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Slowly, she inary box where she locked theht, then prayed she could keep them there, keep them silent, or she didn’t kno she’d function at all As it was, she had h to deal with With the return of her emotions came the memories, a flood of therief Raw, even after centuries

Being unable to feel had allowed her to be strong, so incredibly strong She’d been able to do what had to be done to protect her queen and her race Feelings--coot in the way of that She did not want to be the wo the warrior, liked being untouched emotionally by ent on around her

The emotions were back now, in all their o cold again, once she found Castin As long as she didn’t allow Fox to soften her more

She watched hi it with his shoulder Bone crunched and he griain Over and over, he hit the wall until his shirt was bloody, until the sounds co from his throat were s dropping fro to yellow animal eyes

"Fox?"

She sed as she stared at his fearsoe, at the wild one feral, half-out of hisapart

And she was the only thing within reach

As she watched the fury and struggle war in his eyes, her old gift raised its head once more The need to ease the torment of others The last tinored it Calling forth her gift was not soht to turn back the tide and return to the cold warrior she’d been for so long

But it didn’t appear that she had a choice This tiht, and an out-of-control shifter was the last thing they needed Especially if he started turning those claws on her

As she started toward hirowled around those fangs

"I’ht you, Feral," she said calh they looked more like cat than fox eyes, she was prepared for that She knew from experience that all shifters, except the vipers, looked the saht as equals whether bird or tiger, gazelle or wolf

"I’ll hurt you, Mel!"

"No, you won’t" She approached hi despite her outer calm "I trust you, Kieran"

His eyes flashed with surprise at her use of his old nah for her to slip in close and lift her hand to his face, her palolden stubble that covered his jaw

He was shaking in his fight for control, but she called on her gift, wondering if it would even come to her after all this ti it At first, her gift failed her Though she’d begun to feel it stirring deep inside of her, trying to awaken, it was buried deeper than she’d realized But she closed her eyes and reached down As she touched that gift and began to pull on it, her hands against Fox’s cheeks slowly began to war inside her, a need to help hian to seep from Fox’s ar back, she watched as his fangs began to recede, as his eyes changed back from ani breath, reaching for her and taking her hand "What did you do?"

"It doesn’t an to pull it toward his mouth as if he meant to press a kiss to her palet out of here"

Fox watched her for severals, then nodded, once, decisively But frustration once more leaped into his eyes

They’d tried There was no way out

"You still can’t h his hair

"If I could, I wouldn’t still be here," she snapped

He glanced at her, his expression turning wry "If you could mist, would I still be here?"

She cut her eyes at hiht find it to be rid of you, Feral, no I won’t leave you behind"

He s her breath, and sending the butterflies to flight in her chest By theher with no aze from his far-too-handso to catch her breath "So in their anih in huet out, what happens to you?" He reached for her, tugging lightly on her braid "I’ot to be" A funny look crossed his face

"What is it, Fox?"

"My gut" He turned and strode to the far corner, bending low and reaching his hand straight through solid stone

Melisande gasped "So it isn’t real"

"Most of it is Or, at least, it’s solid" But when she joined hi her back "Let " On his hands and knees, he pushed his araze, triumph leaped in his eyes, satisfaction pulled at the corners of his mouth

And it was all she could do not to stare at those perfectly sculpted lips

Reaching out like a blind e he couldn’t see, then dipped his head beneath and looked through

"Bollocks," he ain "It’s a way out of the prison, but it’s no escape We’re definitely in soh"

Without hesitation, Melisande knelt beside hi his hard chest with her shoulder as she pushed her hand slowly into the invisible void Nothing blocked her way or caused her any alar to her feet, she found herself within a long passage lined by two stone walls, as high as the prison’s, which appeared to run parallel to one another for as far as the eye could see in either direction

With a grunt, Fox crawled through after her, then rose to stand beside her "This place is one big mind fuck" He pulled one of his blades out of his boot

Melisande curved her hand around her sword, and together they started off, shoulder to shoulder, her back and e could ju

But not twenty yards in, another path suddenly appeared on the left

They exchanged wary glances Fox shrugged, and they followed that path instead--a path that turned at right angles every ten to twenty paces, the stone walls re perfectly uniform

"It’s a labyrinth," sheup her spine "We could be lost in here forever" And hadn’t Paenther warned of just that? People disappearing And perhaps not victie violence at all, but simply lost in the maze