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She lifted the heavy fall of her hair and shoved the ruler down the back of her shirt She closed her eyes, and as she reached the upperave a little cry It felt so good

She rubbed the end of the ruler back and forth over the swollen tissue She couldn’t describe the relief she felt but her eyes rolled back in her head She er reach them from an upper stroke She dropped the cashmere to the bed and pulled the blouse from the skirt

She tilted the ruler and shoved it up under the he-locks She performed the same ritual and winced and uttered little s but it was not fun The itching had gotten so bad that teeks ago she’d seen one of the doctors who had tended her in the hospital fiveher questions about the wing-locks: When had they appeared, did she ever experience any burning sensations, had she tried s … all the usual

The problem was, he’d been concerned because by all appearances she should have been able to s weeks earlier, h her forh Administrator of Second Earth

Now her back et Of course She removed her shirt and went into the bathroom to dry off with a towel She returned to her closet and put on a new blouse similar in style and color

As she tucked the shirt in, she wondered if Jean-Pierre would like this conservative look on her or if he preferred a looser style She shouldn’t care, but she did She had a very strong affection for the warrior, which didn’t help the situation at all

An odd little vibration , because she had been thinking of Jean-Pierre, now she could feel hi He was in Prescott, scoping the outdoor chapel where the christening would be held She felt as though she stood right next to hih she could be inside him, inside his mind and his body, which ht she could complete this process, be in his mind despite the fact that he was a powerful ascender and his shields nearly impenetrable Yet she would have no difficulty, not even a little, pressing her h he had no shields at all!

But then froo, her priift was her telepathy She had abilities that far surpassed most ascenders’

Of course she would never intrude in Jean-Pierre’s mind, or anyone else’s, without their per him, he would have welcomed the invasion

She shook her head back and forth What did this freakish sensationpreternatural powers, which in turnGreaves’s radar, the last place any ascender wanted to be

Great This meant she needed Jean-Pierre more than ever and she didn’t want to need him, or anyone for that matter She wanted a nore of her own hoe in work she enjoyed, and perhaps one day to fall in love in a normal way

She really had come to despise the breh-hedden

As she -locks eased for the ht blue cash left to do On the table beside the iven to her on their eleventh wedding anniversary She had kept it with her all through her years as a blood slave in Burma and even in Toulouse until Rith had ed,left behind

Yet somehow, miraculously, Jean-Pierre had discovered the locket behind an antique armoire in Toulouse when the warriors had stormed the facility Later, he had returned it to her, at the palace, the saht as the rescue

Yes, a small miracle

The locket had helped keep her sanity all those decades She fingered the chain now, running it over and over her fingers

Colonel Seriffe was her protector in the off-hours when Jean-Pierre wasn’t pinned to her side Seriffe had several squads of Militia Warriors constantly patrolling his property even though Endelle had covered the house in a dome of mist--that extraordinary cloak, invisible to e buildings seem not to exist

"Mother, may I come in?"

Carolyn’s voice still had the power to undo her and tears rushed to her eyes She was back in Boston in 1886, Carolyn was a girl of ten, and she was coht brown curls Another miracle that Carolyn had actually ascended, then eventually hter’s voice pushed her heart around in her chest and she smiled How she loved her

She blinked back the usual tears and strove to calm herself These past few months had been hard on Carolyn as well She’d had to adjust to aabout her rescue froain, she called out, "I’m decent, sweetheart Coold locket between the lapels of the shirt, she watched the door open behind her, and a ed She remembered the child’s face with the same shy smile Carolyn’s hair was still honey-and-brown in color, with streaks of blond, not so different from Jean-Pierre Of course, the color now came fro mother of three, even if she was 115

Ah, Second Earth Ti here Carolyn could be her sister

She moved to stand behind Fiona They were tall women, the Gaines women

"The cashmere is beautiful," Carolyn said, "and you should alear this icy shade of blue It’s a lovely contrast for your chestnut hair and the silver-blue of your eyes I think Jean-Pierre will like it"

She aze in the ?" But she laughed