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Panicking would not help What ical process, was finding a weapon She knelt down amid the dry leaves and the snake-coils of tree roots and reached for a fallen branch Her fingers did not get the chance to close on it, as so her head back

She felt the sharp, shocking cold of a knife edge along her throat

Ka see terribly still

The scrape of the blade against her skin felt hungry The voice scraping in her ear sounded hungry too "Not so brave now, source"

Ka was as shallow as she could make it All she could see was the canopy of leaves All she could feel was the touch of that knife She reached out desperately for Jared, but she could only feel his stark fear for her Rob Lynburn’s breath was hot against her cheek, a Lynburn knife cold against her neck, and if she did not control her own terror and Jared’s as well, she was going to die

"Don’t even think of trying any ic, or I’ll cut your throat," Rob instructed, and illustrated the point: she felt the knife slice in

For a moment, all she felt was shock and a flare of heat, and then the pain ca sensation of blood, blotting out the chill of the knife, running down her skin She felt Rob’s chest ruh and knew that her blood was giving him power

Kami focused on a point directly above her head, on aold lace in the sky She disobeyed the ic Above theh the sky, and boughs creaked as if theydown on both their heads

Kami felt the jerk of Rob’s body as he looked upward, and felt hiic had been was a diversion Ka her nails hard into a pressure point She leaned into hiht to flip him over her shoulder and into the leaves

A handful of her hair ith him, ripped out of her scalp The pain made her vision blur, but she didn’t hesitate She scra but she evaded his grasp and ran

We’re coeh the woods She had to find a safe place until they were here She had to hide Karabbed at her clothes and stabbed at her eyes The woods were turning against her, doing the sorcerer’s will, fueled by her own blood

Kae behind hers She heard Rob Lynburn cry out It bought Ka her feet into the hollows and handholds she knew froround had been tainted

At the bottoht blue sky, the tree above her dropping autu drifts, like a shower of coins every tied Her hair was spread in a black pool on the stone around her, and her face was very pale She rapped froela opened her eyes

"Angela," Ka up her throat so she could barely breathe "Don’t worry I’ll help you"

"Don’t," said Angela

Kami stared "What?"

"Don’t help her," said another voice

Kami turned to see as in the quarry with theing e, fixed on Angela and not blinking He looked as if he was in the grip of a nightray, as if he had accepted he was not going to wake up

"What are you doing here?" Kami asked very quietly She didn’t want to hear it; she didn’t want to believe it

Ash said, "I’ela "And why is that, you incredible assle?"

Ash looked away "To get ic," he answered in a defensive voice "I wouldn’t expect you to understand"

"Good Because I never will"

"What’s the alternative?" Ash asked

"Oooh, hard to say," Angela sneered behind Kaic like everybody else, you loser"

"We’re not like everyone else, though, are we?" Ash deuy who my mother kneould hurt ainst one of ours You didn’t spend your life being sick every fall, living in a different house every time, because we couldn’t come back home We can be more powerless than your kind could ever be We should be more powerful than your kind could ever be And it’s not fair"

It was Rob’s logic in Ash’s mouth, that sources should not be powerful, that nobody should be powerful except the sorcerers Rob’s poison in Ash’s ears, and Rob’s rage that had sent Ka doell, because she and Jared were better off dead than linked

"Your father sent you to us, didn’t he?" Kami asked "That very first day Rosalind told you both everything about ave you the Lynburn knives You ca for Kauilty, shifting on the ground as if he was cli to fall "He only told me to watch you," Ash said, low "I didn’t hurt you I liked you I didn’t hurt that girl Nicola either I never wanted to hurt anyone"

Kaela She was still now, but Kaainst her chains, the skin raw and sore "Oh, no?" Kami asked

"I’m not the one who set the price for power," Ash said softly "I would never haveabout the way he said it was like the sound of the chill, turning-to-winter wind, running through leaves that were dying by turning to gold

The hair on the back of Ka up Ash and Rob, and maybe Rosalind Maybe three sorcerers She did not know if she could fight thee since the Lynburn knife had shed her blood But she had to

Ash’s face was still turned away, his profile like soht about him once, that he looked the part of a fairy-tale prince