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Hellflame blazed hotter Difethwr turned itsPryce to the ground and pinning him there The demi-demon screamed and writhed The Destroyer held hiround Pryce’s screaht air I wanted to cover ht arm remained obstinately limp

Within minutes, Pryce fell silent

The Destroyer bent over Pryce, poked at his torso with a clawed foot No response Difethwr straightened to its full height, looking once more into the eyes of my upper perspective

"Know this," the Destroyer said "The shapeshifter is mine" And with a puff of sulfurous smoke, the Hellion vanished

37

PRYCE WASDEAD?

I couldn’t believe it I’d seen his fallen body on the ground before, after he’d infected himself with the zombie virus, but still he’d co his body with my foot No response

Mab would know I turned tobefore me as she had that day at my apartment

"Lady," she said, bowing low and placing a hand on her chest

I was going to tell her to knock it off, to remind her of her pronize came out

"You have served me faithfully," the voice said "I am well pleased"

That was not how I talk to y I wanted to issue

"Lady," Mab said "If I " She flicked her eyes toward the northeast corner of the field

Within the darkness Withaway

"Mallt-y-Nos!" The voice that issued from my throat hadfroze "Tyrd!" the voice co had used to call the falcon

Slowly, fighting everyturned and lurched toward me For the first tie She was the dried-out corpse of soo: yellow skin, thin and wrinkled, sunken eyes, a few strands of hair still clinging to the scalp When she ithin ten feet of h every doard inch cost her a thousand years

"My lady," her voice croaked through long-decayed lips

"You have overstepped your bounds," I said Except it wasn’t h me "On what authority do you hunt one whose ti whi

"On what authority do you hunt the one chosen by me?"

"I didn’t know"

"That does not matter You have abused your power You will learn how it feels to be abused"

My right hand--working again--stretched itself forward As the Night Hag cowered, energy streaer I didn’t know the intention of the power that worked through me I simply watched

The lithened and her legs thinned Her neck grew shorter and thicker Her ears swiveled to the top of her head, becoed and stretched into a y blasted out, so intense I had to shield ht Hag had beco, then shortened to a yelp as I, or the poorking through y into her "Run, hound!" my voice ordered The new hellhound took off and disappeared into the night

"Run to hell," I ht my attention Mab still knelt in front of ain, I wanted to tell her to stop it, to get up and be Aunt Mab again But that other voice pushed its way past round "There is one who requires your assistance My niece would ask it of you" Still keeping her head down, she gestured across the field

Toward Kane

Yes! The thought swelled in my mind If this entity that had taken over my body--it was Ceridwen, it had to be--could help Kane, she needed to get on it now I tried to direct my (our?) feet tohere he lay on the field, but they didn’t budge Slowly, seely of its own accord, ht I let you in You owe me

"We need to have a talk, I think, about hom" Yet as her words issued from my own mouth, my feet started to work I (alked across the field