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"They took your pistol, didn’t they?" he asked "Do you have anything at all that , but he could not be allowed to know that "No I’ht thehtened He cursed under his breath and looked around "Are your ency burned through her "What aren’t you telling me?"

"Just answer the damned question!" he snapped

It shocked her He’d never once been frightened And that hat she recognized in his clenching fists as he strained against the manacles

Rosalind licked her lips and looked up "Maybe," she adht be able to pick the lock on these"

"Do it"

Pressing her lips tightly together, she put all her weight onto her right wrist and reached up to grab a loop of chain with her left Her iron hand clutched tight around the links and she hauled herself up, high enough to dig her right hand into her hair Her fingers finally locked around the edge of a pin and she tugged it free with a gasp, her body weight tuainst the o, but she no longer trained every day as she had under Balfour’s care Then she’d been fit and liasped, her shoulders aching against the swing of the manacles

Voices sounded in the corridor outside the cell Their eyes et out, Rosa," he said "Pick the lock and get out Get as far away froaze jerked that way as someone yanked open an iron trapdoor in the door

"Give ’erwas thrown into the room The iron ball was barely the size of Lynch’s closed fist and it rattled across the stone floors, bouncing off the far wall before spinning to a halt in the center of the room It looked almost like the clockwork turound, chasing them until they finally wound down Like one of the balls they’d found in Falcone’s dining roo her lip What the devil was it? And as Lynch staring at it as one would eye a live snake? He strained against the manacles, a silent snarl on his lips as he jerked and twisted

"I’d love to stay and watch the final test," the stranger called "But you cravers don’t take kindly to being locked up We’ll be nearby…for when it’s over"

The iron trapdoor sla away

"Lynch," she whispered, fear knifing through her "What’s going on?"

The iron ball quivered, a thin line becoh soht to force it open

"This is what they did to Falcone," Lynch snarled He fought furiously, twisting his body up to try and wrench the et out"

What they did to Falcone… She stared at hi moment as his words penetrated He’d known Somehow he’d knoas to come--just as he kneouldn’t be able to stop hi her

She saw the truth in his eyes as he flailed helplessly, then fell still, panting hard He couldn’t free himself He had been weakened by the heth, but if the bloodlust hit him the way it had done to Haversham or Falcone or his cousin…he would be unstoppable That’s why he’d asked her if she had anything on her that ainst the ainst hi with nuhtened by the defeat in his eyes "I’ to let you kill me" She sucked in a deep breath and let it out slowly Think, daift that Balfour had ever given her, it was this--the urge to survive against all odds

The ball started shaking so hard it quivered across the floor Almost open

"I want you," she said slowly, "to think of buttons"

Lynch’s gaze shot to hers "What?"

"My buttons, to beto escape," she added "But I’ve heard that a blue blood has strong… urges Strong hungers"

He caught her er"

"We’ll test that theory as a last resort," Rosalind replied, her fingers tightening around the pin in her hand "You want me, my lord So think about my breasts, which you can never quite take your eyes off, and that afternoon in the library where you left s up, she locked an ankle around one of the chains, her skirts falling over her head

The iron ball popped apart with a hiss, steahed "Hurry!"

A sweet scent caught her nose as the cloud of stea low for the s and for a second she saw his fear again

He couldn’t give into the fear If he did, then he would be lost co into the lock Success She let out her breath "You never asked," she said, forcing her voice to remain calm

"Never asked what?"

"Whether I obeyed your final instruction in the observatory that day Whether I waited for you"

For a h his eyes, stealing the color frooing to lose control," she said bluntly "Try and think--"

"I a to lose control," he snapped, a"I can’t I won’t"

The steary tendrils And Rosalind finally understood him The reason he had never taken from the vein and strictly controlled his intake of blood This was his greatest fear--the loss of control, the bloodlust For the first time, she realized what it would be like to be stricken with the craving, to fight against instinct and need, when it would be so ht this"

"Don’t trust --and don’t be afraid to use it"

The stea to lift himself above it