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"My cousin is not afraid of dying," he said "He courts death He has been that way since he came back froone" That explained quite a few things about Robin "I’h all this?"

"I want to see hi over the words "Ten years I spent in a dungeon because of him If the contessa had kept her proe forever"

"Afterhim watch you rape me," she added helpfully

He looked away "He should never have brought you with hiain" She tilted her head "It’s funny how he’s always the bad guy, and you’re nothing but the victim But I can see why you wouldn’t want to kill hione, you wouldn’t have anyone left to blaave her a filthy look "You know nothing Your mortal life has lasted a handful of years I have endured centuries alone on this earth"

"Why not kill yourself then?" she asked "What have you done with your life besides hating Robin, blaet even with Robin? How could you waste all that tie over a woman who never wanted either of you?"

Nottingha tears to her eyes "You will not speak of her"

Chris sed a sob and turned away fro as far as she could to the other side of the seat She sat there for a long tiainst her hand, and jerked around

"I aruff as he pressed a handkerchief into her hands "You have a talent for provoking "

She sniffed and dried her face "Don’t you be nice tofemales in tears"

She took the handkerchief he offered her and wiped her eyes "At least mine aren’t toxic" She took in a deep breath and let it out slowly "What did the other Kyn say when you told them about the contessa and this vial of her sister’s tears?"

"I did not call London"

"You’re kidding" She crumpled the handkerchief in her fist "Oh, my God You’re not"

"There was no need to call ahead," he told her "Salva is traveling by land We will reach England before she does"

Chris tried to work that out "Why wouldn’t she fly there?"

"Kyn despise air travel," he said "She flew to Rome only because she could not spare the ti by boat and train"

"You don’t seem to have a problem with it," she pointed out "Neither does Robin"

"My cousin is a reckless fool," Nottingha"

"You seemed pretty terrified of that vial" She saw his hand contract into a fist against the armrest "How poisonous are her sister’s tears?"

"We Kyn each have our own talent," he said slowly "As you have seen, the contessa can persuade a hu she wishes Your lover charms them I command the cold and ice But there are those with far more powerful talents One of our kind can shatter flesh and bone with a touch Our high lord can inflict great suffering on humans and Kyn with his voice"

If he had told her that two days ago, Chris would never have believed him Now it made her stomach turn

"Beatrice’s talent was the most lethal of all," he continued "Her blood was poison, and anything it touched--Kyn,alive--died instantly For a short ti her from the rest of us, but she escaped them to run aith a mortal who had fallen in love with her She did not think about the blood of her virginity He died in her arrief, Beatrice had thrown herself into a river

"She did not droe cannot be killed that way--but ’tis said that she wept tears of blood into the water Every ht," he said "Their bodies swelled with black boils, and they went out of their heads with fever Anyone who touched thees and towns and cities It traveled on ships fro sounded like the Black Death Chris couldn’t quite believe that a vaue with her tears, but she’d seen so s already that she was prepared to take it on faith "How htened "In Florence, where I lived, every mortal who served me died of it So did half the city It took us months to collect the bodies of the dead and burn them"

"What happened to Beatrice?"