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PART II

BEYOND IMAGINATION

Chapter Six

The Other Lynburn

Holly had been right Ash was better-looking

Kami also sahy Holly had called the delinquent Ash’s brother They were alike enough to be brothers, but in this case the fairy-tale prince had been cast into shadow and ruin Jared literally looked like Ash under a shadow: Ash with a tan, darker blond hair, and dark gray eyes with odd, cold lights in the across his left cheek, fro white scar

"So you’re--" Ka an interview, she didn’t want to call this guy Jared "The other Lynburn"

The boy crossed his arer when he did that "The one and only other Lynburn," he said, with a bite to his voice that hadn’t been there before "Friend of Ash’s, I presume? Great"

Kami stood on the other side of the lift and felt very disinclined to get closer to hiuys with that deliberate angry swagger He was a shade taller than Ash, a shade broader in the shoulders, which were straining against a battered brown leather jacket All the shades and shadows of hie Ka to abandon her research on the floor because soathered up the papers she had spilled

The boy didn’t offer to help He did look down at the picture nearest him: a colorful printout of a squirrel with its head cut off His eyebrows rose

Kaaze defiantly

"I’ve had days like that," he remarked, his Ah

"But where have you had days like that?" Kaured she could remember the interview "Where do you hail from?"

"San Francisco," he answered after a reluctant pause, as if it was privileged information

Her papers collected, Kaainst her chest, though she had to ad her for her decapitated-squirrel pictures were not high

The lift creaked to a halt

The boy cursed

"It’s fine," Kami told him "Sometimes you just have to press the button a few times"

"Great," he ainst her ribs She stared up at him He stabbed the button of the lift, then leaned away His expression had not changed, but she was certain he’d noticed her reaction

This was no way to conduct an interview Kaly "So, tellher interview questions in her head and choosing one at randoreatest fears?"

He hesitated, and she thought he was going to refuse to tell her, as if he did have some secret fear

The next instant he answered in a bored drawl, and his uncertainty had obviously existed only in her s Nu trapped in this elevator Why are you asking ht to information," Kami told him

"Well, I’m not in the mood," he said "Leave me alone"

Kami looked around the confines of the lift The other Lynburn was already taking up more than half of the available space "Yeah," she said under her breath "That should be no problem" She was deeply thankful when the lift actually ainst their respective sides of the lift, hugging the walls, and Ka on with you? she asked Jared At exactly the same tih the She saw the delinquent sain as he noticed her watching He probably thought her s with him "Don’t worry," she told him "You’re not my type"

He looked away froJust stuck in an elevator with this creepy Asian girl giving lare