Grave Destiny (Alex Craft, #6) - Kalayna Price Page 0,22

back of Kordon’s tunic where the sword had entered, but not nearly enough. I’d shed more blood from skinned knees before. There was no blood on his hands or arms, not dark goblin blood nor bright Sleagh Maith blood. The blade of the dagger was slick with shiny red blood that looked as if it might have been spilled only a moment beforehand, but there wasn’t a drop on the hilt. The goblin was barefoot, but there was no blood on the soles of his feet. I frowned and glanced back toward the bed without actually looking at the body lying on it.

“There are a few scuffed footprints leading from the bed in this direction, but he has no trace of blood on his feet. Neither his blood nor the noble’s,” I said. “Is the sword pinning him to the ground enchanted? Could it have frozen his blood on contact? Could that be why there is none of his blood around him?”

“Possible, and we will have to test the blade for enchantments, but Stiofan was not known to own any enchanted weapons.” Falin continued to watch me. “What else?”

This felt rather like a test, but it was in my contract that I’d be helping with the investigation, so I scanned the scene again. “If Kordon was vigorously stabbing the winter noble, how did he end up with a sword in his back?”

“He was obviously running away,” the guard insisted.

I let my eyes dart to the figure on the bed once more. “No. Stiofan has a dozen or more wounds and was clearly overpowered. Why would the goblin have suddenly decided to turn and run? Also, the noble’s arms aren’t extended like he’d delivered a blow or fumbled for a weapon—they are up, over his head. Which means driving a sword through the goblin wasn’t the last thing he did.”

“Don’t judge fae based on mortal fragility—many can take much more damage than a human,” Falin said, but despite the correction, he had an odd note of pride in his voice, as if my deductions had impressed him. “But in this case, I have to agree with you. Goblins, while they heal well, aren’t particularly durable, and unless his individual anatomy is unusual, that sword pierced his heart. It would be instantly fatal. He wouldn’t have been able to continue an attack, let alone flee across the room.”

I nodded. “And you said Stiofan couldn’t be healed because his heart is missing?”

“Magic can heal and mend mortal wounds, but it can’t regrow missing body parts,” Dugan said. He was watching me with curiosity.

“That’s not what I’m getting at. Where is the heart?”

“The goblin must have eaten it,” the guard said, sounding sure in his conviction.

I shot him a frown. “So you’re assuming the goblin was in a battle frenzy that resulted in two dozen stab wounds and eating an organ. Then he cleaned his hands and the hilt of his dagger—but not the blade. And then Stiofan rammed a sword through his back, at which point the goblin turned and fled but paused at the edge of the blood pool to wash his feet?”

“Perhaps he was betrayed by an accomplice?” Nori suggested. “Look at the voids in the blood splatter.” She gestured toward the blood on the curtains and then to the bloody sheets on the bed.

Falin leaned closer, but I made no attempt to approach the bed or look for any pattern in the blood. I might be assisting in the investigation, but I had my limits. I’d let them tackle that one.

Falin made a sound and then pulled back, scanning the room again. “It does appear that either something was removed—and I see no evidence of that—or there was at least one other person here at the time of the murder, likely helping to hold Stiofan down.”

I frowned at Kordon’s body. “Then one way or another, we are missing a killer.”

Chapter 4

Nori and Falin continued to study the blood splatter and Stiofan’s body, but I retreated back to the doorway. I’d seen more than I wanted already, and I was starting to feel a buzz in the back of my brain from the panic I’d been suppressing for too long now. At least my stomach hadn’t joined the game yet—getting sick at a crime scene was never good. The fact that the air held the same sweet scent the winter court always seemed to smell of instead of decay helped. I’d spent time trying to identify the scent of the