Page 140 of Thief of Silver and Souls

“Who would have—is she even still breathing?”

“Loosen her gown! I need to see the wound.”

“Ivy… I’ll bring a medic.”

Footsteps pound into the distance. The floor is hard and warmly wet beneath the side of my face. The wetness has soaked through my shoulder.

Everything aches.

Fabric shifts against my back with a sharp sting. A groan bursts from my lips.

“She’s alive!”

“You’re hurting her.”

“I’ve got to stabilize her as much as I can. It’s a clean cut, but not bleeding as badly as—”

My skirt rustles, and the sound of tearing silk rattles into my ears. Something presses against the stinging spot, making it throb harder.

I gasp, and my eyes pop open. I find myself gazing blurrily at three sets of crouched legs.

“There’s our fighter.” That’s Benedikt’s voice, somehow managing to sound both lighthearted and raw. He touches the side of my face. “We’re getting you help, Ivy.”

“Hold this,” Stavros orders in a ragged tone I’m not used to, turning to the third guy. “Firm but not forceful.”

The former general leans closer, his handsome face swimming into view when I shift my eyes. I’m afraid to move any other part of my body.

Afraid of how much it’ll hurt… or how much it might not.

Stavros’s hand jerks down his front in the gesture of the divinities. “Who stabbed you?” he demands in a low, savage voice that could be a weapon all on its own. “Who fucking did this, Ivy?”

It’s Alek’s voice that wavers from where he’s now pressing the balled cloth to my wound. “I wouldn’t have thought Anya would gothisfar…”

Benedikt snorts. His sardonic edge could cut stone. “Not when it might mean getting blood-splatter on her pretty dresses.”

Stavros emits a strangled growl. “Let Ivy tell us.”

But I have nothing to tell them. I didn’t see the person who stabbed me. They never spoke.

I couldn’t offer a single detail about my attacker, except…

My first attempt at speaking turns into nothing more than a croak. I swallow the blood-tainted saliva pooled in my mouth and try again. “The wind…”

I sense more than see the guys exchanging a look. Julita understands, though.

Of course, she was right there with me during the attack, like she always is.

It must have been the same scoundrel who murdered me. If we find out who attacked you, we can unravel the whole conspiracy! As long as… Are you going to be okay, Ivy? For a few minutes there… You seemed to blank out completely, and then I did too. But something feels different now, like you’ve pulled through.

I don’t know how to answer her. I’m not sure I could form the words anyway.

Frantic footsteps come racing back toward us.

“Here!” Casimir calls out, his gentle voice gone taut. “Please hurry. I don’t know—it looks awful.”

Alek and Benedikt draw back as a woman in a medic’s white robe kneels at my side. The hazy thought passes through my head that white may be serene Elox’s preferred color, but the dedicats of the godlen of healing must go through an awful lot of laundry. She’s going to get my blood all over her.

Stavros shifts over to give the woman room, his real hand coming to rest on my hair. I think I feel a brief tremor ripple through it, but that can’t be right.

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