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Sister Olive sighed, pulled off the other glove, and set theuess I shouldn’t complain about that now, should I?"

"I’ll be careful," she promised Sister Olive

"You do that This place needs you I need you" She dusted off her hands "Speaking of which, I need to go and check on dinner We’ll have a big crowd tonight"

"I’ll be down to help in a minute"

Sister Olive patted her shoulder "You take your time I kno much you miss the sun, and we don’t have much of it this time of year Enjoy it while it lasts"

Sister Olive left Hope stripped out of her sweatshirt and let the sun soak into her skin The tank top she as thin, allowing the delicious heat to slide over her

The s her nerves Everything was fine She’d find Rory tonight and give her hell for scaring her like that

Hope lounged there, soaking up the wars She felt better now that she’d had soan while she was here Or that ain She was safe, strong, and ready to finish off her duties for the day

The dinner rush went by fast Hope packed her bag full of sandwiches and blankets and was ready to hit the streets in search of Rory

She stopped at the door, turning back to duck into the kitchen She found the biggest, sharpest knife she could and added it to her bag Just in case

Iain slid his blade from the dead Synestryn and searched the tunnel for more He’d come here to this nest to find the one kind of deht: Synestryn with the faces of children

Even though Iain’s soul was long dead, he could still remember what it had felt like to have one He knew that there had been a ti such a creature would have turned his stoer

He stared down at the dead abomination It may have had the face of a child, but that here the reses It had been able to cling to the ceiling of the cave before propelling itself toward Iain for the kill

He held up his sleeve, looking through the holes that thing’s teeth had left in his leather jacket--teeth strong enough to bite through thewas no more an innocent child than he was But if he was the only one of his kind who could see that, then so be it Everyone needed a reason to get up in thebaby deh the rest of this systeht, then head for the next one Sauards heard the co from down the corridor, and for the first time in what seemed like decades, she was left alone

The chittering speech of the insectlike rew louder, as it always did when they called more of their own kind

She didn’t have et herself out of this place

The rough rock tunnels that were a ht here were now easy to navigate Unfortunately, the only way out was down the tunnel, the way her guards had gone

Fear had been a part of her for so long she al of her heart as her bare feet slapped against the dirt floor Little rocks dug into her skin, but she didn’t slow for fear she’d s burned from the unusual exertion, and she had to hold her round belly so it didn’t feel like it was going to be ripped fronancy slowed her down too uards had counted on

Ava cleared a corner and nearly ran headlong into co the wall of the cave to steady herself

Oneof uarded her as well as the smaller, feral ones that looked human from the neck up

Ava knew better than to be fooled

The man’s sword moved almost too fast to see, and everywhere it passed, monsters fell Black blood splattered over his clear face shield, but it didn’t see grace and Ava had to jerk herself away frorew louder, co to see her and lock her up again She couldn’t let that happen She couldn’t have her baby in this place

Ava pressed herself into a shadowy crevice, hoping her protruding belly wouldn’t give her away She held her breath, prayed her pounding heart would quiet itself, and squeezed her eyes shut

They came so close to her she could feel a breeze from their bodies as they passed Not one of theht

Ava didn’t stick around to see whether theshe could do to help hi she could do was run and hope that she and her baby got out of this hellhole alive

Logan called Tynan as soon as he woke "Where are you?" he asked

"Dabyr"

"We were supposed to et away"

"Why not?"

"Grace She took a turn for the worse"

A pang of grief burst inside Logan’s chest He’d grown fond of the huical device that transferred her health and vitality to a Theronai who had been paralyzed The artifact worked, and Torr was now on his feet once again, but Grace’s sacrifice had been great The Sanguinar had done what they could, but no one expected her to live

"How is Torr?" asked Logan