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"The girl that tried to save the Shape -Shifter?" Princess Bianca asked in a delicate English accent She had long golden blonde hair, the sa waves down her back, a littleher porcelain skin and perfect bone structure She had the deep blue eyes that Lucan had and was his perfect mirror in female form She seemed to be older than Lucan, the creases in her smile more pronounced and the corners of her eyes turned up in the se did not diance

"Yes, that's right," the , but I heard you caused quite the uproar," Bianca addressedas Lucan's, when holding my full attention

"Well, I, um, she was my friend," I tore my eyes away from the Princesses and turned the in the middle of the table

"Your friend?" scoffed Victor the minister "That is blasphemy child"

"You'll have to excuse Eden," Lucan spoke up, clearly ae in subjects "She was abandoned as a child and a hu all of the different customs of our people," his s n Affair's wife Thora

"I've asked the sa h, Amory should be the one to tell the story After all, he is the one who found the poor thing, causing quite the trouble in the human world as well Or so I'm told"

The attention of the tablewith the melodic, deep tone of his voice and I exhaled Ah thefor us

"Kiran," Lucan turned to his son, with a quiet voice "See if you can track down Talbott and find out what's keeping Sebastian"

Kiran nodded to his father and stood up without acknowledging me or the rest of the table I suddenly felt very exposed without Kiran blocking Lucan's direct view ofhim to take me home

"You are like the wind" Lucan said quietly and I half turned to hi to The rest of the table stayed engrossed in Aic and the schools I closed down before Kingsley came intothrough dom in a melee of destruction, aren't you?"

I snapped my head up when he used my name and sat speechless His eyes remained amused and the wicked smile still turned his mouth up I did not knohether to drop down to iveness or pretend like I still had no idea what he was talking about

I shookwhat to say or how to respond Lucan's eyes grew more serious, but the mysterious smile did not leave his lips He turnedhis amusement for only a second

"The wind, Eden," His voice was quieter still and I leaned in just slightly to le word "It can be a deadly force, can it not?" I shook entle breeze, the refreshing puff of air; one et the baleful power it's capable of Isn't that you? So innocent, so naive? And yet you are a tornado of destruction, uprooting thousands of years of tradition with just your sinorant interruptions"

My mouth dropped open; I didn't knohat to say, or how to react Myto wrap my head around the accusation I had no excuse or speech planned to walk out of this trap I searched for Kiran froht, so I scanned my consciousness for Avalon but he too was involved and unreachable

"I' deep for courage "It was never ive me if I've ever acted" I whispered frantically, the fierce regret coenuine

Lucan held up one hand and silenced me immediately "Relax child You have won the favor ofwill have to be done, of course This will simply not do" He looked ust I didn't knohat to make of it

"And so here we are," Lucan turned his attention back to his guests withouta beat "I could hardly have treated her with the full letter of the law after finding out her unfortunate circuuests nodded solemnly as if I truly were the poor orphan "Thankfully for us, Eden is very talentedto be afraid of She won't be burning down Kingsley any tiets in the way She has that stubborn Auests laughed politely at Lucan, eying ain for Kiran, not even able to i him

"So then, you have befriended a Shape-Shifter?" Thora askedher tone

"Well, yes I mean, I didn't know she was a Shape-Shifter when I befriended her," I started and then rushed on, frustrated with how I fumbled my explanation "I mean, I airl She's probably my-"