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The fae shook her head and opened a drawer in a bird’s-eyesilver scissors Setting the package on the desktop, she cut the string and opened it

And the alien thing Anna had glimpsed earlier was back in full measure Dana didn’t move, didn’t sofilled the space they were in Every muscle, every hair on Anna’s body warned her to run

She looked at Charles His attention was on the fae, but he wasn’t alarmed Did he not feel it? Or was he so confident that Dana’s threat was soain hers She waited to see what had caused such a strong reaction

Even before Dana had opened the package, it’d been obvious that a painting was inside It wasn’t large Ten inches by twelve, maybe, framed in oak a couple of shades darker than the desk’s maple, a waterscape of some sort

"Da said to tell you it hat he reotten soht not"

"I didn’t know the Marrok painted" Dana’s voice was deeper soe Her hands tre The fae’s power that Anna had felt so strongly just a few one as if it had never been

"He doesn’t" Charles shook his head "But we have an artist in our pack, and he has a gift for painting other people’s words-and ood ords"

"I didn’t know your father was ever there" The fae sounded lost

Charles shrugged "You kno Da is No one notices hioes everywhere"

Dana lifted her head, and her eyes were puffy, her nose red, though no tears fell down her cheeks She looked very human "How did he know?"

Charles lifted both of his hands "Who kno ht it would please you"

She looked at it again, and Anna couldn’t tell if she was pleased or not-overcoone Destroyed by o The site it occupied is a city street that bears the name of a hundred other streets in a hundred other cities I thought allthe way Anna touched Charles: lightly, cautious of pain but unable to resist the draw of it

She tipped it so they both could see it better The side of a lake, Anna thought A deep lake to catch the color of the sky and darken the blue to a near black The artas plainer than the painting Dana had been working on, and the canvas much smaller But in simple brushstrokes, the artist had captured an unworldly quality that n place A place that held no welcolimpsed in Dana’s eyes

"Tell your father," Dana said, returning her attention to the painting, "that I will see if I can return a gift of equal value to hiies if I don’t"

"WELL," said Anna, once they were safely on their way

"That was unsettling"

"You didn’t like her?"