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Soft pink light ssout A few seconds of coolness and pinkness, all alone, confusion, uncertainty Then the light fades and I&039;m back in Lord Loss&039; throne room, on asping and shivering

"Kernel!" a woman shouts - Sharmila She hurries towards ician&039;s s, but a faint frorinkles the dirty flesh of his forehead Shark and Dervish are on their knees close by, sniffing the air and their hands The stink is gone That puzzles me, until I remember that only our souls entered the Board The bodies we inhabited there were fakes Our real bodies remained in the castle

Lord Loss is on his throne, the hell-child on his lap, Vein sitting to attention at the base of the throne No other deain, Cornelius," Lord Loss murmurs "So there can be no doubt"

"I&039;m the thief," I mutter, still not sure how that can be true "I stole I don&039;t kno, but It hen I was lonely, a year ago I cahts in my bedroom"

Lord Loss chuckles and bounces the hell-child up and down "This is Artery," he says, "brother of Vein They are two ofwhen I set theo, an intruder opened ainto h it, I found you, Cornelius I was inclined to take you, to punish you for your i about the way you faced ht it better to wait and observe

"You cah theafternearby, torturing a lesser deically transformed him, supplied him with human features, took him to your universe, created a new identity for him and shortened his na into place, understanding co slowly but certainly

The air around the hell-child shi on the deles at me, but with Artery&039;s screechy voice Diht in his eyes His e for his body His sharp teeth

"It hen he bit me," I whisper "That&039;s when I knew Art loved to bite And the marbles, when he held them over his eyes - they looked like the demon&039;s"

Lord Loss nods slowly "You stole him, Cornelius You were lonely, desperate for a friend, somebody ould be true to you and with you always You found a way into dom Snatched Artery Gave him human shape Convinced yourself that he was your natural brother"

"But Mum and Dad must have known the truth!" I cry

"They kneas not theirs," Lord Loss agrees "But they did not knoas a demon, where he came from or why you believed he was your brother He rehter she lost She saw hiods Your father wanted to give the baby to the police, to be returned to its rightful parents He tried to sway Melena, without success She used you to swing hiht the baby was your brother If they took him away, she said you&039;d suffer dreadfully Out of love for you, he agreed to lie

"They watched the news closely - furtively - over the co, perhaps decency would have won out and your father would have handed Art over Or perhaps not Your sister&039;s death had hurt him terribly too Maybe he would have let youron to the child, no matter what

"In any event, when there was nobaby, they decided to keep him and rear him as their own, as the brother you believed he was But they couldn&039;t stay in the city, where people knew they only had one child So they abandoned their jobs and fled Took you and the baby away Started a new life in Paskinston, where nobody had cause to be suspicious, where things were simpler, where they could rear their new son in peace"

He strokes Art&039;s head, never taking his eyes offto pieces, the last year of my life exposed as a lie, me revealed as a villain, Mum and Dad as devious accomplices

"How did he transforuration&039;s a coed it alone"

"Yet he did," Lord Loss says "I assuician, maybe even a fellow demon That is why I did not retrieve Artery immediately I hoped the manipulator of the boy would reveal hi to te It was only when Cornelius came into this universe and tested his powers that I realised he&039;d acted alone I still do not kno he did it - only that he did"

Everyone&039;s staring at me I feel like an exhibit at a freak show Roll up! Roll up! Couise! He can hide a demon from everybody - even himself!

"So I never had a brother," I whisper "It was all a lie"

"A dream," Lord Loss corrects enerous help"

"Some help!" Dervish snorts "You could have just told hi," Lord Loss says "He had to discover the truth himself - or search for it in vain for the rest of his life I would have been happy either way The norance would have been sweet But theis just as welcome"

"What misery?" Shark asks "He beat you He found out the truth"