Lucian’s POV
I slid one arm beneath Avery’s knees, and the other locked around her back. One of her arms dangled towards the floor, fingers loose, lifeless, swaying faintly.
Her head tilted back unnaturally, throat exposed, lips parted as though a sentence had died unfinished there.
I could feel the slow, rhythmic drip of her blood leaving her fingertips, tapping against the floor in the silence like a clock ticking down.
The wound in her abdomen pressed against my forearm as I adjusted her weight. I kept my hand over it, applying pressure even as I moved, unwilling to release it even for a second.
This made no sense.
I had watched warriors bleed out without blinking, men I had known for years. Yet one servant girl—one stubborn, infuriating girl, lay unconscious in my arms, and sudd
