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Scarlet traced her fingers along his face The same jaw, the same cheekbones, the saers through his wild hair "Just stay withwhooshed by her ear and thudded into Wolf’s neck

Wolf went rigid He looked up, eyes wide and already brightening with bloodlust, but then they grew bleary With a strangled gurgle in his throat, the strength left him and he collapsed on top of her

Forty-One

"Wolf! Wolf!" Craning her neck, Scarlet saw aoff the woun Scarlet’s terror was short-lived; they weren’t crazed Lunars She returned her attention to Wolf, searching out the dart i the dart out of his flesh and dropping it to the ground

"Are you all right?" the wonored her until her own nalanced up again as the woirl, with uely fairl before

Thefor air

"Who are you?" she asked, locking her arms around Wolf as the two stooped to pull him away frorabbing Wolf He tried to pry Wolf away but she held tight "We have to get out of here"

"Stop it! Don’t touch hiripped the sides of Wolf’s face and tilted his and the blood on his jaw, he would have looked peaceful

"What did you do to hirandht Scarlet’s scattered attention back to her "My grandirl knelt beside her "Michelle Benoit? Do you knohere she is?" The girl’s words tripped over themselves in her rush to speak

Scarlet blinked Her ht bounced off the girl’s fingers and Scarlet realized what she had seen before wasn’t a gun It was her hand

"Linh Cinder," she whispered

"Don’t worry," said theWolf by the shoulder to leverage soht away from her "I kno it looked on the netscreens, but I se’re not here to hurt you I just need to knohere your grandulped This was Princess Selene This was the girl they’d been searching for, the girl her grandrandether, she and thehirandmother?"

"She’s in the opera house," Scarlet said "She’s dead"

The girl gaped at her, with pity or disappoint up, she flattened her palainst Wolf’s chest, relieved to feel it rise beneath her touch "They were looking for you"

Surprise quickly stole away the girl’s sy and hooking his elbow beneath Scarlet’s ar him!" She scrambled out of his hold and crawled toward Wolf’s unconscious body, tying her arawked at her like she was mad "He’s not like the rest"

"He’s exactly like the rest!" said theto eat you!"

"He saved lances, and the girl gave a baffled shrug

"Fine," the man said "You take the helrabbed Wolf’s wrist and hoisted hi with the effort

The s "Holy spades," he uystoward the opera house at a pace only barely slower than a jaunt Scarlet ducked in between the Wolf’s abdomen as well as she could as they aardly stu foro ship poked out from the next street

A howl nearly startled Scarlet into dropping Wolf’s body She could not iher sto, exhausted, in pain Blood oozing down her side

"You better have those tranquilizers ready," the man said

"Can only … put in … one at a tiasped "Cinder! Ten o’--"

There was a snap and a dart lodged itself into a man’s chest on the sidewalk in front of the theater He had cruround before Scarlet even realized he was there

"Let’s pick it up," the man behind her said "How irl panted

"Gonna have to restock"

"Right I’ll just … head down … to the convenience store, and--" She didn’t finish, the strain too much