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"I can’t stop thinking about Emma," I confessed "I think not all is what it seems Do you think it’s possible she was alive when they took her?"

"Aye," he said quietly "It’s possible"

I gasped I’d expected subterfuge Backpedaling Question dodging What I hadn’t expected was this honesty Though that was the thing about Carden--he’d been honest withhe couldn’t share, he’d simply tell me he couldn’t tell me "What do you know?"

"I avoid Alcántara," he said, "and for the moment, he leaves me be as well But I do know this: If your friend once lived, surely she lives no longer That is the only thing I can say with certainty"

To have had such hope and then lose it again…I felt rudderless, at sea I couldn’t begin to iine what a wreck I’d be if it weren’t for Carden to lean on

I toldin my mind, but instead it had the opposite effect I needed to knohat happened, exactly What happened to all the girls Exactly

"But what…how--?" I couldn’t finish Yasuo knew so that haunted him so much he wanted me to pay for it

Carden tookdeeply at me "What more troubles you?"

I couldn’t explain about Yasuo, not completely I wouldn’t put it past Carden to seek out and snap the necks of every Trainee who’d ever crossed ive up on ed

"I must know," he pressed "Why this despair?"

"Why not despair?"

"Ah, but I have a thousand reasons why not" He got that look in his eye--that hungry, wicked guy look that ht his mouth a whisper away from mine, hovered for an exquisitely taut moment, then darted in to steal a hard, fast kiss "There That is one reason why not to despair Shall I enuh the list?" He kissed the outer corner of one eye and then the other "It’s a long one"

His thousand possibilities exploded like a starburst inmy knees I hadn’t known possibilities until Carden

My skin buzzed For now, all else was forgotten I reached up, standing on tiptoe, stretchinghis, ready to make our way down this mysterious list, when I heard a door open down the hall I froze It was probably just so, and I held ly nickna on the door and flay uy in the room

He read my mind "There’s no need to fear when you’re with me"

"But curfew" I mouthed the words almost silently Because, yeah, Kenzie was a Guidon and there probably wasn’t that much to fear from her where Carden was concerned It was the other vaently laced his fingers through the sensitive hair at the nape of my neck "We have little time" His other hand took my waist It felt broad and sure "I’ll not waste it" He pulled me closer

Kissed me

Vampires, curfew, old friends, and new enemies…it all fell away When he parted froather uy could kiss

He said nothing Carden merely let those eyes bore into me, a promise of more and later

The intensity made me oddly shy I had to fill the silence "So you could tell I was sad?"

"Indeed Noill you tellmy concerns about Yasuo, but I had no such qualms about his pals Rob, in particular, flashed into my head, how he’d sla He ht as well have had me pinned to that table I’d have been just as frozen in place

"I’uys," I confessed "I’ll always be the weaker one"

He sighed, thinking After a th and power"

My war fast "Are we doing the speaking-in-riddles thing again?"