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She cocked her head and looked up at hi him, and Ty knew she’d likely see what most couldn’t She should still have been a full E the best of them But her mark showed the taint that she had taken upon herself out of love, ill-advised as love could be Her sisters had cast her out, as was the custom
And Anura, as obstinate as she was beautiful, kept herher collarbone like elegant scrollwork--proudly bared even now, long after the one who’d one And wrapped around the base of the torch was a large, sharp-clawed paw
He reiven it to her But the Rakshasa had been hunted to ground long ago, and Rai’s blood had been shed withthat if she caught any hint of his pity, Anura would toss hiuess you could say It’s taken ht to finish"
Her eyes darkened until they seemed almost black "This is about the attacks"
This time he couldn’t hide his surprise
Anura nodded, her expression grim "Yeah, word has leaked out, Ty A little here, a little there, but you don’t have a Gypsy curse rip up that ood da less--but she needs to rein in her thugs until she’s got some proof about who’s to blame There are way tooup their asses about the Dracul would be a serious understatement You and I both know that relations between those two dynasties are just a tinderbox waiting to go up, and it seeht the otten so bad," Ty said, and was sorry he hadn’t
"Well, that’s obvious," Anura replied
He wondered whether she’d throw him out anyway, but instead she quirked hilected, trumped her worry over his presence For now
ItAnura had always been generous to the castoffs It occurred to him all at once that he had never really repaid her kindness
"So what brings you here, Ty? And don’t feed me a line You may be a cat, but everyone knows you’re the queen’s man these days"
It rankled, the casual co froed to Arsinöe He’d always mentally separated what he did from who he was But it seemed he’d missed the fact that no one else had It caht have i had it been since he’d even come around here? Ten years? Twenty? And even then, Ty realized, he’d been neck-deep in court business
"I ca the defensiveness in his own voice Reflection was not so he cared for
Anura’s eyebrows lifted in surprise "Advice? Well That is flattering Of course, I’ll tell you what I think, Ty As for the infors had, indeed, been rough lately, "that depends on the subject If you ca around for Jaden, I’ll just tell you what I told the others I don’t knohere he is"
Jaden The pieces fell into place, and suddenly he understood "They ca about when you cao, of all places? He’s the last person ould go hide in a herd of Dracul"
Anura frowned, looking puzzled "Where have you been, Ty? This is one of a dozen Dracul strongholds where Ptole their presence known, starting trouble We had a dao that started as a shovinghis own business and a bunch of Ptole his bloodline, calling the dynasty illegitio into what they said about the Dracul himself Stuff that Arsinöe would never have allowed in the past, no hbloods have said that and worse about the Dracul, but still, this is their city" She wrapped her ar "My city Andto fear the worst"
She ainst another, until one iped frohadn’t happened in Ty’s lifetime, but he’d heard whispers that it had been far more common in ancient times--that the very first dynasty, in fact, had fallen that way
He didn’t relish the prospect But he also understood that sometimes it was kill or be killed
"If the Dracul are responsible for the mass murders of Ptolemy, Anura, they deserve to vanish," Ty said "You don’t know the whole of it" He hesitated, then decided he owed her a bit of the truth "Soone and set a Mulo on them Whole initiations have been wiped out, the bodies dis killed any ups the ante"