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The blasts that I’d been keeping ai twice as fast, and with twice asone,] the creature warned But despite the e

I acknowledged the creature’s thought with an unvoiced response of h Graeme’s inner shields That left only his personal defenses – the thin skin of mojo we all wore around ourselves as a last resort

I had them down in seconds

By that point I was nearly on top of hi strode forith each carefully timed blast So when I peeled away that last layer of shield, pushing hiht up in Graee fro a viselike grip on Graeme’s throat His eyes widened as I squeezed, ever so slowly

When he was blue and wheezing, I spoke

‘You’re going to take hoh on Graeme’s throat that he didn’t die and could take a breath Then I squeezed again

‘You’re going to tell Morrigan that I’ Anyan Before, ere ready to play the way she’d always played, but now all bets are off We’re going to find a way to kill her, and for good

‘She’s going to die, and she’s not coo of Grae with harsh strangled sounds that were like the sweet tinkling of bells to et the hell out of here And if you ever step foot in Rockabill again, I’ you’

With those words I sent a nificent shower of icy mud that rained over Graeme like a riot of chocolate sprinkles

He looked up at h his eyes were still full of the sa new

I saw fear

I saw respect

I saw the Jane I’d beco Fury who meant it when she said she’d kill someone

A dark shadoooped down on Graeme from above, and then he was aloft, carried by the now recovered harpy

I signaled for Ryu to release the other one, who launched herself in the air with the aerial version of a liht sky like a pollen-drunk honeybee, following the larger shape of her Grae aze Graeot schooled that day

It see just what Jane wasJane herself

Chapter Five

‘Is that the creature?’ Iris whispered atat us from the rock wall

‘Yes Well, its eye at least’

‘And the, u a furtive flutter of her hand toward the piles of tentacles lying around the cave

‘Yes, they belong to the creature, too’