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She thought he loved Rose? She had ht he had ?

The packto do with someone who puts it last I don’t want a mate like you Not ever

He had said those aords to her in the motel room before they rescued Jaeden Could she really have believed he had meant them?

Yes

Shit

Marita – 1, Lucien – 0

She couldn’t breathe The pain was that bad She couldn’t cry The heat of her anger had dried them all up

Lucien loved Rose

A brittle disquiet had captured her body as she sat perched on the side of her bed She could feel herself shutting down, her walls shooting up, locking her soul in and the world out A deep retreat was in progress and she shivered, feeling the icy blockade settle around her

In thatthe roo poison from a snake bite Half-heartedly she turned to the lamp that sat on her bedside table and lifted it sloith herinto the fireplace and took a momentary satisfaction in the way its destruction caused the flaer in the way she wanted to But there would be no white heat from this pain, no involuntary destruction of property This was a kind of suffering she wanted to hide froan to fall

So it had happened She had fallen in love with Lucien Maybe she had always been in love with him How could she love him when he didn’t love her back? How could he stand to be around her when she was the reason he couldn’t have children with the beautiful red-head?

It felt like she sat there for hours, broken porcelain badly glued together She could either fall deeper inside herself to escape the thought of Lucien with Rose, or she could fall deeper into a problee wavered in her one to Lucien to finally confide in hiet Laila out, to tell hi the Center, that she was no longer fighting for Marita The beginnings of a plan were for in her mind - it wasn’t much, but so far it was all she had It was all Laila had It was all the next generation had if she was going to be able to enforce the beginning of the end of a ht at the sound of Mordecai on the other side of her door, and ju her wrist to replace the lalareeted hiarded her with an odd little sht?"

"Of course"

"Marita said you visited the Midnight"

Caia’s srinned back at her "I wondered what had happened in the lecture hall I keep forgetting you’re the true Head of the Midnights"

"I’ve been hearing that a lot"

"Well, I just ca today"

Caia nodded and listened patiently as he explained the strategies that had been utilized in the woodland simulator

"I’ve never worked with Anders before but he’s an extre soe of the taskforce but Phoebe has other ideas I don’t think her and Anders like each other very much"

"Sounds like I row quiet

Eventually…"Caia?"

She frowned This was the first tiik looked uncomfortable and unsure "Yeah?"

"The siht, there was soy picked up around a certain oak?"

She flushed Oh dear How to explain that one?

"I uh"

"Was it you?"

There was nothing to do but be honest And she knew she could trust Mordecai

"Yes I’ry And killed it I replaced it, though" She threw hirinned back at her "Yes, you did"

Caia watched as he took his glasses off to rub a se from the lens "Was it deliberate?"

"No"

"Cy, I knohat you did to Ethan"