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“I’m sorry if I startled you,” said Attolia softly.
“You didn’t startle me,” said Eugenides. “You scared the hell out of me.”
Attolia’s lips pressed together. “You needn’t admit it out loud,” she reproved him.
“Hard to deny it,” Eugenides answered. Costis could hear him smile.
“Are you badly hurt?”
“Hideously,” said the king, without sounding injured at all. “I am disemboweled. My insides may in an instant become my outsides as I stand here before you, and no one will even notice.” He reached up again to touch her face, trying to wipe away the bloody fingerprints he had left, but only making them worse. “My beautiful queen. Your entire court is staring at you, and I can’t blame them.”
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