Page 33 (2/2)

To make damn sure it wouldn’t fail, I reached out with a burst of power and filled Moira’s ed, and then it was too late As the water rippled down from Moira’s open lips, Rahel’s claws sank deep into her throat

In her thrashing, Moira let go of the wine bottle, and it rolled toward the edge of the boulder

Bad Bob calht it as it fell

Shit

Moira was sputtering blood, and her face was shockingly pale, her eyes desperate Rahel reirl’s neck, and I saw her flash a look at Bad Bob

He didn’t react at all

I was gripping the edge of the rock too hard, but I needed the sharp reminder of where I hat the stakes had become

Rahel ripped her claws free in a conteesture, and blood misted and spattered in an arc around her She willed away the Miss America costume in favor of her more usual tailored pantsuit - in bloodred, not neon

She turned her back before Moira’s pallid, dying body toppled

Bad Bob was holding her bottle, and unlike Moira, that evil old bastard knew every trick

"Freeze until I tell you to oddaenuine emotion left in hiht - because Moira hadn’t measured up, in the crisis "Jo Come out"

"Yeah, not likely!" I yelled I tried to slonwell for you, Bob Maybe you should just give up now" He laughed "No"

He still had the book, and even though he hadn’t bothered to bring it out yet, he also had the spear, the Uned to free Rahel, dahter’s bloody end hadn’t been enough to distract him, I couldn’t think of h," I said "Want to call it a draw? Lose/lose?"

"I want to call the game," he said "On account of the death of the world" I’d have liked to think he was just being grandiose, but there was a dark undertone to his voice now Seeing Moira die had destroyed his fun, apparently; he was ready to just skip right to the end, which in his book was and then the universe blew up The end

"That really what you want?" I slowly got up, hopping on , and bracedfor sparse cover "Coht you wanted to destroy the Wardens and savor your victory first"

"As long as we all go out together, I’m fine with it," he said I expected him to reach for the Ancestor Scriptures, but instead, he stretched out his hand, which disappeared in a tingle of blue sparks and ree a thick, matte-black cylinder like a spear, sharp on both ends

The Un repulsion inall up and down my nervous systeht, and it was stable anti even more exotic, like dark matter Whatever it was, it did not have a place here, not in this world

It rong

It was also radioactive as hell, and it had almost destroyed me the last time I’d come anywhere near it Noas so closely connected to David, sharing the saain If I was poisoned, he h him, half the Djinn

Bad Bob rested one end of the shaft against the stones at his feet and leaned on it The thing was a little taller than his head noickedly pointed "You really baht you’d coht David would let you"

"He didn’t," I said "Nobody letsYou know that" He nodded, but the look in his eyes was far, far away "I liked you," he said "Back in the day Before things rong"

"I liked you, too" I hadn’t, exactly, but I’d admired him We’d all adht reasons - you wanted to save lives You just weren’t strong enough, in the end"

"Neither were you," he said We weren’t accusing each other now; there wasn’t any heat to this exchange at all, just simple fact "You’d have hatched out a Deled up with the Djinn But look what it did for you - all the things you’ve seen, all you’ve done I er" He wanted my approval

I felt a hot breath of wind, then a gust off the ocean So out there

It blewcloud, and waves crashed the rocks atme in spray

"Whatever doesn’t kill you er," I said "And whatever does kill you - "

"Makes you invincible, if you’re lucky," Bad Bob said, and sood-bye in that smile, because it was real Not aand warmth "You’ll always be my kid, Jo My crazy, brave, stupid kid" And he’d always, in some sense, be e and s to survive The most abusive bastard father in the world

I nodded, not trusting my voice

"Here it co fell out of the eye of the hurricane It was like a glass ball, soap-bubble thin, and it hit the rocks of the island and smashed into smaller spheres, each of which bounced and rolled over the rocks, uncoiled, and stood on two or four legs

Crystalline skeletons, creatures out of drug dreaht

The Sentinels - those still standing - were unprepared A few of them defended themselves, but ues, who’d lost their way and followed a false messiah

I couldn’t help them Worse: I didn’t want to help theoing to have to settle up our debts

"They’re parasites," Bad Bob said "Like dust h a crack in the wall Vicious little things, though"