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"Do you remember what you said to me the third time we met?" Kami asked "That we should date?"

Jared did not answer, but his eyes went shocked silver

"If we cut the connection," she said, "I would" Even with her walls up, she could feel his anger Of course, she thought, of course she would say sory She wondered what he could sense, whatpast her wall

"I wish you hadn’t said that," said Jared "It’s like blackmail"

"It’s like you have no other use for me but this connection," Kami said "Without it, ould I be to you? Just so special about me at all" She remembered the first time he had seen her He hadn’t been i fro fro because winter was so close

"That’s ridiculous," Jared said curtly "And this whole conversation is ridiculous There’s a murderer on the loose If eren’t linked, you would have died in that well We can’t afford to break the connection now"

Ka people was a great relief to Jared She thought of Nicola Prendergast and felt nothing but fury

"So we have to keep it for now," she said coldly "We can break it later I want to find out how" She turned her back on hiarden before he could answer, through the iron door with the drowning woht of steps that led to the parlor

Lillian Lynburn’s voice echoed clearly against the stone "Now Jared’s powers are explained, and we have no idea of who is killing people in my town"

Kary she felt, she reached out in her mind and he reached back They stood at the bottoed star, soothing each other with their thoughts as they had done for years and years, since they were swapping lullabies in cradles across an ocean

Jared’s family had believed he was Nicola’s murderer all this time

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Yours to Break

Ka while Jared was still asleep, his dreaht, strained by autumn leaves, left a lacy pattern of shadows on her pillow Ka the unpleasant journey froiant pink robe, which she only wore at the tiht pink woolly mammoth She went downstairs wrapped in co beneath the bright surface of Sorry-in-the-Vale, hoht Then she opened the door of the kitchen and saw Rob Lynburn sitting at the table with her rabbed his arm, and tried to haul him to his feet "No!" she snapped "Whatever you threatened her with, whatever you want, she’s not going to do it This family doesn’t serve the Lynburns anyhten on her coffee cup, but Rob’s gaze was cal on his Or a very short, fuzzy version of Batman

"I wish it didn’t," Rob said "I have never hurt or threatened your ood friends Haven’t we, Claire?"

"If you say so," said Mum, as easy to read as the Mona Lisa She reached out a hand to Kao of Rob’s ar co regretful, "as good friends as we can be, under the circuht as winter sunlight, and about as warhter"

Kami had seen her stiff posture when Kami had come in Mum was afraid of this Lynburn, as she was of every Lynburn, but she was trying to protect Ka smile "It’s okay"

"I mean her no harm," said Rob Lynburn "I just want to undo what Rosalind did to you both Let ain that it was okay and pull her hand out of her arden, but she did let theured Mum couldn’t turn down a chance to have the connection severed Ka as she stood against the garden gate

Ka down at her in a kindly way In some ways, he seemed the most normal of the Lynburns, but she reer by Jared’s thunderstorm She’d do best to keep in mind that none of the Lynburns was all that norate, ivy hanging over the blurredthat the "G" stood for "Glass" Herthat it stood for "Guard" and that the word meant heavy responsibilities and dark consequences

"Well," Kaot to say that you didn’t say yesterday?"

"Only this: that yesterday I was very i," Rob told her "Many young people would be drawn to the thought of such power in their hands But you see that theto you I wish Jared could see as clearly, but he’s blinded by the connection I was so glad you had realized that the emotions that come with the connection are not real"

Kaely off the stone "Not real?" she asked, trying to keep her voice neutral

"Not entirely real," Rob qualified "How could they be? A connection like this would make anyone feel close to anyone Yours is the worst case I can think of All the links I’ve heard about contained some element of choice You were children"

Kaht about what their mothers had done

"My boy is lonely and iic is flooding to hiot so worked up e suggested the severance But you’re wiser than that You’re sensible to know the connection you feel is based on nothing but ain would be tainted and not yours by right"