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He put his arm around her "Did they do this to you?"

"They tried, but I wouldn’t beconant" She sounded asha to die a messy death beneath his blade

"No, that wasn’t the way they did it" Liling wrapped her arave o to the breeding room It was so cold in there They e up inside me I had to stay there for hours after they did it… but I never got pregnant My belly stayed eht, but he felt a little better to know that she had not been used over and over by the Brethren "Did they tattoo you with the red swan?"

She touched her shoulder "That was ave us names Names would have made us seem more like them" Her ry She na"

"You said you have a twin"

"I did They separated us ere nine, after we tried to run away," she said "Seven years later, soether We were special, not like the other children When I was sixteen, they transferred us to the saed us; the things we could do… We could not bear to be near each other They called it ’the effect’ And that wasn’t all"

Valentin looked down to see her fingers digging into the mattress

"At first people around us beca low "Soot pneumonia Then machines would break or catch fire I never did any of it deliberately, Valentin, and I don’t think my twin did, either It just happened The last tiet ain"

He could feel the pain rolling off her in waves "Tell est one I’d ever seen Like a hurricane, only a hundred times more powerful" She hesitated "I don’t reht There was a tornado made of fire and water, and then a terrible explosion It leveled the building Everyone there--everyone I knew--died"

"But you survived"

She nodded quickly "I hid in a ss fell on top of me When the storm passed, I escaped" She looked at him "I killed all those people, but I swear to you, I didn’t mean to"

"The storm killed them, not you" He pulled her onto his lap "You do not have it in you to harainst his shoulder "I’ve been hiding froht They’re still huntingmy twin to hunt me If I don’t run away, terrible storms come and people die"

He kissed her "You cannot blaes in the weather, mein Mädchen"

"Oh, but I can," she said softly "That’s rong with us, hat they did to us What they called ’the effect’ We each have our oer, my twin and I But e’re near each other, e’re together, we create those storms"

"We have located the crash site, my lord" Jayr, suzeraina of the Realm, reported from her jardin in central Florida "The plane appears intact, although it is presently at the bottom of Ghost Lake"

"Assemble a rescue team and send them in to retrieve Jaus and any survivors," he told her "Be prepared to acconeur I will report back to you as soon as our ground team has retrieved the survivors" Jayr ended the call

Michael turned and found his arkenis "What is this, chérie?"

"A great big thank-you hug" She reached up, pulling his head down to hers, and kissed hihted "You found him"

"Jayr’s contacts in the Civil Air Patrol found the plane," he corrected "But the news is very good Jaus cannot drown, so even if he is still on the plane, he is itated all to hell that he has to stay in bed, but sleeping" She heaved out a frustrated breath "Wilhele John described"

"Yes Although it is now used as a private Catholic adoption agency, not an orphanage" He saw the indecision on her face "It is only forty ht and see if we can find soive to John about the months you were kept there"

Her eyes softened "You would do that for me?"

"My love" He lifted her hand to his lips "I would crawl naked over burning copper for you"

Alex kissed hi, Wilhelm drove them out of the city and north to a small town near the lake Saint Benedict’s Catholic Adoption Agency had closed at five p lot appeared empty

He inspected the property "Wil, stay with Alexandra in the car"

"Excuse lared at him "I did not come here to sit in the da"