Page 251 of Sins of the Heart
his empty fist from her chest, leaving a gaping, ragged
hole and a geyser of blood.
Roxy was left hanging, held up by Dagan’s onearmed embrace and Alastor’s grasp on her waist, and
nothing more.
Deadweight.
“GET HIM THE FUCK OUT OF HERE, Alastor, before I take
his soul and feed it to Sutekh in a soufflé.”
The words jarred Roxy from a place where there
was only darkness and pain. The voice was Dagan’s,
harsh and low, the sound tinny, distant, as though it
were traveling along a twisted, narrow tunnel.
Something moved close beside her, and she felt like
her chest was being crushed by a garbage compactor.
She tried to move, to push it away, but her limbs were
leaden, refusing to obey her will. With a jolt, awareness of her position snapped into place. She wasn’t
standing anymore; she was flat on her back. She could
smell the forest floor—earth and damp leaves and rot.
She thought she might be dying.
Roxy turned her head toward Dagan, trying to grab
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hold of an anchor, feeling as though she were a tiny
boat in a murky, roiling sea.
“She is a Daughter of Aset.”No shit. Give the reaper
with the lightning fist a prize.What had Dagan called
him? Gahiji. She knew that name. It meant hunter.
Seeker. She found that funny, in a not-so-funny way.
Then she wonderedwhyshe knew that name, and
how. Gahiji.The answer drifted just beyond her reach,
and she let it go, too cold, too tired. She couldn’t seem
