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He moved toward the front staircase Could Surreal still be downstairs?

"Surreal?"

He peered over the banister No sign of light down below

The gong had sounded twice One time would have been for the witchfire she needed to create in order to light the candle The other?

She’d sensed so had sounded Was that for a weapon or a shield?

Should have shielded when they first realized soer they were facing--and had underesti their backs Should have been the safer position, since they’d already checked the kitchen

Should have been

What had changed in thatup the stairs and Surreal’s following her?

The last girl

Rainier turned toward the opening leading to the back hall Seven children had come up the stairs with hiirl The last one to come up the stairs She wasn’t one of the children who had coht," he whispered

He rushed to the back hallway and stopped at the opening when he saw four children clustered around a closed door that Kester was trying to force open by sla of trouble The girls had theirThe front hallasn’t that big He should have heard Kester trying to break down the door

As soon as he crossed the threshold, he heard the screams

Hell’s fire

"Get back!" Rainier shouted He keptmomentum with every stride Kester saw him at the last moment and dove out of the way as Rainier turned the last stride into a leap and kick

The door crashed open, revealing a roos…but not eht of the burns and scars on the stranger’s young body An illusion spell must have hidden those injuries, just as it had hidden her ripped, dirty clothes He felt sickened by what he saw--and even er wore openwork auntlets, a kind of lethal jewelry witches soers ended in razor-sharp talons The ones on the girl’s hands dripped with blood

Her mouth was smeared with blood It ran down her chin like juice at some kind of primal feast

She wascildru dyathe now A deer lay on her back on the dirty wood floor, her neck, chest, and arms ripped to shreds by the talons

No sound fro to her feet and ran toward the back of the roo after her

She fu the old wallpaper as she searched for so but a Warlord Prince on a battlefield and she was nothing but an ene the poker at her back, it carried all his strength and fury in the blow

He heard bone break

She fell, no longer able to use her legs Sufficiently Blood to becomecildru dyathe , she didn’t have the skill in Craft to use what power she had in order to get up

He stood over her, looking at wounds that indicated torture Looking at the irl’s eyes

"I’m sorry," he said

"You’re just like him," she said, her voice harshened by her hatred "You’re just like hihed "I’ll tell you once you’re dead I’ll hook my pretty claws into your chest, and you’ll have to carry s since you took mine Hook my pretty claws into your eyes too Just for fun"

Was that irl had been?

He took a step back Took another Then he turned and walked back to Ginger

So irl Too h h he could do for her with the basic skills he had to make a difference

Her eyes stared at him but didn’t see him

Did landens have some place like Hell? They didn’t becoone But did their spirits have a place where they spent soone?

He didn’t know, had never asked And right now, he really didn’t want to know

"Her name was Anax," Kester said "She lived at the orphans’ hoo"