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One leap, straight up She ignored the gasps- and a few shrieks-of the people around her as she sprang At the top of her ju that fenced off the upper-level ay She hung for a second by her hands, then pulled herself up smoothly

More people were staring Keller ignored theot out of her way as she headed for the Hallmark store

Winnie was standing with her back to the displayof the store beside it She was short, with a froth of strawberry curls and a pixie face Keller edged up to her, careful to keep out of the line of sight of the Hallmark

"What's up?"

"There's three of them," Winnie murmured in a barely audible voice "Just like Nissa said I saw theot her surrounded, but so far they're just talking to her" She glanced sideways at Keller with dancing green eyes "Only three-we can take them easy"

"Yeah, and that's orries me Why would they only send three?"

Winnie shrugged slightly "Maybe they're like us-the best"

Keller only acknowledged that with a flicker of her eyebrows She was edging forward centilis and stuffed animals in the display

There Two guys in dark clothing aluy Keller could see only as a partial silhouette through a rack of Christmas ornaments

And her Iliana The girl everybody wanted

She was beautiful, almost impossibly so Keller had seen a picture, and it had been beautiful, but now she saw that it hadn't coirl She had the silvery-fair hair and violet eyes that showed her Harman blood She also had an extraordinary delicacy of features and grace of movement that rass Although Keller knew she was seventeen, she seeht now, she was listening ide, trusting eyes to whatever the silhouette guy was saying

To Keller's fury, she couldn't

"It's really her," Winnie breathed from beside Keller, awed "The Witch Child She looks just like the legends said, just like I inant "I can't stand to watch them talk to her It's like-blasphemy"

"Keep your hair on," Keller et so eends"

"Well, we should She's not just a Wild Power, she's a pure soul" Winfrith's voice was softly awed

"She hted I can't wait to talk to her" Her voice sharpened "And those thugs shouldn't be allowed to talk to her Coo"

"Winnie, don't-"

It was too late Winnie was already ht into the shop without any attempt at concealment

Keller cursed again But she didn't have any choice now "Nissa, stand by Things are going to get exciting," she snapped, touching her pin, and then she followed

Winnie alking directly toward the little group of three guys and Iliana as Keller reached the door The guys were looking up, instantly alert Keller saw their faces and gathered herself for a leap

But it never happened Before she could get all her ed

Time went into slow motion Keller saw his face clearly, as if she'd had a year to study it He wasn't bad-looking-quite handsome, actually He didn't look much older than she was, and he had clean, nicely molded features He had a small, compact body hat looked like hard muscles under his clothes

His hair was black, shaggy but shiny, almost like fur It fell over his forehead in an odd way, a way that looked deliberately disarrayed and was at odds with the neatness of the rest of him

And he had eyes of obsidian

Totally opaque

Shiny silver-black, with nothing clear or transparent about theht back at anyone who looked into them They were the eyes of a monster, and every one of Keller's five hundred voluntary muscles froze in fear

She didn't need to hear the roar that was far below the pitch that human ears could pick up She didn't need to see the swirl of dark energy that flared like a red-tinged black aura around hiet the breath to yell a warning to Winnie

There was no time

She could only watch as the boy's face turned toward Winnie and power exploded out of him He did it so casually Keller could tell that it was only a flick of hisits tail at a fly But the dark power slah the air, ars outstretched, until she hit a wall covered with display plates and clocks The crash was tremendous Winnie! Keller almost yelled it out loud

Winnie fell behind the cash register counter, out of Keller's line of sight Keller couldn't tell if she were alive or not The cashier who had been standing behind the counter went running and screa toward the back of the shop The custo for the exit

Keller hung in the doorway a second longer as they streamed out around her Then she reeled away to stand with her back against theof the next shop, breathing hard There were coils of ice in her guts

A dragon

He was a dragon