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She saw his face, weary and stubbled, his eyes deep and dark in their sockets, hair hanging in straggles It was too dark to read his expression-but whatever it ouldn’t be true This wasn’t real

Pulling her sword free, galvanized by fury driven by her dashed hopes, she swung toward him If she killed him, would that stop the flood of his ed, pulling his oord free in a save an excla the horses into skittishness

Clahtly, Victoria held on as the horse stu for his neck

The de no effort to slash at her

A glance over her shoulder told Victoria that the roiling black cloud had risen higher at the ceht

Desperate for one last chance, she propelled herself upright in the saddle and brought the lethal sword out and around, in a long, vicious swipe He dodged at the lastdown and across his coat "Victoria!" he roared

Thethe heavy blade up and around again in a powerful arc-and then she saw the blood

Blood

She barely caught herself before the weapon sliced fully into his side, and that last-e, saved hiraze down the side of his other arry, but-"

"Max!" she cried, in a combination of horror, shock, and disbelief

"-try to daed her horse up next to his, keeping the sword down at her side

Max reached over and grabbed her by the front of the shirt, hauling her across the divide between their saddles, and slammed his mouth onto hers She half fell into his lap, her hands cla over his shoulders-one of which was damp with blood-and kissed him back crazily

"Da?" he said after a deep, desperate s She felt the daainst her skin

"I thought you were a deh to shove her weapon back into its sheath But before she could lunge back into his arms and touch his face, ed

"Look," he said in a stricken voice

Victoria saw that he was looking over her shoulder, in the direction of the ce her joy for the moment, she twisted around to look

"Oh my God" Her sto black over the cemetery, and she settled back fully in the seat of her saddle With insistent knees and the pull on her reins, she wheeled her horse around and kicked it into a gallop

This hy the de the portal open

Thank God she hadn’t listened to him

Thank God she hadn’t slain Max in her confusion

Max wasted no ti her As they stampeded past the tavern, she saw Brim and Michalas already on their way out the door to join theain, Victoria bent low over the neck of herher eyes, as they pounded along the dusty road The darkness had been relieved by the barest spread of clouds, allowing, h

Victoria took the chance to look up as they galloped and saw the edges of the clouds lined by ht, and saw that it was possible… a bit possible… that they could widen h

Please, God Give ht back the de to beat them as they had in London, and she could pull the orb froht to strain through it and close the portal