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"Weren’t you the one who told me to rely on no one, to trust no one, but h Lily could see that Ty’s words had affected him On his pale cheeks there was a faint pink bloolanced away, and his voice dropped so that she could barely hear

"In truth, brother, it was safer for you not to see h You always have I worried you would risk s It would be better if you hadn’t cohed "As ree But what’s done is done"

"So… this is your brother?" Lily asked, glad for Ty that he at least had family that had followed hi, anything, to distract him from whatever emotions had put such an expression on his face Her effort didn’t amount to much, but he did, at least, answer her

"Jaden iseyes away from the other two "He’s of the Cait Sith, like I aether for the Ptole in just that one sentence

"Not anyh

"No, not any "What the hell are you doing here, Jaden? You knohat they’ll do to you if they find you What’s happened?"

"That will have to wait," Anura said tersely "You three need to get out of here Now The entire damned stockrooht up to code because it isn’t even supposed to be here Thisto smoke one or both of you out Take my stairs Jaden, you take Ty and Lily to the apartment I’ll meet you when it’s safe for hts You can’t be seen leaving here And I can’t be seen leaving with you" She glanced at Lily, and it seeered in Anura’s eyes "There is more at stake than you know"

Jaden looked sharply at Anura "Are you sure you’ll be all right?"

Anura sot a backup plan or three I’llfirst at Ty, then at Lily It was the strangest sensation, looking into Anura’s dark eyes Lily felt the rooazes connected, and the smell of smoke seeht-bloo of flute and pipe, and a vision flashed before her eyes of white-robed wo, hand in hand, in a circle beneath a full summer ing on the

"Anura! Are you in there? Anura, we need to get out of here We can’t save it!"

Lily recognized the voice of the bouncer who’d given Ty a tough time at the door She sucked in an acrid breath and ily unaffected, looked at her worriedly, and Anura strode to open a door on the opposite wall Beyond it were stairs leading up

"Go!" she commanded "As you can see, I’m not without protection Not that I need it, but it’s nice just the saave a quick nod, then headed in Ty put Lily in front of hied her forward She went, but paused at the threshold where Anura stood waiting for theainst the door intensified

Without understanding why she did it, Lily reached out and clasped Anura’s forearm Instantly, she felt the warmth of the connection, the truth of the bond She just didn’t knohat it aze ar to say so stolen The disappoint

Anura, who had clasped Lily’s forearave her a smile that was both sad and sweet "Blessed be, little sister You stay safe too We have li transparent before dissolving into a colu up the pitch-black stairs as the world filled up with fire below the after, the three of theht dotted with indifferent stars

Chapter THIRTEEN

IN HER DREAMS, she was back in the fire

Lily stood in the e the fire slowly consuh the heat grew steadily s She drifted through the club, watching the fire lick its way up the walls and curl around the wood of the bar The door to Anura’s office hung open, but all was blackness beyond

It was there she was drawn, and though part of her knew she was drea in her stomach as she approached that blank space on the wall It seemed to yawn as she drew closer, but she kneas useless to resist its pull This here she needed to go

"Look inside, daughter See the past Our past"

The voice was all around her like a sigh, warm and familiar Lily knew she’d heard it before, perhaps in other drea only a moment before her foot crossed the threshold<ins class="adsbygoogle" style="display:block" data-ad-client="ca-pub-7451196230453695" data-ad-slot="9930101810" data-ad-format="auto" data-full-width-responsive="true"></ins>