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She wouldn’t feel guilty about that Much "So why not just fight us?"

"I don’t know Maybe they’re planning so for their friend"

She didn’t mean to, but she stiffened What if they succeeded? What would happen if her group lost their only bargaining chip? Nothing good, that was for sure

"Don’t worry," Riley said "They won’t find her They can’t track like wolves can"

Slowly she relaxed There’s nothing more you can do here For once, enjoy yourself Before it’s too late She twisted in his arms, rose on her tiptoes and pressed a kiss onto his lips Soft, sweet…but not enough "Riley…"

He jerked her as close to hi was suddenly labored, sawing in and out of his o so into that puddle of butter as Brittany should have "Let’s"

TWENTY

"--SAID YOU WERE GOING TO be out of it because of the medication, but I’ed Aden out of a long, dark tunnel A bouncy tunnel He blinked open his eyes A moment passed before he oriented hi past, a party taking place outside them

"Aden?" Dan prompted

"What? Sorry"

"You okay?"

"Yeah Sure" He rubbed his teotten in the truck? Last thing he remembered, he’d walked inside Dr Hennessy’s office, the sun di, the air cool After that he’d… He frowned He didn’t reolden

What had they talked about? How much time had passed?

His frown deepened He didn’t remember that, either

Medication, Dan had said Had Dr Hennessy dosed hie? "Hello," Aden whispered under his breath "You guys there?"

Present

Accounted for

Here

No s on him, the souls would be unable to communicate with him He wanted to ask them if they remembered what had happened, but couldn’t Not with Dan here

"Are we just now leaving his office?"

"Yeah You were pretty out of it, so I waited as long as I could before taking off with you, just in case you needed medical attention" There was sy "We’ve got the dinner with the new tutor, and we’re already a little late, so I finally hauled butt out of there"

None of thisin his chair, filled with dread but resolved Then…nothing

"If you need to take tomorrow off from school," Dan said, "I’ll understand"

"No I’ll be fine" He hoped He still had witches to hunt "Did Dr Hennessy say anything else?"

"Only that he was sorry you had such an adverse reaction to your therapy Well, that, and you weren’t taking yourto Dan, and had to do so all too often He wouldn’t do it now, he decided "Yes It’s true"

"Why? Don’t you want to get better?"

Surprisingly, there’d been no anger to the question "I’et better"

Dan scowled at him He was in his thirties, with sandy hair and hazel eyes, and those eyesJust then, the anger Aden had expected dominated them "You still talk to yourself Of course you’re not better You’ll have to do better than that if you want et you off the meds"

Dan would help? Deep dohere every betrayal and rejection he’d ever received festered, unable to heal, Aden simply couldn’t believe it was possible They’d find out the truth soon enough, though "You want to knohy? Fine The pills ht, or at all, really Theybad decisions and bad na at the top of the list"

Several seconds passed in silence, see to stretch into eternity "Well, okay, then We’ll talk to the doctor about putting you on so else"