Page 74 of Sins of the Heart

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coat on the stinking mattress, glaring up at him, breathless, her fingers clawed in ready defense.

“I told you—” she’d struggled for breath “—that I’d

tear you up if you tried anything on me. I told you.”

Blood had seeped from the crescent marks left by

her teeth and snaked down his forearm in thick rivulets.

“You’re a fucking hair-trigger disaster zone. I was

reaching for your pendant, not your tits.”

Her first thought was that she hated that word, and

something told her that he knew it, that he’d chosen it

on purpose.

Her second thought was that she’d bitten him. Bitten

an otherworldly monster that ripped people apart for

kicks.

Only he hadn’t ripped her apart. Instead, he’d left

her sitting in a pool of blood, surrounded by death, left

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her to figure out on her own exactly what he’d done

to her.

She hadn’t even realized it for months, and when she

had, she’d been too horrified to accept it until it was

almost too late. He’d saved her and damned her and left

her mind and emotions tangled up worse than Christmas lights stored in the attic.

Was he the soul reaper who’d been killed?

She ought to be relieved, even happy, if he was.

Soul reapers were Sutekh’s minions, and that made

them no friends of the Daughters of Aset.

So why did she feel a flicker of regret?

Maybe because in a bizarre, convoluted way, he’d

been almost…kind to her.

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