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Cinder shook his head in the first natural ies, Justin, but I was only able to overhear one of their conversations Although I desired to learn ninja stealth techniques froirlfriend still had trouble trusting the goleain, she was a Te people in the world "Tell us everything you heard," I said

Cinder began to recite what he’d heard "Ivy said, ’Why is it here, Bigdaddy?’ Jeremiah replied, ’Because it was a safe place to put it’ Ivy then replied, ’If we fix the Alabaster Arch, will you take me to the zoo? Please? You promised after Maximus you would’ Jeremiah then said, ’But that didn’t work out so well, did it sugar?’ Ivy replied, ’It wasn’tbrother’s fault’" Cinder halted his recitation

"Don’t take up an acting career anytime soon," Shelton with an amused expression

I raised an eyebrow at him then turned to Cinder "Is that it?"

He nodded "At that point, they left the building and headed for the transport to the Queens Gate arch station I determined it too risky to follow them"

"Why don’t we just take Ivy to the daet her on our side"

"Your sister thinks you’re evil?" Lina said, horror in her eyes "What have your grandparents been saying about you?"

That was a can of wor, but I told her in brief how Ivy had attempted to kill all the vampires at Maxied to tweak the spell so it simply removed their vampirism instead

"Hoerful are you?" she asked, brown eyes wide "Hoerful is your sister?"

"I suck at ht now," I said "I came here to learn Looks like soood idea"

"Oh, it’s a lot deeper than that," Shelton said, his eyes gloith the kind of fervor he usually reserved for his arcane detective work "Think about it They want to activate the special arch in Thunder Rock, but guess what? It’s not working because so piece is here somewhere Then they see you here, assulesworth to kill you"

"Back up a otten those s to the operator at the Grotto That one to Thunder Rock So hoould they know there’s so from the special arch there?"

"Maybe Daelissa visited Thunder Rock and found out it wasn’t working" Shelton shrugged "I mean, hell, remember when your mom saved you from Jeremiah? Remeels can do that kind of stuff all day long"

That was so I hadn’t even considered "Pretend I’ with this"

He snorted "Not hard to do that"

"Hey, now!"

He held up his hands "I kid I kid" He reht for a h about this Alabaster Arch We don’t know if there’s just the one in Thunder Rock, or more of them scattered around the world"

"Well, we could ask Arcanes at other Obsidian Arch way stations whether their control roo our Darkwater credentials are only gonna last so long, especially if we start asking sensitive questions"

"They are very secretive about those arch stations," Lina said "One of the operators nearly tookone"

"He nearly took your head off," Shelton said with a s response to such a question" Cinder regarded Lina "It is good you escaped without

I wrenched the topic back on course "Shelton, do you know anyone who could ask about the control roohtened "Yeah, unfortunately" He looked at the floor "My father"

Chapter 13

"Your dad?" I asked "There’s no other way?" I wasn’t looking forward to another Shelton family reunion, or whatever his real last name was--a question best kept for another time

"Oh, I’m sure there are plenty of other ways But none would be faster thanPops about the four-one-one on the control rooms" Shelton absentht even know off the top of his head"

"How much do you know about this Alabaster Arch?" Lina asked, looking at me

I told her the little I knew about the one I’d seen in Thunder Rock Anotheruseful bubbled to the top "You know, I actually activated that arch while I was there"