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"And lad he was stubborn!"

She glanced at me "You even sound like hient It seemed impossible that she should have cared for so that she’d been using him in some way But it had sounded

"How did you two meet?" I asked, because I’d alondered

She didn’t answer She also didn’t sit down, so I couldn’t, either Maybe that’s why this felt less like a visit, or even an audience, and rily But I was going to ask anyway She could ignoreto ask what I daht," I said defiantly

She still didn’t sit, but she leaned against the crib She looked tired, I thought, and then I pushed it away Goddesses didn’t get tireddid they?

She sht him back across more than three centuries Frones taking the furious ht she’d planned to keep him "Why didn’t she turn him over to the Circle?"

"The Circle has no facilities for dealing with time travelers, however inept Such is the responsibility of the Pythian Court She brought him to London, and shortly thereafter, I met hi jailbird?"

It came out before I could stop it, but she didn’t seenated to take hie and I could shift away on a second’s notice Instead, I stayed And we talked"

"About what?" I couldn’t iine two people who had less in common

"The past, the futurea hatred of fate, of rules, of suffocating order"

"I thought order was a good thing"

"It depends on whose"

I blinked That had sounded gri flashed outside, low flame-red for an instant "You do You are the child of chaos, Cassie, of turmoil and mayhem and wild uncertainty Your very existence is proof"

"Of what?" I asked, when she trailed off

"That hope cannot be chained That fate can be undone!"

I blinked again She’d said it fervently, passionately, which was just as well Because, otherwise, it oddessand more like the cheap babble so when they didn’t knohat to say

Or when they were trying to change the subject

She s my mind "You wish to rescue this demon, then?"

I nodded

"Why?"

"I--what?"

"It is a si to risk much for him"

"He would do it forcreatures, deods"

An eyebrow rose "Perhaps But we are not talking of theainst his very nature Sooner or later, he will give in to it Perhaps it is best if it is a his own kind"

"They aren’t his kind! They’re--" I thought about the de None of which rehtest of the man downstairs "He’s human"

"He is part human It is his other half about which he has yet to learn"

"I don’t think he wants to learn about it," I said dryly Pritkin had been pretty clear on that point

"That is not his choice We are e are All of us are governed by that, to soree--except him The choice was made for him He was taken--"

"From you"

"Yes"

"And you resent it"

"Yes!"

"Because he is yours"

"Y--" I stopped, suddenly confused Until I reods had always taken hus, or whatever, without a second’s thought Before her epiphany, Mother probably had, too But I wasn’t a god, and that wasn’t what had happened here "No He’s his own person--"