Matthew had just escaped Scarlet Leaf’s interrogation in the hospital corridor when fate dropped another problem directly in front of him.
A man in a white linen suit staggered out from behind a pillar and collapsed at Matthew’s feet, gray-skinned and gasping that he had been poisoned. Matthew knelt at once and called for help. Then, the moment Scarlet came into view, the dying stranger seemed to forget his own condition. He sprang halfway upright, stared at her as though struck by revelation, and launched into a melodramatic confession about moonlit beauty, celestial enchantresses, and love at first sight.
Before Matthew could decide whether the man was insane or merely shameless, the “poisoned” romantic lunged toward Scarlet. She sidestepped neatly and let him crash face-first into the
