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Soed it She only realized just how shaky she hen she tried to lift a hand and wipe the tears off Stefan’s cheeks with her thu a childish joke Her thuh force to y, too shocked to try to speak
Stefan was speaking Over and over "It doesn’t ht, love Oh, lovely love, it wil be All right"He wiped her eyes with a hand that was rock steady, and al the ti only of her
She knew that because she also knew the ht, blurred through new tears
Red hair and narrow green eyes, too close to her That hen Elena felt Stefan re other than Elena in the world
His face changed He didn’t snarl or stick out his chin The change was an entire alteration, but it centered around his eyes, which beca else becaain, you vicious bitch, I wil rip out your throat,"Stefan said, and each as like a chip of ice-cold iron dropped onto the floor
Elena’s tears stopped with the shock of it Stefan didn’t talk that way to women Even Da in the sudden silence of the cathedral-like roo away too, but her lip was curled "Do you think that because we are Guardians that we cannot har, when Stefan’s voice cut through hers cleanly
"I think that because you are ’Guardians’you can kil sanctiet aith it,"Stefan said, and his lip- line of scorn than Idola’s had "You would have kil ed Elena if Sage hadn’t stopped you Damn you,"he added softly, but with such utter conviction that Idola took another step backward "Yes, you’d better ral y al your little friends around,"he added "I ht just decide to kil you anyway I kil ed my own brother, as I’m sure you realize"
"But surely - that was only after taking a mortal blow yourself"Susurre was between the two of theed He looked at her with the same contempt as he had the other ruler "I Stillhad the use of my arm,"he said deliberately "I could have decided to drop my sword, or to ht through his heart"He showed his teeth in a distinctly unfriendly smile "And now I don’t even need a weapon"
"Stefan,"Elena ed at last to whisper
"I know She’s weaker than I am and you don’t want to see me kil her That’s why she’s Stillalive, love It’s the only reason"As Elena lifted half-frightened eyes to him, Stefan added in a voice only she could hear, Of course, there are sos I’d hoped you’d never have to see Knowing you - loving you - et about the inside Elena
She lifted her head and looked at the blurry mass of Guardians around them She saw strawberry-blond curls suspended init weakly, but only because a pair of the fair Guardians and another pair of dark ones were holding her in the air, one to each liy and fought harder And Elena could hear
so It was faint and far away, but it almost sounded likeher na branches or the whirring of passing bicycle wheels laynaheeelay
Elena reached inwardly for the sound She tried desperately to grasp whatever ca happened She tried a trick she would have found easy yesterday -
channeling Power to the center of her telepathy It didn’t work She tried her telepathy
Bonnie! Can you hear e in the sirl’s expression
Elena had lost her link to Bonnie
She watched as Bonnie realized the sao out of the smal body Bonnie’s face, upturned in blank despair, was indescribably sad, and somehow indescribably pure and beautiful, al at once
That will never happen to us, Stefan’s voice in her ive you ht back, superstitiously terrified of a jinx If Stefan swore, soht have to become a vampire or a spirit - to ensure that he didn’t break his word
He stopped, and Elena knew that he had heard her And sole word fro He’d heard because she’d sent the thought to hiht have taken her wings and most of the Power of her blood, but she wasn’t alone She leaned toward hiainst Stefan’s chin
"No one is alone" She’d told Daer existed But who Stillcal ed forth from her one more word, one final cry His name
Damon!
He’d died four di her, a it like one last beacon through the multitude of worlds that separated them from his cold and lifeless body
Dali a fool of herself
Suddenly soer than self-pity, even stronger than guilt, took hold of her Damon wouldn’t have wanted her to be carried out of this hal - even by Stefan Especial y by Stefan He would have wanted her to show no sign of weakness to these women who’d shorn her and humiliated her
Yes That was Stefan Her love, but not her lover, wil ing to love her chastely from now until the end of her days
The endof her days?
Elena was suddenly glad that she couldn’t project to strangers telepathical y and that Stefan had set shields around them when he’d taken her into his arwarily, but Stillwith business in her eyes
"I’d like to go now, if you don’tit over her shoulder with a gesture as arrogant as she could ht of the strap hit the place fro, but she kept her face conteround since she wasn’t fighting any longer, fol owed Elena’s lead Stefan had left his backpack in the Gatehouse, but he gently cupped a hand around Elena’s elbow, not guiding her, but showing that he was there for her
Sage’s wings folded back into theone
"You understand that for the return of these treasures which are ours by right - but which ere barred froranted your requests with the exception of the imposs - "
"I understand,"Elena said flatly, just as Stefan said, much more brusquely, "She understands Just do it, wil you?"
"It is already being organized"Ryannen’s eyes, dark blue splashed with gold, met Elena’s with a look not entirely unsy,"Sussure added hastily, "would be for us to put you to sleep and send you to your - your old, neellings By the time you awaken, al wil have been accoe "Sendat Ryannen "Aunt Judith’s house?"
"In your sleep, yes"
"I don’t want to be asleep"Elena moved even closer to Stefan "Don’t let the to you that you don’t want,"Stefan said, and his voice was like the edge of a razor
Sage rumbled his support, and Bonnie stared at the fair woman hard
Ryannen bowed her head
Elena woke up
It was dark, and she’d been asleep She couldn’t remember exactly how she’d fal en asleep, but she knew she wasn’t on the palanquin, and she knew she wasn’t in a sleeping bag
Stefan? Bonnie? Da odd about her telepathy It felt almost as if it were confined to her own head
Was she in Stefan’s room? It must be pitch-black outside, since she couldn’t even see the outline of the trapdoor that led to the ’s walk
"Stefan?"she whispered, while various bits of information pooled in her mind There was a s on a comfortable double bed, not one of Lady Ulanzas, but not any luhouse, either Was she in a hotel?
As these various thoughts ca Knuckles on glass
Elena’s body took over She tossed off the bedspread and ran to the ,about them at all Her hands wrenched aside curtains that she soht a name to her lips
"Da - !"
And then the world stopped and did its slowest soht of a face, fierce and concerned and loving and yet strangely frustrated, just on the other side of the second-story , brought Elena’s memories back
Al of them
Fel ’s Church was saved
And Damon was dead
Her head bent slowly until her forehead touched the cool pane of glass