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Ciana Talk to ain?"

"He said you&039;d know"

My toes were ice and agony, but I stopped on the frozen walk, gripped Ciana&039;s shoulders, and turned her toPlease"

"He said I could take you there, where heswa hidden and fearsome

A secret Saints&039; balls Ciana had a secret about a daywalker

"It&039;s behind the shop" With a little tug on my hand she pulled me back the e had come, then sharply to the left, into a little alley between two buildings The cloud-shrouded dusk dihtly

The dark held secrets more fearful than the ones in Ciana&039;s eyes, andfor attention Pain lanced through , I swept behind and ahead at the alley opening and overhead at the rooftops, flexed the fingers ofto pull the blade But the path ahead was clear Clouds were breaking above us and a star peeked through I forced the memory of my own childhood shadoay We cleared the alley and stepped up the hill at the foot of the Trine

Little stables and outbuildings were scattered along the flat area, hip deep in snow I scented horses, h she could see in the dark, Ciana pulled e of the woods A single footpath led through the trees, across what had once been Walnut Avenue, up the base of the Trine, as if it had been well and recently trod, though snow had fallen this ripped Ciana&039;s handmy blades at the same instant Glory and infa for silence If a daywalker or an early-rising spaas here, it already kneere too But there was nothing, only the orn path and the cold and the sound of night creatures waking A bird called, a single owl hoot, lonely and longing

Ciana led e rocks piled nearly waist high, sticking out of the snow, as if brushed clean Water tinkled We were at ushed into a stoneware and plastic cistern I had spoken words of power over the syste as teed with the seasons, then released a rune of obscurity over it to shield it fro warriors, or the rare, unexpected seraph The spring and cistern had worked flawlessly for years

"This is where he meets me" The words had a tone of confession to them "Meets me" meant more than once Ciana knew she shouldn&039;t have coue?"

"No Not exactly"

"Then what exactly did it do?"

"He put his head here" She held her hand near her neck "And he sniffed a lot He said I sood"

Yeah Like a slab of rawstick My eyes swept the surrounding trees asthere at all "But it didn&039;t lick you?"

"No He said you&039;d ask that He said you knew about people like hiotten, buried deep, only now beginning to unfurl in a deadly blosso "Did it sit? Where?" I asked when she nodded

Ciana pointed to a stone, larger than the others Pulling her withto look closely There was no snow on the stone It had been brushed to the ground Drawing air in, I sniffed with nose and e, defiant

The fetid spoor of devil-spawn sla the scent of foulness from my childhood, fro else, so unknown, lurked beneath the smell, perhaps the subtle stench of daywalker Two species of Dark beings had been here Recently The spawn pack before dawn, the daywalker when the sun was high Fear crawled up ain

"He said you would be afraid, but that you didn&039;t have to be"

"It isn&039;t a he And it isn&039;t a person? it&039;s a beast" Two kinds, spawn and so the older spawn scent as itThe spawn pack had traveled north, up the center peak of the Trine, then angled west "What did it ask you, this thing that sniffed you? What did you talk about?"

"He said you had been hurt when you were a little girl and that made you afraid of people like him"

I sed hard Only a very fe of the attack when I was a child Except for Lucas, all of them were at Enclave "I was injured by devil-spahen I was a little girl, smaller than you are now I nearly died" I stared up the hills, breathing deeply, reround where I had been taken, stuffed into a crevice, and left to die, left forfor , I had been a tastySo cold

"I got away," I whispered through a throat that didn&039;t work right "I got aasn&039;t the full and complete truth, but I didn&039;t reht? " I asked

"Yep Except his naly gave its naent than spawn If one gave her its name -

"He said you&039;d knohat to do with it It&039;s Malash - "

I slappedher off Her shocked eyes met mine above my thumb "Shhh Never say it aloud Promise" Her head bobbed slowly "To say its na it If you call it, a spawn pack may come too And then the spaould know its name and yours and have power over you both I don&039;t knohat kind of strength a daywalker has, but I know for a fact that at night, the spaould have their full strength And they would be hungry They&039;re always hungry Understand?"

Ciana pushed ers are frozen They feel like icicles And I&039;, I sed downas it went down

Her hand still in head, back down the hill Words were still painful "Let&039;s go inside I&039;ll fix dinner and call Maria Tell her you&039;re staying with ht"

"Cool Can I play with your dolls?"