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I sed the lulued on the cell In the corner, huddled beneath a thin blanket on a mattress, sat lazed over When he saw an to cry

"Chase! Chase!" I yanked on the cell door, but it was locked "Wait here I’ll get someone to bend the bars" I ducked back out into the roole was dead "Menolly, come bend these bars for me I found Chase"

Menolly sailed tothe floor She raced inside the roorimace washed over her face as she looked around, but her focus was solely on Chase, and she grabbed the bars and began to bend them

"Wait!" Morio rushed in, back in his human forht light filled the roo other than what they were

Menolly immediately went back to the bars, and they screeched as she slowly forced the--there must be iron in them--but she didn’t show any pain or hesitance After a h

"Let er than you and can carry hih without another word and knelt by Chase, athered hiood foot taller than she over her shoulder, she carried hi his arm, I helped him to step out of the cell The bloody stuer looked like it ht be infected

I had to forcefor hiods only kne terrified and adrift he probably felt at this ainst the bars, shaky and pale, he whispered "Delilah, I’ers to his lips "Hush Just hush There’s tiet you out of here where we can treat your wounds" I wrapped my arm around his waist and led hiasped, but at my look, she stayed where she was

Zach moved forward

Chase stared at him His eyes orn, he looked like he’d been to hell and back, and I could only pray that a severed finger was the worst that Karvanak had done to hilanced at me, then at Zachary

"You--youI understand"

Once again, I pressedso ietting you out of here before Karvanak returns--"

A bolt of fear washed through Chase’s eyes "He’s still alive?"

I was about to speak when a voice from the stairs answered for me

"No, they haven’t been able to kill ht me You tried your best, Detective, but you couldn’t do a thing when I was holding you down When Ithere, in his Calvin Klein suit and polished shoes, his wraparound sunglasses hiding the cruelty in his eyes The light glinted off his shaved head, and he gave me a soft smile

"Mistress Cat, you’ve stolen my toy Haven’t you heard what curiosity does to kittens? I suppose I’ll have to teach you And Fraale, you dare to turn on , long ti to rue every moment of every day that you still draw breath"

And then, in back of hi, black robe, he looked vaguely Chinese, but it was hard to place his background This was no biker, no FBH thug No, power drifted off of hi off an internal alar to scream

And then I knew--somehow I knew I stared at the creature who looked so human but was so far from humanity that there was no center point on the line where the two could meet One of the Scytatians, summoned from the deepest bowels of the Netherworld A Scythe Reaper

Karvanak nodded, looking pleased "Oh, yes, be afraid I knoho you are, Death Maiden, and I know that you’re young You can’t hope to fight a Scytatian, and neither can your friends"

I stood frozen inin response to the being’s appearance

Never aze, I said to the others, "Scytatians are from the realm of Death, the realm of the Harvestmen I know this in ht him--only me And only because I have a direct connection to the realet the fuck out of here Because I guarantee you, if that thing touches you, it will rip out your heart and s it as a snack"

And so we stood for what see for that ins

CHAPTER 27

Every battle is different Every fight has its own spirit Every haunted battlefield is rife with not only ghosts of the dead but the soul of the battle And just so, every sword has a consciousness Every blade, a naently coaxed out of hiding Sometimes they never reveal theer tingled in my hand as I stared at the Scytatian I sucked in my breath Could it be? My blade had never spoken to me before, but now I heard the whisper of a woman’s voice, delicate and ethereal and cold as ice

"Lysanthra," she whispered "I aaze, I answered as silently as the e had reached my ears "I am Delilah I’ht hate the ter to three realms--Fae, human, and the realm of felines--but I also walked under the shadow of Death I followed in the tracks of le" style="display:block" data-ad-client="ca-pub-7451196230453695" data-ad-slot="9930101810" data-ad-format="auto" data-full-width-responsive="true"></ins>