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She alelings?"

"Why wouldn’t there be?" He refilled her cup "They’re rare, but they exist"

"You think a bunch of snakes created those caves?" She shivered, recalling all those ti snakes, Talin" A reprimand "No more or less ani about five years old But this was Clay, so she aderous, beautiful Snakes are creepy"

"I think the snake changelings would disagree" He leaned back in his chair, a predator at ease in his territory

She felt his foot touch the rung of her chair, knew it to be a possessive act But she was having too much fun to call him on it "Are they as human?" She scrunched up her nose at his scowl "You knohat I race What do they take fro "Calling raceful, Tally?"

"I’ll call you vain in a raceful, lethally so

Both his feet touched her chair now "Snakes are veryother They tend to scare people on a visceral level, even when in hureed, thinking of how the world judged her children

"A long tio, I saw one after she shifted She had black-diamond scales that shimmered like an oil slick does in the rain - full of rainbows"

The ily beautiful "If they were there, under the fars - rate elsewhere" He shrugged "Now, tell me about the dead children"

That quickly, their little interlude was over Nosnakes and the quaint beauty of corn-far of her chair Taking strength fro "I left the Larkspurs at age sixteen to enroll in a scholarship prograht once given a chance, so h school two years ahead of schedule

Clay sat with such feline stillness, she couldn’t even see hiave the Larkspurs a shot, did you?"

"No" The simplest and most painful of truths "The scholarship was one provided by the Shine Foundation" She looked up to see if he recognized the name

"Human backed," he said "Financed by donations from a number of wealthy philanthropists"

"Its aied children who ht never otherwise have a chance to shine That’s what the brochure says and I guess they really follow it All the kids I look after are disadvantaged in some way"

"What did you study?"

She folded her arms "Child psych and social work"

"You hated the social workers"

"Ironic, huh?" She ht be able to do a better job But I never got into the systeraduated at twenty-one, and was offered a position in the foundation’s street prograet to the point, and for that, she was grateful She had to approach the horror obliquely, wasn’t sure she could survive full-frontal exposure "We help get kids off the street and into school or training Devraj - the director - makes sure there’s no corruption, no favoritism"

"Sounds very worthy" Open cynicism

Her hackles rose "It is! The foundation does so ht to roup"

"Tough crowd"

"Tellhand she offered "I get all sorts Runaways, nice but poor kids, gang members ant out"

"What’s your success rate?"

"About seventy percent" The other thirty, the lost ones, they broke her heart, but she kept going She couldn’t afford not to or the ones she could help would suffer