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The Finns and the Garzas were fainators of the feud had even gone into business together, developing spells and artifacts that were still in general use today One of my favorite spell disks, the Mudder, a handy little spell that turns solid ground into deep, wet mud, was a Finn patent They

The textbooks said it was a dispute over a patent, and enerate lawsuits Feuds are more … personal

Whatever the initial reason, the two clans set to killing each other

Connor Finn was one of the last two surviving members of his fa his father’s trial for having loosed a blood curse on the Garza family Anyone else would have been executed for that criranted cleovern our last war He was serving a life sentence--with no possibility of parole--in the Needle, the high-security supermax prison in the middle of Death Valley The Needle had been created to house mass murderers, terrorists, certain serial killers--the worst of the worst

My professor had been completely obsessed with the creativity hich each family had wreaked havoc on the other I had been treated to detailed descriptions of each and every spell used by either side: Connor’s curse that burned people alive, Juan Garza’s spell that tore theer than a di of Juan Garza and a pregnant Maria Santiago Every single person present with Garza blood in his or her veins was destroyed The baby in Maria’s as saved only because Maria killed herself as the spell struck The baby was delivered by posto Garza, disappeared froain

Until now

Because if Connor Finn was somehow behind these attacks, I’d bet my last dime that the intended victim was a Garza, and Suit--Suit was probably his son, Jack Like father, like son

"You look sick Are you okay?" Charles asked

I felt sick Reh myterrified

"I’m fine," I croaked

"Liar" Alex made the accusation sound kind

Charles shook his head "Connor Finn is in the Needle, in solitary There’s no way in hell he’s responsible for this"

"Pretty to think so," Alex said

"Have you seen that place, Heather?" he snarled "I have It’s impossible Maybe Connor’s son is behind it, or some copycat who’s obsessed with the feud But it isn’t Connor It can’t be"

He was so certain I wasn’t Connor Finn has one of the most brilliant ical ability and creativity are infait kills to his credit

Charles sighed "Look I’ve got at least a dozen witnesses who saw you in the restaurant when the shot was fired I’ve got your stateet some rest? I’ll check back with you later"

He opened the car door and started to climb out Heather, however, didn’t uess so" I looked down atand starting to flake It looked so gross

"You knohat, you look a little shocky Why don’t I drive you hoetting tired of being in situations where Alex had to look after me "Okay But first I need to wash my hands" She reached into her purse, retrieved a se of diaper wipes, and passed them over the seat

"Here, use these Now scoot over"

I clier side while she moved from the back to the driver’s seat As she pulled out of the parking lot, I began using wipe after wipe to clean the mess on my hands Soon I had a dozen filthy wipes and nowhere to put theer door, proet to take them out later

I slept, or passed out, or whatever OneI kneere pulling into the driveway I rolled down the passenger-sideto lay ainst the reader and line lad there were security checkpoints on both sides of the entrance I said h, and before we’d gone