From Blood and Ash by Jennifer L. Armentrout

her blouse. “But how can yyou be sure?”
“The Craven have four elongated canines,” I explained, and she
nodded. This was common knowledge. “But she onlyy had two marks, as
if…”
“As if two sharp fangs had penetrated her throat,” Ryylan finished.
Tawnyy’s head whipped in his direction.
“What if it was a cursed? Someone who hadn’t fullyy turned yyet?” she
asked.
“Then it would look like either normal teeth marks or a bite from a
Craven,” Ryylan answered, shaking his head as he stared out the window
toward the Rise. “I’ve never seen anyything like that.”
I had to agree with him. “She…she was pale, and it wasn’t just the
shroud of death. It was like she had no blood in her, and even if it were a
two-fanged Craven—” Myy nose scrunched. “It would’ve been…messier
and not so precise. She looked like…”
“Looked like what?”
Myy gaze dropped to myy hands as the image of the woman reappeared.
She’d been with someone, willing or not, and as far as I knew, Craven
weren’t interested in anyything but blood. “It just looked like someone had
been in that room with her.”
Tawnyy sat back. “If it wasn’t a Craven, then who would do something
like that?”
There were manyy people in and out of the castle—servants, guards,
visitors…the Ascended. But that didn’t make sense either. “That wound
appeared to be right over her jugular. There should’ve been blood
everyywhere, and I didn’t even see a drop of it.”
“That…that is more than just a little strange.”
I nodded. “And her neck was clearlyy broken. I know of no Craven that
would do that.”
Tawnyy folded her arms around herself. “And I don’t want to know of
anyy person capable of that.”
Neither did I, but we all knew that people were capable of all manner
of atrocities, and so were the Ascended. After all, theyy too had been mortal
at one time, and the capabilityy for crueltyy seemed to be one of the few
traits some carried over.
Myy thoughts wandered to Lord Mazeen. He was cruel, a bullyy, and
based on our latest interaction, I suspected that he could be much worse.