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He squeezed his eyes shut and forced hiht and his heart pounded at the memories He took another deep breath and continued "As for Helena and what happened that night, because of her telepathic abilities and because there had been a lull in the battle, ere talking back and forth within our minds It onderful She and the children had just come back fro onsure our kids learned those kinds of skills early Kerr and Christine always complained, of course, but at nine and seven those two kne to care for any of the horses we had on the property and how to keep the wagons and carriages in good shape even if they couldn’t yet do the work themselves
"God, I was proud of them, all of theht descended on his chest and his throat grew tight, thehard now "So, she was inme about some fabric she had just purchased, a recent import from Mortal France, a very fine silk, when the communication was suddenly disrupted" He reh it were yesterday "I was standing and before I knehat had happened I was sitting,out of my eyes for no apparent reason … except I knew, I knew they were gone, all of theunpowder to blow a hole through ato chance In addition to my family, two of the servants died as well They’d been in the stable helping out, as they always did"
He felt Alison release a deep breath "Was the Coed with the crime?"
"There was no proof of his complicity but he offered up a pair of death vaed on the fliuilty? Who knows I will always lay the crime at the Commander’s feet He was the one with the motivation"
He took a breath in, shoved one out He ached into the pit of his stomach This hy he didn’t like to talk about what happened The memories were as fresh as yesterday The pain as real
"So you believe he killed your faitimate tactic of war"
She turned toward him and looked into his eyes She kissed him She kissed hi into his hair She kissed his lips, again and again, pushing at hi around his neck, her body lush, warainst his
He drew back and looked into her eyes oncehis she neither spoke aloud nor into his s ain, those insistent pushing kisses, working his ainst his She was here, she was now, she was alive, all for him, to comfort him, to listen to his pain, to hear it, to feel it, to accept all that he was, even his profound failure
He rolled her onto her back, hard once more, ready for her When he drove into her, he looked into her eyes and never stopped looking; nor did she shift her gaze away from him even for one passion-drenched moment Instead the frenzy became about the now of his life and the now of her life, her ascension that wouldto him, that would herald a new, shared future, God help them both
When her cliainst his abdomen, blue eyes still locked to his, he spent himself in a wicked blur ofthen finally said as in his heart as well: "Tonight, at ins I’ll be free of the Co me anymore"
He nodded
"Yes," he whispered, but he kissed her hard and ignored the desperate feeling of the in a new life or was this just one big massive lie?
Alison stood in the middle of the marble floor beneath the enormous central rotunda of Endelle’s palace with Havily just off to her left side and behind her a foot She was almost home free She could feel it Once she completed the ascension cereht to continue his attack on her According to everything she understood about ascending, he would turn his efforts in another direction, perhaps to another ascension-in-progress, who knew?
What she didn’t understand and what ht nohy Greaves hadn’t attempted another attack She didn’t knohat to make of it, a circumstance that caused her to look over her shoulder more than once, and the fresh air from the open walls did little to calm her nerves
Despite her concerns, however, this was thefor, the completion of her process of ascension, the point at which she would become … an ascender … a vampire … an immortal
She weaved on her feet She ordered her mind, or tried to
Endelle stood in front of her, nearly ten feet away She wore a formal black robe, which just barely touched the top straps of her stilettos She held out her right hand and a book appeared She grier on a paragraph, and started reading
The words spoke of the beauty of the dimensional worlds, the exalted nature of ascension, of the co, and of the depth of responsibility each ascender bore to the future of Second Earth Service was hailed as the greatest privilege and chief duty of every resident of Second Alison tried to take in as being said, but Endelle’s frequent sighs and rather bored voice douardian position behind Alison and just to her right, his entle touch against her thoughts
The Warriors of the Blood were stationed behind both Kerrick and Havily, in foralia--minus the heavy brass breastplates--all seven warriors, including Marcus Warrior Marcus’s acceptance a the warriors had apparently increased with each successive night of battling
She could feel the heat of so e male bodies behind her But they shifted on their feet, cleared throats, and released breaths The Commander had been quiet since the Tolleson arena battle, which made all of the for the other shoe to drop, only it wouldn’t be a shoe, it would be a sword, a lot of swords