She had seen blood before, and injured men. At times at their tavern customers had gotten into fights, and they had frequently wound up bloodied. But something about the way her stepfather lay on the floor, utterly still, his head a bloody mess, told her this was worse than anything else she had seen. She pressed her hand to her stomach to try to still the queasiness there. “Is he—is he dead?” Gregory entered the room, carefully stepping over and around the broken and spilled objects. Reaching down, he picked up one end of the candle, leaving a charred spot in the floor. Holding up the candle, he squatted beside the body and felt for a pulse in Cosmo’s scrawny neck. “Yes, I fear he is dead.” Pirate followed Gregory into the room, sniffing at everything he found. Gregory scooped him up and stood for a moment, looking down at the man. Camellia walked over to join him. She felt faintly ill and more than a little strange, almost as if she were disconnected from her own body, but she made a determined effort to pull herself together and act rationally.
What do You think about An Affair Without End (2011)?
