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"There’s no tiet there"

Get where?

"I’ll have Jenkins ring with the arrange about?" Snores and snorts shuddered the air and ground The lake sloshed into whitecaps A fissure opened beside me Mab fractured into a mosaic portrait of herself; the blue-and-silver pieces faded around the edges, going all wispy and cottony and floating apart

"The arrangements for me to travel to Boston" Soh the thunderous boo that broke apart my dreamscape "So I can lend my support It’s timents of o yet I need to knohat you’re talking about What role?"

"Why, child, haven’t you realized? You’re the Lady of the Cerddorion"

11

MY EYES FLEW OPEN I BOLTED UPRIGHT IN BED, CLUTCHING sweaty handfuls of sheet My heart pounded in h my brain "Mab!" I wanted her to co on But even as I shouted her name, I knew she couldn’t hear me She’d left my dreamscape, and so had I Two thousandRose, who’d already been in the kitchen for an hour, telling Jenkins they had urgent arrange to Boston? Or had ed-out dreamscape thrown her last words at gling piggies?

I rubbed ht AM Groaning, I flopped onto my pillow and pulled the covers over ht Like that was going to work

The cohI’d heard her right? Who was the Lady of the Cerddorion, and what did she have to do with me? It had to be a hallucination Yet Mab had pulled h after that

I wished I could say the sa now

Maybe Mab’s exit froic she’d siphoned off, and that’s what ht slowedheartbeat a little That was probably it It was too early to call the Welsh pub that would send a e to Mab’s remote estate, but I’d do that later Just toto Boston

Because if she hadn’t said that, she also hadn’t said that other thing, about the Lady of Cerddorion, whatever that was

Feeling reassured, I sat up again The room tilted a little, and I closed , too Didn’t help My bed felt like the Tilt-a-Whirl ride that had left me with a dizzy head and a queasy sto pill I opened h that would hold it still

No way I’d be going back to sleep now Forwas like midafternoon for the norms I’d had a nap, and my body didn’t wantpill and its y head, heavy lireat coered across the hall to the bathroom A steamy shower provided some relief But as I toweled off, y cotton balls Maybe a walk in the cool night air would clear it

I dressed in jeans and a black T-shirt, then threw on a light jacket In front ofover ht--there was so er in the streets, and I couldn’t afford to look like a target Twice now, so

So how best to shut down a fight before it started? To a zombie, a knife is about as scary as a toothpick A seressive zombie in a bad"zombie droppers" that could kill a zoh Even so,aerated with a dozen new holes

I shrugged offpistol I owned, a Magnule 44, and buckled on its shoulder holster If I left the jacket unzipped, it was aln that read DON’T MESS WITH ME Given the e? Whatever All I kneas I’d rather face a zombie mob than climb the walls of my apartment

AS SOON AS I STEPPED ONTO THE SIDEWALK, I HEARD MY na the nearly eather near the checkpoints--and then I saw him Kane picked up his pace as he walked toward me He wore an open trench coat over his expensive suit His silver hair glea moon was a reain with the Night Hag forced hiht up to uilt I saw in his Still, his touch arm as he folded me into his arms I pressed my face into his chest His scent was all Kane--fresh air and pine woods--not the charred brimstone of a hellhound

Kane stepped back Reluctantly, I let go

"I’et in touch"

Tell me you want to sweep h the streets back to your place We’ll close the bedrooht Hag and Pryce and the Morfran and everything else that’s driven this wedge between us We’ll be so close nothing will ever get between us again