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"What happened?" she asked

"You blasted the kajan patched you up good as new"

There was an odd quality to his voice that set off warning bells in her head She pushed herself up so she could lean back against the headboard and put enough distance between theood look at Drake

He looked tired, strained, but that’s not what had bothered her It was so in him when they first h his body Pain

"Did you get hurt?" she asked

He earing a long-sleeved mock turtleneck and jeans that completely hid his body Maybe he’d been injured and didn’t want her to know She couldn’t think of any other reason he’d be so heavily clothed in the an fixed ave her a warm smile and kissed her forehead

Helen reached out, trying to poke around in his head to figure out rong, but she hit a wall She couldn’t feel a thing

Her hand strayed to her neck, which was bare "It came off"

"Yeah We found the sword, remember?"

She did, in the pain-hazed recesses of herhis shirt He’d been beautifully bare chested and the leaves were falling from his lifemark like snow

Helen’s eyes went back to his chest, now covered with gray cotton That’s what he was hiding "Take off your shirt," she ordered

He grinned and winked, but she could see the subtle lines of strain around his ht now Just lie down and rest"

She was tired, but not so ht him over this "Take off the damn shirt and let me see"

She reached for the heainst his hard abdomen His face was solemn, his eyes shadoith pain "I look like I did before I met you"

Probably felt like he did before, too "You’re hurting"

He shrugged as if it didn’t matter, but at least he hadn’t lied

She freed one hand before he could stop her and fished under his collar in search of the luceria It was there, around his neck, slippery and wared hers out and she let hilanced at his ring It had returned to its original iridescent, silvery mix of too many colors to count It didn’t res

But not as much as the fact that Drake didn’t want her to wear the luceria again She’d tricked hione after Kevin’s sword by herself, but she’d done it for his own good Surely he had to know that He wasn’t stupid

There was a light rap on the doorway leading into the bedroo there, dressed in pale pink today, clutching her black-eyed doll to her chest

"Sibyl," said Drake, in a shocked tone "I wasn’t expecting you"

"No one ever does," said the little girl She looked right at Helen "We have to talk"

"I’ll be right outside" Drake started to get up, but Sibyl held up a dainty hand

"Stay, Theronai"

Helen felt Drake tense, but he settled back beside her, keeping a tight hold on her hand "What is it?"

"Helen has some questions for me and I wanted to make sure I had time to answer them before I left"

"Left?" asked Drake "Where are you going?"

"It’s not iirl was right Helen did have soh to think about them, until now "You said that if I didn’t like the vision of my death, I should choose another You also said my vision couldn’t be avoided"

"And it wasn’t"

"But it wasn’t a vision of my death"

"No"

"Why didn’t you tell me that?"

"You didn’t ask You only asked if it was real, which it obviously was You also asked how you could avoid it, which you couldn’t"

"But why didn’t you just tellto die then?"

"Because if I’d told you that, you would have died It was your acceptance--your willingness to sacrifice your own life for soth to do what you had to do I had to know you were strong enough"

"Strong enough? For what?" asked Drake

Sibyl’s arhtened around her doll and for a s are changing and the Gray Lady isn’t able to fight off what’s coh to defeat the Synestryn is love and I had to know that Helen had that kind of power inside her"

"Love?" asked Drake, looking at Helen with a hopeful expression

"You should tell him," said Sibyl "He’s insecure and needs to hear the words"

"I a insulted