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Pulling his wings in tight, Lucivar carefully circled around the shield until he stood in front of her

The Black Jewel around her neck gloith deadly fire

He shook, not sure if he was afraid for himself or for her He closed his eyes andsick on the spot

Having lived in Terreille nized someone who had been tortured He didn’t think she’d been physically harmed, but there were subtle kinds of abuse that were just as destructive Certainly, her body had paid a terrible price over the past four days The weight she’d put on had been consu with hiht over her face and looked fragile enough to tear Her eyes

He couldn’t stand what he saw in those eyes

She sat there, quietly bleeding to death from a soul wound, and he didn’t kno to help her, didn’t know if there was anything hecould do that would help her

"Cat?" he called softly "Cat?"

He felt her revulsion when she finally looked at hi in those haunted, bottomless eyes

She blinked Sank her teeth into her lower lip hard enough to draw blood Blinked again "Lucivar" Neither a question nor a statement, but an identification painfully drawn up from some deep well inside her "Lucivar" Tears filled her eyes "Lucivar?" A plea for cole to understand hi "Drop the shield Let me in"

The shield dissolved So did she But she was in his aran He settled the nothings, trying to rub warmth into icy liainst her hair "Cat, I think I should take you to your father’s house"

"No!" She pushed at hiet free

Her nails could have opened him to the bone The venom in her snake tooth could have killed hie of the Black Jewels could have blown apart his inner barriers and left hiainst a stronger body That told hiht have done--and also explained why this had happened in the first place Her temper had probably slipped once and the result had scared the shit out of her Now she didn’t trust herself to displayany anger--even in self-defense Well, hecould do soave one ainst hio home

The words spilled out of her "I know I look bad I know That’s why I can’t go home now If Papa saw me, he’d be upset He’d want to knohat happened, and I can’t tell hiry, and he’d have another fight with the Dark Council and they’d just cause , having her father explode in a e over what had been done to her would be all to the good Unfortunately, Jaenelle didn’t share his way of thinking She’d rather endure so that devastated her than cause trouble between her beloved papa and the Dark Council That ht suit her and the Dark Council and her papa, but it didn’t suit hi his voice low "Either you tell me what happened, or I bundle you up and take you to your father right now"

Jaenelle sniffed "You don’t knohere he is"

"Oh, I’h of a fuss, someone will be happy to tell me where to find the Warlord Prince of Dhemlan"

Jaenelle studied his face "You’re a prick, Lucivar"

He sant smile "I told you that the first ti he wouldn’t have to prod her and knowing he would "Which is it going to be, Cat?"

She squirmed He could understand that If someone had cornered him the way he’d cornered her, he’d squirm, too He sensed she wanted physical distance between theured he’d hear so closer to the truth if she re up, she fluffed her hair and signed "When I elve, I was hurt very badly--"

Was that how they had explained the rape to her? Being hurt?

"--and Papa becauardian" She see, and her voice thinned until, even sitting that close, he had to strain to hear her "I woke up--came back to my body--two years later Iwas different when I came back, but Papa helped me rebuild ed my old friends to visit and he u-understood me" Her voice turned bitter "But the Dark Council didn’t think Papa was a suitable guardian and they tried to take me away from him and the rest of the family, so I stopped them and they had to let me stay with Papa"

Stopped them Lucivar turned over the possibilities of how she could have stopped theh