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Vale and I watched her go withfrowns and crossed arms

"I wonder why Bea is so scared," he finally said

"I’ to find out tomorrow"

He chuckled "Good luck, bébé Even for a hter than a Kraken’s arsehole"

I swatted his arht?"

He patted me, just as Bea had As if I was a child "I’ secrets is what I do best"

I raised my eyebrows at him and stared hard at hisasleep at Paradis was never easy The high of perfor, the dizzy fizz of the absinthe, s about Vale and Lenoir, the secretive whispers and bare feet of the dai I stared at the patterned ceiling of s never coalesced into a co too close to a Monet painting, and I couldn’t step back to see what all the sht, at least, my body was exhausted and sated and deliciously boneless Part of me was utterly shocked at what had happened on the trapeze Most ofaround sex and lust day after day was pretty boring when you weren’t feeling it yourself, but this was different Unlike the men in the audience, Vale liked me for more than my body And yes, I knew I had a crush on him Back in Criminy’s caravan, I’d dreaerous but safe, funny but effective, strong but willing to supportme To think that I’d found all these qualities in an entirely hot ht, I had to hope he felt the same way Surely aabout her?

The fact that he’d willingly ingested ’s ti he was to trade blud for temporary freedo to risk the trade Could Abyssinians even be pushed toward madness by blud? Veruca the sword sas the only other Abyssinian I’d known, and she’dup in Sang, I wished for a laptop and a fast Internet connection It was painful, not being able to access information immediately in a private manner I wanted to know more about Paris, about Paradis, about Lenoir, andwhat a wild brigand’s Facebook page would look like And then I thought about how in another world, there would be fewer places where s s further

I dreae, bell-shaped dress swirling around e of his ar at , I sauntered into the theater to find an enorround

"I kind of thought you guys were joking about this"

Charline tapped her pen against her notebook, which was her polite way of showing annoyance, now that I was a star Just a few hours ago, as I’d drunk my blood and smiled at an innocent and still-sleepy Blaise, they’d delivered eous love child of Mucha and Lautrec, with "La Demitasse" emblazoned across the top on a banner and an overly stylized version of s and, of course, the dreaded cup oniant chandelier, which had been cleverly fashioned to include plenty of places for le, and contort And Charline had already handed me a sheet of paper covered in her tiny, perfect script, outlining exactly what I was expected to do I folded it up and tucked it into o now?"

Her face screwed up, and she went red all over "Of course you cannot go! We have a ne to rehearse! The entire theater is sold out, including the boxes This poster is being pasted on every wall in the city They say princes froibles We’re planning a masked ball You must be perfect"

"I’ me"

She rolled her eyes "Lenoir can wait Now, on the chandelier and into position"

I glared at her and lifted

"If you please, Madeh it pained her