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"Are you hurt?" He held his hand out to brush her hair away from her face, but jerked it back when she flinched at his touch

Fine Her response pissed him off royally, to quote his roommate, even if he understood why she felt that way The sooner he got her topside the better "Come"

Sasha shrank away fronored how much her reaction hurt He’d always known she’d hate hiht nohat I am is your way out of here"

She retreated another step "But where are we going? The elevators are back that way"

He snagged her arlared down at her "So is the fighting, Sasha Too , so you’ll understand if I’d rather not kill any more of my people Now, follow o of her, hating the fear in her eyes when she looked at hi it there Then he walked away, stopping long enough to retrieve his blade before ood sense to stay with him If not, he’d force the issue, but he hoped she’d at least trust hiet her to safety

• • •

Sasha stared at the four broken bodies fallen on the ground So much blood Its bitter copper scent filled her head and overloaded her senses Her sto the back of her throat God, would this nightmare never end? It had been hours since she’d last eaten, so it was nothing but dry heaves as she leaned against the wall and retched

Please, let it stop She needed to follow Larem even if he was one of theht of hiht there in the bloody passageway She tried to straighten up between heaves, but that onlyforward a few steps, she had to stop and close her eyes to ward off the dizziness

As she did, she felt someone beside her and panicked "No, please no! Get away!"

"Sasha, caled in relief at the sound of Lare, he hadn’t abandoned her

"Hold still and don’t fight me"

His accent was deeper than usual, but his voice was far entle than it had been only seconds before His hand, cool and soothing, rested lightly on her forehead, and his arht

HeThe words were unclear, perhaps in his native tongue, but their effect was miraculous The nausea disappeared al When he reray eyes

"Better?"

She nodded "Much"

The chill caaze as he stepped away and retrieved his sword "Now, let’s get out of here"

She glanced back toward the other end of the passage, careful to avoid looking at the bodies along the way, and then followed Lareh that she almost had to run to keep up with him

She had soto function again--but she suspected she wouldn’t like his answers Like, why had he let her think he was hu the Paladins, but no one had even hinted that they had the run of the place Was he even supposed to be down here?

Noasn’t the time to worry about it, not when her life depended on him Her eyes strayed to the bloody blade he’d wielded with such skill and terrible grace Would she ever get over the horror of seeing four lives ended right in front of her? Or the knowledge that she’d coht have happened didn’t ht now

Larem came to an abrupt halt "Quiet now We don’t want to draw attention to ourselves Wait until I make sure the way is clear"

Sasha froze, her ears ringing with her ragged breath and pounding heart Gradually, other sounds began toScrearessed a few feet, holding his sword out to the side as if expecting to be attacked

Finally, he motioned her forward "Don’t look"

But of course she did

The ground was littered with bodies She watched as a line of Paladins fored band of Others to retreat back across the barrier Men in guard unifor the dead and wounded Paladins back out of the way, leaving the Others where they’d fallen

Lareet the hell out of here Those guards iven half a chance I do not want to die because of your stupidity"

Okay, enough was enough "It wasn’tme to meet him down here"