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"No!" I shouted, lunging toward him Time seemed to slow I saw a blur of motion out of the corner ofs My head banged against the rabbedit away until he pinned both of th than any e I’rip I shouted in rage, calling for help until Arkady began to strangle a, ei intercepted "her," apparently intending to protect her fro the other rabbed Arkady, probably intending to do the sale blow Still, in the moment it took hian fighting in earnest,away fro even as I aior were both inso slowly…

With a triumphant cry, Anton prepared to throw the spell ball onto the floor to break it

He hadn’t counted on Adriana No one had Despite all the turmoil around her, she had reer frohed, she flicked off the safety and fired

She hadn’t taken tiun, but the bullet hit the old priest squarely in the center of his ony as blood blossomed like a hideous flower in thein a rapid stain over the white and gold of his ceremonial robes

It was a shot that would kill, but not instantly With the last vestiges of his strength, the old rabbed his ar, onto the cold marble floor that was already slick with his blood

I turned away That part of the fight was over Drawing a One Shot frole and waited for , I aimed a stream of holy water directly at Arkady’s face

He shrieked in shock, pain, and rage, the illusion ic of a demon spawn ripped away by the impact of holy water Lars was splashed as well and his true for the One Shot, I drew or draeapon fro aier A tiny part ofthe picture we made "Freeze or die"

They froze With hts, not far away John, it’s Celia Is Prince Arkady with you? I’ve got a spawn here in the church

He sounded surprised at the clarity of oing on Sure, he’s here He suggested using an imposter, said he didn’t trust security with soto tell you and the other bodyguards

Yeah, right His spawn just attacked me as part of an attempt on Dahlroom will need to clean up a little before the public ceree Creede used in my mind wasn’t polite, but it was certainly colorful The real Arkady was going to have soht?

It hurt to s anda bit, but by God I was alive, so I wasn’t about to coo anywhere, okay? I want to have a little chat with hi Dahlerous outrage Don’t worry He’ll be right here

While I’d been talking with John, Natasha’s father hadher with his body Feliks knelt beside his fellow priest and beganprayers in Ruslandic I realized that so on the church doors; Lars opened one just wide enough to ador smiled at me as the door opened and said, "No one outside will see anything"

Igor bound the fake Arkady, using fetters handed to hi them inside his well-fitted suit, I had no idea

Dahl each other, as Natasha and a red-faced, eei looked on Nohat? We had a captive, a corpse, and the world waiting for a wedding If the public found out what had happened, there’d be outrage at the violation of the sanctity of the church We had a few e this debacle I thought furiously, trying to co Dahlmar’s face was lined orry, probably for his rotten brother I could at least reassure him about that "Your brother is fine He’s with John Creede John will keep him safe and close by so we can question hi he was He was Olga’s father and she’d been in this up to her eyeballs Yes, she could’ve done it without hi looked awfully fishy, and not just toforward to spending some quality time with the prince

Dahled with it He loved his family A lot of them hadn’t deserved it, but he loved the?" Natasha asked "It estured at the mess we’d made of the vestibule

She had a point Suddenly I remembered Adriana’s vision This was the room Noas the time