it, the house a blur around her as she darted down the stairs to the foyer, her boot heels ringing on the polished tiles as she shoved the front door open