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Overhead, all around, the lights quiver in their es shudder on doors

I can’t move, can barely breathe

I er,"into my very limited line of vision Aboveinto e He keeps one hand to his head, ste the flow of blood His eyes are worse than the wolf’s

"You stupid girl," he breathes "After all we’ve done for you All we made you"

"But for one flaw," ue over me Like I’m one of her prize animals, bred for her personal use I suppose that’s not incorrect "One deep, unnatural flaw"

I try to gasp against the wolf’s grip, if only to choke back a sob My sto

But he never will He doesn’t kno

And perhaps that’s the fault of his own father, and his father before

I don’t knohy, but I think of Mare Barrow Of her parents, holding her close, saying good-bye as we left Montfort They are nothing, insignificant people, of no great beauty, intellect, or power I envy thee to force out

The wolf holds firers painted in liquid silver With a flick of his hand, he spraysyou back to the Riftto breathe, fingers scrabbling over the floor Evenoffme bare and without weapons Vulnerable A prisoner still and always

Thenbackward, his face pulled into unfaed by the chromium painted up and down his body He sla backward Myin his skull

The wolf above h its neck, and the severed head flies, landing with a sick squelch a few feet away A hot spray of fresh, scarlet blood coats my face

I don’t flinch A fa

"You trained us too well," Ptoleether, and this ti over hier He’s still alive

"Good-bye, Evangeline," anothercorridor, and Anabel is with hilance for me as she approaches, hands raised Such lethal power in so se to cover h Julian’s er’s power shudders on the air, palpable as a sugary taste "Forget your children"