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Souilty

I was proud of To football in a field away fro on until Boran," he jerked his head at a large upset looking guy, "ed to finally find us There are no words to express hoe have failed you"

"It’s not me you’ve failed It’s Thomson and Lucy who you’ve failed," Staines said It occurred to ar’s nauely ashamed of myself

The shifters’ bodies sank even lower

Julia joined them from behind Her back, in contrast to the others’ however, was straight, and her voice was clear "And if Lord Corrigan had been here, he could have used his Voice and everyone would have been here in force But he wasn’t And that’s not their fault It’s not yours either, or probably even Corrigan’s But that’s the way it is and we can’t change it now"

I applauded her silently Staines looked furious for a reat effort "I need five of you to stay here at the portal Theand you still need to guard it just in case it doesn’t hold" All the shifters immediately put up their hands and he pointed at five of theo back to the keep We need to prepare the rites in accordance with the Way so we can transport Thomson’s body back to London for a decent burial" He looked at e and e has been done and no suspicions have been raised"

I raised , and she nodded Fine byto be about astoes would be I walked off, without rushing Following a sensible order didn’t er soldiers I heard the others behind in toback

Chapter Nineteen

As I walked towards the village, dodging the huge ispolin footprints as I went, I pondered whether Iabartu had deliberately sent both the terrah the portal If that was indeed what had happened, then why hadn’t she bothered coh on her own to deal with John And, if it was the case that she was responsible for both monsters, then I was still unclear about the reasons for why she was hell-bent on causing such havoc

Obviously, she felt that her business was as yet unfinished Had John had so that she wanted? Information or maybe some kind of object to do with the Draco Wyr? If so, then he’d died rather than give it up,it must be important But then perhaps she’d achieved what she’d wanted when she killed hi open, in that careless and disdainful manner that otherworlders sometimes displayed I discarded that idea as soon alht not know that ht never have entered one myself or know the mechanics of how to create one, but I are that it took power to maintain one, which is why it was so unusual that the portal on the beach was still there Even as a so-called deod, Iabartu would find a strain to leave it usable

There were soabout Craw’s assertion that it was my fault that John had died because it just hurt tooof guilt in the pit of ht have saved Tho hurt Which led me on, of course, to Alex’s revelations I wasn’t a shifter, but was I actually a huhts took, I was confronted by horrible i with the threat of tears and I sed hard If I was going to get to the botto to help Being strong and calm would I rubbed atinstead on how to allay any suspicions thatin Trevathorn An elephant had escaped from the local zoo, perhaps? Except the nearest zoo was about 120 miles away so that was probably rather unrealistic Urowl inthat caught the ispolin earlier He couldn’t have gotten that close to use his Voice that quickly, surely? Staines had only called hio God, just hoerful was he? As well as being stunned into silence by the revelation that his Voice could carry hundreds of miles, I didn’t have any answers for hihed inwardly Everyone wanted answers and there were just none to be had Or at least none that could be shared without ry, I just felt tired I should probably think of a way to reply to hiest that it was my fault that this happened, my Lord? If I hadn’t been there it would have been even worse It wasn’t ood idea

Silence I didn’t feel proud ofto shift the blaed to deflect hi

Eventually he answered That was a ret in his Voice that gave uess none of us are completely infallible then, I sent back quietly