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Chapter Thirty-Five

Nothing Gold

The sh the leaves ahead of the out dark tendrils They were the shadows of retribution, co Jared could think of: rage and retribution

And then Jared went down The crash startled Angela andin her hand Jared did not even care He wished she would bring the chain down, beat hi silence in his ?"

Jared lay on his sto to lift hi in his throat, a terrible uneven sound

"Where are you hurt?" Holly deela’s hand

"I’an to lie, and then bowed his head, shoulders hunching in agony He could taste earth, bitter between his lips He could feel the woods, the whole world, twisting and going wrong around hiela leaned down and looked into his face

Jared gritted his teeth and stared back "I’ll catch up," he proain Heaniht"

Behind her were Ash and Aunt Lillian Jared was distantly amazed to see how concerned they looked, and furious that they see

"You want that scu"

"So a on to her hand, and Ash ran after them

Aunt Lillian stooped down and touched Jared’s hair It was the strangest thing: only Kaently

"Go," Jared snarled, and turned his face away

She did She left hiet up

Kami had not expected it to hurt But it hurt worse than anything she had ever experienced in her life She supposed through the haze of red agony that it ery of the soul or the mind or both at once And she had done it to herself and to hiness in her mind and in her bones, in every part of her

Silence filled Kami now, like the silence after words failed and so, lost as a fish thrown onto dry earth, lying on her side on the chains and scrabbling on the rock trying to get up, because in spite of all this she kneas co out the sun She could not see his face, only darkness, and the bright light of the knife as he brought it down Only the blow never fell, because Rob staggered and had to catch at the quarry wall to keep his footing

"Rob," said Rosalind Lynburn "You can’t kill her"

"Rosalind!" Rob exclaio to the town and wait there"

Rosalind flinched away froth and conviction to hurl herself at hirained habits of a lifetiht have chosen a violent man to take her away, because men who hurt her were the only ones she kne to love

"I went to the town," Rosalindlike a veil before her face "I did what you told me Then I came back, and I’m sorry, but you can’t kill her!"

Every nized, with a cold crawling feeling, that he had been crossed too many times today She forced herself to sit up and pushed herself staggering to her feet She still had the knife in her hand, even if all the ht," said a voice at the lip of the quarry, a voice that was used to obedience without question "You’re not going to kill her You’re not going to kill anyone"

Lillian Lynburn cast a look at the loose rocks of the quarry, and they rolled to for like an ar a chain Behind her came Holly, and then Ash

"Lillian, I’m your husband," said Rob "Listen to me"

"You’re a criminal," Lillian told hi to execute you Step away from my sister"

Rosalind shook her hair away froossamer Lillian held out a hand to her Rosalind did not take it, but she did move toward her twin A look passed between theht Rosalind’s eyes

Angela walked over to Kauard Holly ca Kami’s elbow Kami had not realized how unsteady she was until she had some support