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I can’t fall, she re of Ravus and Dave and doether in neat little rows I can’t fall and I can’t fail

The court gentry had cleared away a square path in theoff her coat It puddled on the floor, the cool air prickled the hairs on her arms She took a deep breath and smelled her oeat

Mabry stepped out of the crowd, clad in ealed into the shape of ared tendrils behind it that reminded Val of the way that sparklers burned

Val took a step forward, parting her legs slightly and keeping theht of the lacrosse field, of the tight-but-loose way to hold the stick She thought of Ravus’s hands, pushing her body into the right for her froritted her teeth and prepared to begin

Mabry stalked toward the center of the square Val wanted to ask if they should start now, but Mabry sent her hirling and there was noto slice the whip in half, but it becah

Mabry shot the whip out again Val blocked, feigned and thrust, but her reach was too short She barely staggered out of the way of another blow

Mabry twirled the whip above her head as if it were a lasso She s of faeries howled Val wasn’t sure if they were showing favor or just crying for blood

The whip flew out, snaking toward Val She ducked and rushed in under Mabry’s guard, trying one of those fancy e the fast She’d been awake for two days and her last meal was a pale faerie apple Mabry beat her back, so that the Court had to part for Val’s stu retreat

"Did you think you were a hero?" Mabry asked, her voice full of h for the crowd

"No," Val said "I think you’re a villain"

Val bit her lip and concentrated Mabry’s shoulders and wrists weren’twith the refined control it would take to make the strikes that lanced out at Val It was herthe work The as an illusion How could Val hen Mabry could think the whip into changing direction or snaking farther than its length?

Val swung up her sword to block another strike and thejerked it out of Val’s hands The sword flew across the hall, forcing several courtiers to shriek and fall back As the blade hit the hard-packed earthen floor, it cracked into three pieces

The whip reached for Val again, flicking out to strike her face Val ducked and ran toward the re just behind her

"Don’t let it bother you that you’re about to die," Mabry said with a laugh that invited the other faeries to laugh with her "Your life was always destined to be so short as to make no difference"

"Shut up!" Val had to concentrate, but she was disoriented, panicked She was fighting all wrong; she was fighting as if she wanted to kill Mabry, but all she had to do to as hit her once and all she had to do to lose was to get hit

Mabry was vain; that ht cool Even though she was leaning heavily on her gla it in such a way that made her seerab the blade of the sword, couldn’t she just have made it strike Val’s hand? Couldn’t she conjure knives at Val’s neck?

She must want a dra laceration across her back The cord wrapping around Val’s neck It was a performance, after all The perfor just a foot fro unmarred and part of the blade still attached She turned

Mabry was striding toward her, lips curling back into a s unexpected, so she did She continued just to stand there

Mabry hesitated only atoward Val Val dropped to the ground, rolled and grabbed the hilt of as left of the glass sword, thrusting it up, inelegantly, gracelessly, and coolden-haired faerie

Val dropped the hilt, sh Her hands started to shake

Mabry’s sain "It ory memento will rot as your love rots You will find a corpse no fit companion"

Val couldn’t help the smile that spread on her face, a smile so wide it hurt "Ravus isn’t dead," she said, enjoying the blank look that came over Mabry’s features "I pulled down all the curtains and turned hi to be fine"

"You couldn’t--" Mabry reached out her hand and sedly forward Val sturazed her cheek, tracing a burning line across the skin

"I said hold," the golden-haired faerie shouted, lifting up the silver box

"Stop," said the King of the Unseelie Court "Thrice you have displeased me, Mabry, spy or not Because of your carelessness, ht Court Because of your lack of valor, a mortal won a boon from us And because of your pettiness, my promise that the mortals would not be harmed in my lands is dishonored Henceforth, you are banished"

Mabry shrieked, an inhu wind "You dare banish me? I, Lady Nicnevin’s trusted spy in the Seelie Court? I, who am a true servant of the Unseelie Court and not a pretender to its throne?" Her fingers beca and ed at Roiben

Val’s body moved automatically, the moves she had practiced a hundred, hundred tie as unconscious as a smile She knocked aside Mabry’s strike and stabbed her in the neck

Blood spilled down her red dress, spattered Val The knife fingers clutched Val, opening long wounds in her back as Mabry drew her close, pushing the, cold shock creeping up to paralyze her Then abruptly, Mabry fell, blood blackening the earthen floor, hands slipping down Val’s back She did not entry Luis rushed forward, pushing aside the faeries in his way to grab Val as she swayed forward

All Val saas the glass sword, shattered into jagged pieces, and covered with blood "Don’t fall," she reminded herself, but the words didn’t seeer Her vision swam

"Give me the heart," Luis shouted, but in the chaos, no one heeded hih," someone--probably Roiben--said Val couldn’t concentrate Luis was speaking and then they were , Luis holding her up, as they turned through corridors underground The noise of the Court faded away as they made their way out onto the cold hill

"My coat," Val mumbled, but Luis didn’t stop He steered her into the car and leaned her against it as he pushed back the passenger seat "Get in and lie down on your sto about a box A box with a heart inside, just like in Snow White "Did you get it from the woodsman?" Val asked "He tricked the evil queen Maybe he tricked us, too"

Luis took a ragged breath and let it out in a rush "I’h her haze enough to fill her with panic "No! Ravus and Dave are waiting for us We have to go play do the shit out of o to the city But don’t you go to sleep on me You stay the fuck awake"