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Jared laughed bitterly "No Really?"

"What I et used to it," Ka conviction She knew fro to hiled up in his feelings to act It s and h this "We need to take this in stages," she announced, spinning away from him She went to stand on one side of the half-fallen wall

"Ka taken aback

"Go stand on the other side of the wall," she said, and peered through a chink in the wall until she could see the flash of faded blue cotton that was Jared’s T-shirt "And now stoop, you ridiculously tall person"

She saw hirass She sat down too, feeling him reach out tentatively in her mind She reached back

His voice in her head was fa You’re just tiny It’s probably why you’re so bossy

"You know, Napoleon complexes are entirely ht He just had tall bodyguards who stood behind him all the time Also, we should probably talk out loud as part of the first stage ofto say that to him, not when he had talked to her in her head for the first ti, sun-war on with you, Kami?" asked Jared, with an effort she could feel It was a subtle difference, but his voice sounded rusty now, instead of rough, as if he wasn’t used to speaking this way out loud

Ka out"

"Yeah," said Jared "I don’t--I hate--" He stopped

"Talking like this is very classical of us," Kaain, sounding helpless, but less like he wanted to hit soht, if I kneho they were"

Kami hesitated "You do read, don’t you?"

"I haven’t lied to you," Jared said, and his voice was angry again "I read I just haven’t read that"

"They are characters in a Roh a wall Then there was aeaten by a lion"

"I hate it when that happens," Jared said "Also, considering the way things have been going, I aland"

There was a wall between them, but the wall of silence in Jared’s head wasn’t there anymore Kami still did not quite dare to co shut out again She skirted the edge of what he was feeling, and stretched out her hand so he could see it on his side of the stone wall

After a ainst hers The light touch of skin on skin h her blood so that it burned and stung in her veins She had never been so aware of anyone in her life, or so uncoers linking Froing as if the other had fallen off a cliff and they had to keep hold or risk theer than Kaers callused It was just a boy’s hand, blood and flesh and bone, she told herself fiercely It wasn’t such a big deal

"I’ as if soainst his will "I just--I hate this"

Ka to say "I hate you"

It was like being back in the lift again She did not have to try to sense what he was feeling: he threw it at her and she could not hold back the storm that enveloped her

"I don’t hate you," said Jared, and I do I hate this, I want this to stop, how are we supposed to live with this, and how am I supposed to walk away? You’re real and I hate you for it

"Stop," Kaainst the stone, her hand gripping his so hard her bones hurt She was shaking "Cal we can do"

"What?" Jared deritted teeth "What can we do? How can we fix this when reality is the probleh her like a tidal wave, soht knock her off her feet and drown her without evento

There weren’t words anye and such fear, the black terror that had overwhelmed Jared in the lift, the fact that she had never been real and it had been unbearable and now she was real and it was just as unbearable The thought that soht betray you

You were always onthe dread into silent words And now …

Ka all her secrets, every petty insecurity and small meanness she had ever felt She felt the dread of Jared as an independent person, of what he ht think of her, and that she would have to live with those thoughts in her head Kah he tried to hold on

Then Ka to be reassuring His breathing had gone harsh and alrass and the sound of her own heart beating were loud in her ears Her palm traveled over his elbow, followed the tense curve of his bicep, and hit the pulled-taut material of his T-shirt sleeve She leaned forward and left the shelter of the wall

Then there was nothing but theether, both on their knees She clenched her fist in his T-shirt, put her other arm around those too-broad, too-real shoulders When he tried to pull away, she held on tight Kami felt the surrender in his mind a moment before he laid his face in the curve of her neck The whole world was so real it hurt

Kami whispered into Jared’s hair: "I’m always on your side"