Kyren's POV
*****
The smoke from the maid's body curled toward the vaulted ceiling like a prayer gone unanswered.
But Kyren did not move.
He stood over her corpse with his hands clasped behind his back, his crimson eyes steady and unblinking. The stench of scorched flesh wafted through the dining hall, a scent that made Beta Axel shift uncomfortably and Lucian tense like he might snap.
But Kyren? He inhaled it slowly, memorizing it.
"Burnt lungs," he muttered under his breath, tilting his head as though the girl's twitching fingers were a curiosity instead of a corpse. "And rot from the veins outward. An old curse. Expensive, risky... Almost poetic."
He crouched, not caring if the edge of his cloak brushed against her charred skin.
Lucian and Axel stood across the room, watching him with open suspicion. He could feel their gazes burning into his back, but he didn't give them the satisfaction of turning.
