The screams came again, ringing out from one of the nearby rooms, drawing my attention. Two doors down, the door was open.
Rylan was at my side. “Pen—”
I skirted his reach and headed toward the sound. What happened in that alcove with the Lord fell to the wayside as my fingers curled around the handle of my dagger. Screams were never a good sign.
A woman rushed out—the servant who’d been carrying the basket. Her face leached of all color as her hand opened and closed against her throat. She backed away, shaking her head.
I reached the room at the same time Rylan did and looked inside.
I saw her immediately.
She was lying on an ivory-colored settee, her pale blue gown wrinkled and bunched around her waist. One arm dangled limply off the side, her skin the shade of chalk. I didn’t have to open my senses to know she felt no pain.
That she’d never feel anything again.
I lifted my gaze. Her head rested against a pillow, neck twisted at an unnatural angle and—
“You shouldn’t see this.” Rylan grabbed me, and this time, I didn’t move out of his reach. I didn’t stop him as he turned me away, but I already saw.
I saw the deep puncture wounds.
Chapter 6
Rylan promptly escorted me right back to my room while Lord Mazeen stood in the doorway, flanked by several others, his gaze fixed on the dead girl. I wanted to push him aside and close the door. Even if it weren’t for the state of her undress, with so much flesh exposed, it was a lack of dignity tossed aside for morbid curiosity.
She was a person, and while what was left behind was nothing more than a shell, she was someone’s daughter, sister, friend. More than anything else, people would talk about how she was found, with the skirt of her gown shoved up, and the bodice gathered at the waist. No one else needed to bear witness.
I hadn’t been given a chance, though.
And now Castle Teerman was on virtual lockdown as each and every space in the one hundred plus rooms was searched for either the culprit or more victims.
Pacing in front of the fireplace, Tawny worried the tiny pearl buttons of her bodice. “It was a Craven,” she said, the deep violet gown swishing about her legs. “It had to be a Craven.”
I glanced over at Rylan, who leaned against the wall, arms crossed. Normally, he didn’t stay inside my room, but tonight was different. Vikter was assisting with the search, but I imagined he’d be back soon.
With my veil removed, Rylan’s gaze met mine. He’d seen that girl. “Do you think it was a Craven?”
Rylan said nothing.
“What else could it have been?” Tawny turned to where I sat in the chair. “You said yourself she was bit—”
“I said it looked like a bite, but it…it didn’t look like a Craven bite,” I told her.
“I know you’ve seen what a Craven can do.” She sat across from me, her fingers still twisting the pearl just as Agnes had done to the button on her blouse. “But how can you be sure?”
“The Craven have four elongated canines,” I explained, and she nodded. This was common knowledge. “But she only had two marks, as if…”
“As if two sharp fangs had penetrated her throat,” Rylan finished. Tawny’s head whipped in his direction.
“What if it was a cursed? Someone who hadn’t fully turned yet?” she asked.
“Then it would look like either normal teeth marks or a bite from a Craven,” Rylan answered, shaking his head as he stared out the window toward the Rise. “I’ve never seen anything like that.”
I had to agree with him. “She…she was pale, and it wasn’t just the shroud of death. It was like she had no blood in her, and even if it were a two-fanged Craven—” My nose scrunched. “It would’ve been…messier and not so precise. She looked like…”
“Looked like what?”
My gaze dropped to my hands as the image of the woman reappeared. She’d been with someone, willing or not, and as far as I knew, Craven weren’t interested in anything but blood. “It just looked like someone had been in that room with her.”
Tawny sat back. “If it wasn’t a Craven, then who would do something like that?”
There were many people in and out of the castle—servants, guards, visitors…the Ascended. But that didn’t make sense either. “That wound appeared to be right over her jugular. There should’ve been blood everywhere, and I didn’t even see a drop of it.”
“That…that is more than just a little strange.”