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The only thing that approached the sadness Claire felt for Shane was the sy; after all, it was his fault All of it But in destroying the s back to the way they should be--including Myrnin&039;s sanity

Sane, he understood what he&039;d done, and Claire could hardly stand to look at him, to see that awful, stunned, horrified expression in his eyes He hadn&039;t said a word, not a word When Amelie tried to speak to him, he averted his eyes and sat, motionless and quiet, head down

Oliver, as usual, had no sympathy at all "West is dead," he said flatly "Or worse, perhaps Collins sacrificed hiht Let him brood, if he wants to brood"

Myrnin raised his head then, slowly, and fixed his dark, tragic eyes on Oliver He said nothing, but there was so very nasty in the way they looked at each other

"Well?" Oliver demanded Myrnin looked away "All because you couldn&039;t lose your precious Ada without going mad Promise me, Amelie, that you&039;ll crucify me with silver before you allow me to fall in love"

"I hardly think there&039;s any chance of that," Amelie said "I doubt you have the capacity" She sounded re almost painful in it, too "There is some positive news, I suppose Most people seee has been done seems to be temporary"

"Positive news," Oliver repeated "Except that our boundaries are down, and all our defenses You know that can&039;t continue The machine--"

"Isn&039;t working," Claire said, and got up from the chair where she sat next to Shane "It isn&039;t working It isn&039;t going to be working, not for ain Get over it, Oliver" She was angry, she realized Shaking And she knew that it was because of Shane&039;s dad "Could you ?"

Amelie and Oliver both looked at her with identically surprised expressions "Feel what?" Oliver asked "Grief? For Frank Collins? Are you sure your ritted her teeth and resisted the urge to flip him off She shouldn&039;t have Eve silently did it for her, fro dust and debris off of her Goth black Her boots were still untied "Hey, Oliver?" she called "Didn&039;t see you biting the bullet back there and taking one for the team You were out of there faster than erously toward the dark, but Eve clearly didn&039;t care She was distressed, too And angry

Myrnin finally spoke "I knew," he said, very softly "I knew that I wasn&039;twas safe, but it wasn&039;t Maybe even then " He looked up, and there was a faraway, miserable look on his face "If I&039;d believed Claire in the first place, we could have stopped this It didn&039;t have to happen this way But I wantedI suppose that deep inside, I wanted things to be" He took a deep breath "I wanted her back I wanted the past I wanted to feelless constrained by the rules And that&039;s what the machine picked up from me That&039;s what it tried to do"

"Well," Oliver said "You got your wish"

Aets us nowhere," she said "Frank Collins did us a great service, regardless of his history I will honor that"

Shane looked up "How?" His voice was hollow and empty "A plaque?"

"Hoould you prefer he be honored?" Arant it to you"

Shane didn&039;t hesitate, not even for a second It was, Claire thought, like he&039;d already figured out what he was going to say "Let Kyle out of the cage in Founder&039;s Square," he said "Put hi and heavy, and for a few dreadful seconds Claire thought that Ary But she was justpensive She finally said, "All right"

Oliver made a frustrated, furious noise in the back of his throat, picked up a glass beaker that had somehow survived all the destruction, and sh!" he barked "Will you continue to bend to every breather who--"

Arabbed him by the arm, pulled him to face her, and said, "Stop" Her tone was chilly, and quiet, and deadly serious "We will stop tearing at each other, Oliver It does neither of us good It solves nothing It breeds s, and we are not so numerous in this town that we can afford our ambitions I told you ill rule as equals, but e, unless we learn how to risk our safety and compromise, the hurant this because the boy is innocent I grant it because mercy is more to our cause than justice"

Oliver stared at her without speaking orodd about his expression, sovulnerable? Claire wasn&039;t sure She&039;d never really seen anything like it "And what if I decide I want to rule alone after all?"

"I won&039;t fight you for it," she said "But your arrogance would destroy Morganville, and all of us"

"I&039;ve ruledeffect You tried to change those you ruled You couldn&039;t" Ahtly "Your ideals didn&039;t survive you Mine ether I&039;m sure you don&039;t want that"

"No," Oliver said, oddly quiet "No, that&039;s not what I want"

"Then what do you want?"

He hesitated, and then he inclined his head "I&039;ll let you know," he said "But for nowfor now, a truce"

Amelie let another second tick away, and then stepped away from him "I&039;ll dispatch police to monitor the roads out of town We&039;ll have to hope that we can maintain order with more conventional means until--"

"Until what?" Myrnin asked bitterly "Until I create another miracle? Another brilliant feat that turns fatal because you won&039;t allow me to build it as itelse, A me how to do ht of what it is I want To never have to listen to hi at Myrnin, and then turned to Claire

"It&039;s no longer Myrnin&039;s job," she said "And I suppose you&039;d best begin thinking how you&039;ll solve our proble to be your responsibility in a few years This merely moves up our plans, I believe Myrnin can assist you, but I will expect results within the week"

Claire realized, with a sinking sensation, that she&039;d just becos could not possibly be worse than that--until she failed She supposed then things would take a turn for the extra bad

At least she had a week

Myrnin shook his head "Airl isn&039;t--"

"Enough," Amelie said, and the iron snap of command in her voice h People are dead, Myrnin"

Claire couldn&039;t even say she rong Not about that

Shane cleared his throat "Uh, about Kyle--"

Amelie turned to Oliver "Make the call," she said "Unless you&039;re planning to take o by, then pulled out his cell phone and ordered the prisoner in Founder&039;s Square released

Well, Claire thought At least so to be her

Back ho, the four of the, a little aard, as if none of them knehere to start They were all bruised, cut, and exhausted, for one thing; for another, nobody really wanted to say what they were all thinking Or to bring up Shane&039;s dad at all

Eve, of course, decided to go at it from the opposite direction completely "I can&039;t believe I went hoh Revolting My mom made my room into a hoarder&039;s paradise, you know, full of boxes of crap She ought to be in some freaky reality show The weirdest part about it? I didn&039;t really expect anything else, soured she&039;d pitched outI&039;d never even been there I pretended that often enough" Eve played with her plate of spaghetti, but she wasn&039;t really eating it "I kept asking her wherehe was on his way home" Eve&039;s father, Claire re with her food instead of eating Eve sed a gulp of water "I wonder if o over there if you want," Michael offered "I know you don&039;t like going by yourself"

Eve gave hirateful little smile "You&039;re awesome," she said "Maybe to at all He was eating, though; he&039;d already cleaned one plate of spaghetti and orking on his second one She wanted to talk to hi it up, not in front of the others Shane didn&039;t like to be vulnerable, not even with his friends He knew they&039;d understand, but that wasn&039;t the point He just needed to bestronger than everybody else

Eve said, "At least you&039;ve got an appetite, Shane"

That fell into an aard silence, because Shane didn&039;t co Claire twirled soetting surgery this weekend in Dallas They said he needed sooing to be okay, really okay I&039;o up on Friday"

"You don&039;t have to ask pero The o" His voice sounded flat, and wrong

They all looked at one another, the rest of them "There&039;ll be roadblocks," Michael finally said "It&039;s not that easy"

"Yeah, it never is, is it?" Shane thren his fork, pushed back from the table, and took his stuff into the kitchen Claire went after him, but as soon as she came in the door, he dumped his food in the trash and his plate in the sink and turned to go

"Shane--"