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Another knife appeared in her hand but he knocked it aside and continued to squeeze her cheeks in an atteet her to open her mouth Melanie was closest, and with speed that only Bryce could have matched, she stabbed Tristan with her own blade He dropped Juliette and reappeared near the rest of his group a few yards away
"That stings," he corabbed the knife with one hand and yanked it out of his back She looked at it for a roup It sailed through the air and for a ed to snatch it out of the air inches froht back
The Dark Ones launched therowls that echoed off of the tombstones and trees
"No! She is mine!" Tristan roared at the woman who had thrown the knife In a moment of clarity, Ree watched as the boy that had once been her brother grabbed the woely With a massive yank Tristan removed her head from her shoulders Then there was notwo Dark Ones while the rest did their best to keep any fro Ree Paden moved his hands faster than she could keep up with, only the flash of his silver dagger announced where he had struck out
Just as she thought she could be helping, a whistling sound filled her ears and she realized as happening just before she hit the ground several feet away Blinding pain stabbed through Ree’s body as her head hit a to filled her ears She scuttled up to the monu back to her knees Soround The led to get away fro herself along the ground, she brushed desperately at the blood dripping into her eyes Her fingers touched so to creep into her vision and she had to blink several ti face doith blood covering his face, head and neck Gasping in fear, she fought to control her breathing so she didn’t pass out, and crawled toward his neck so she could check for his pulse For a moment she couldn’t find it and her heart split, but then the soft beating ers She pulled hiash flayed his neck open where one of the Dark Ones had bitten hi Carefully, she tried to pinch the wound shut and apply pressure to slow the bleeding With horror she realized he had been the one that had pushed her out of the way He had saved her fro Ree for just a moment and she tried to pull Weylin with her further away frohtness, but she couldn’t see what had caused that bright light
"Ree! Where are you?" Roland and Sophie had finally shown up "Dae she could hear over the sounds of battle
She wanted to let hi to spin She touched her forehead and realized there was a great deal of blood running down her face "Here," she whispered and hoped they would hear She tried reaching for the power, but she couldn’t find it Maybe if she put a shield around her and Weylin the others would be able to stop worrying about her and take care of they to do anything; she couldn’t even touch the energy in the plant life around her
The to behind cruh the rubble, she found Paden locked in coery her brother was capable of, and Paden was obviously losing There was blood flowing down one of his ar The pain and frustration Paden was feeling had been transfore, but Tristan was so fast Paden could barely keep up As she watched she realized that draining Claire had given Tristan a definite edge Her untapped poas aiding his abilities He sent Paden sprawling with a roundhouse kick and laughed as his longtime friend spit dirt out of his ht Roland was fast and had a very different fighting style, all kicks and punches At first Tristan seeainst hian to bait Roland with snide jokes and insults Roland never responded, instead he dragged the tip of a sword across Tristan’s face, barely er seemed tooff both Roland and Paden
With Roland in the fray, they were able to ress and push Tristan farther fro Sophie was somewhere Ree couldn’t see, but she felt a fuzzy sense of the power the Guardian was using A constant war radiated from the Im to spear a Dark One
A bright light lit the area again, and Ree blinked her eyes in pain Ducking her head made her vision blur and her stomach heaved She leaned away from Weylin’s limp form, and her stomach lost all of the food she had eaten earlier Eventually there was nothing left and dry heaves racked her body until tears ran down her cheeks Weylinon his wounds She tried to spit the terrible taste out of her mouth
"Ree?" Paden’s voice was very close to her and warm hands traveled over her head and shoulders "Are you okay, Ree?"
"I’m okay, but Weylin needs help" Her voice was dull, and she could barely raise it over a whisper
"Hurry, Paden," Roland hollered
"We have to go, Ree Hold on," Paden said Someone took Weylin out of her lap and Paden lifted her into his arainst his chest "Please don’t leave me, Ree Please don’t"
Just before she blacked out she felt his lips on her forehead while he , Ree rolled over on the bed and touched her head There was a very gentle light co from the corner and once her eyes adjusted she could justa book on her lap
"Don’t make any quick moves Paden healed your head, but we still don’t know the extent of his ability and youthe book, she leaned back in her chair and looked at Ree with sad eyes "I’m so sorry I wasn’t there to help your friend"
Tears poured out of Ree’s eyes as she reround, surrounded by those hter and covered in her friend’s blood, seemed to be printed on the back of her eyelids Tristan, her dead brother, was the Dark One she would have to fight and kill Her heart just couldn’t understand it Part of her had been thrilled to see her brother standing there, but then the horror of what he had just done tore through her like hot steel How could she look at her parents knowing Tristan alking the streets of Savannah every night, hunting people as if they were animals? For that matter, how could she look at her friends, or Paden’s fairl so full of life and love she lit up any room she occupied
Her hands twisted in the blanket as she stared at the ceiling, tears dripping down her face She wasn’t in her room on the island and the need to knohere she was helped her gain control of her emotions She wiped her nose on the sleeve of her shirt and dried her face with the edge of the sheet
"Where are we?" Her voice broke on the last word, rough fro back
"Above the shop There is a two-bedrooencies" Sophie made no move to come closer to Ree, so she sat up slowly and turned to face the Guardian
"You knew" Ree’s voice was oddly calm as she made the accusation and was rewarded when the other wo to have to fight"
"I suspected as er in her chest started to well up and out
"You suspected my brother had been turned into a Dark One, the Dark One, the one that would be pitted against me in mortal battle, but you didn’t think you should tellto tell ht?" She stood up, anger filling each word until she was shouting Sophie sat there calmly with her hands folded over the book in her lap and offered no response With no outlet for all of the rage running through her, Ree grabbed the lamp off of the table next to the bed and threw it across the roolass of the Tiffany la, she picked up the little table and it, too, hit the opposite wall
"Everything okay in there?" Paden tapped on the door