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"Si Jaden held up his hand, however, ht Whoever he was, he seemed to be here for me We don’t usually attack one another just for the hell of it, and he was set to kill if it hadn’t been for Lyra"

Si to process the fact that Jaden had agreed with hiet a look at him? Someone you know?"

Jaden recalled a split-second vision of fangs bared in a triu dark blue He shook his head "No I didn’t get a very good look, but he was no one I know" Then he added blandly, "Contrary to what you seem to think, we don’t actually all know one another"

Lyra, her arms wrapped around herself, pinned hih the concern in her eyes made it far easier for hied, suddenly uncomfortable with his decision to keep his Ptole about it do? The prospect of assassins fro up here to take hiet him run off that much more quickly And he needed to be sure that was the case beforehere--for him, and everyone else He was no fan of olves, but he wasn’t interested in getting a bunch of them killed on his account either

"I ran a lot of errands back when I was a servant of the Ptolemy Some of those errands could be classified as dirty work, but I had no choice It’s possible this is connected But that could s I really don’t know"

Lyra blew out a breath "Well, that’s just great," she said

"No kidding Whether this was intentional or not, you’re going to get blamed for this," Simon warned him, his eyes cold "We don’t like vah Two is going to get the pack up in arot the balls to stay here Our kind hasn’t forgotten what yours is capable of, what they did to us Dorien can’t protect you froave him a small, humorless smile "Now that I know there’s an issue, I can take perfectly good care of myself You don’t need to play the victim card with me either Wolves don’t have the corner on the o back Dad will know if soain" She looked at hi to open up, to tell everything to the wo eyes

"Are you sure you have no idea who this could be?"

Suddenly it was all too much Even the open air became claustrophobic He didn’t want questions, didn’t want to feel beholden to this woman who tied him up in knots He wanted to sink his teeth into her, wanted to feed, to kiss and soothe and lose himself in her And most of all, he wanted freedom from the Ptolemy, freedom to be able to live whatever sort of life he wanted without the threat of recapture or death hanging over his head Is

"I don’t knoho it is, but I’ll have a look around Tell Dorien I’ll have a ith hilittered in the dark "Sure Running off so soon?"

Jaden didn’t give a daht of hi them both up for disappoint hiet ready to run away froretted the kiss Did she think he’d brought soue of vaht?

"Are you co back?" she asked Such a simple question A simple, loaded question She tried to sound unconcerned, but he could already see through the cracks he’d made in her armor

"I’ll be back before sunrise I need to… take care of a few things Don’t worry," he added, offering a s he could tease her back into a version of Lyra he kne to deal with He’d started so that, for once, he had no idea how to finish

"Whatever I won’t" Defensive And a lie, but one he was glad for

Jaden gave Lyra one last, lingering look, graced Si he knew to do, the only thing he had ever done when the heat had gotten to be too much He shifted into a sleek black cat, the form he often felt freer in than his own human skin

And he ran