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"Such as?"

"Stillbirths," I said quietly "Ill patients dying when they should have been able to recover An empty ‘pitcher’ would almost have a vacuum effect as it pulled back any available essence"

He frowned "What about population growth?"

"More essence can for essence, but it takes tirow it but minutes to eat"

"I think it scaresthe corner of his mouth

I shifted uncoht have been htened "Wait What? Why on earth would you think that?"

I quickly explained about the ilius and my worry that somehow I’d failed to dismiss it properly But by the end ofhis head

"Nope, not buying it I don’t know that s and demons, but it doesn’t o swoop down on this guy Even if he did cohed "I know, but I can’t think of a better explanation"

"Then you haven’t figured it out yet," he said "You will"

I gave hiuided, but it was still reassuring "Well, just for that, I’ to let you coain--to break in to her library so I can do sohter "Like Torinned and stood "Damn, I didn’t know you could read"

"Yeah, well, it was an audiobook"

"Smart-ass I’ll meet you over there"

I stood in the hallway of my aunt’s house and scowled at the door to the library I loved my aunt I really truly did She was the only family I had left after ht and my father from a drunk driver three years later She raisedthat I had the talent to become a summoner of demons Aunt Tessa had the capacity to drive me crazy, and there were times I wanted to throttle her, but I did love her

However, at the ed her library so full of twisty-ugly wards and other arcane protections that I felt like a h I’d known she had a zillion arcane protections on her house and library, I’d assumed--foolishly, as it turned out--that my aunt had allowed so relative

I couldn’t even open the library door to see what kind of condition the room was in, because of the protections that writhed and pulsed in angry coils of purple and black--visible only to soe person, it looked just like a regular door

Actually, the average person wouldn’t get close enough, since part of the protections on the library--and on the house itself--involved a coet into the house suddenly think of so elsewhere

The aversions hadn’t been hard for et around, but the rest of the protections were anotherwith arcane wards was notI needed ain the skill, and potency was difficult to cos were usually done when the moon was at or near its fullest was because natural potency was rich and cal of the moon, potency was scattered and hard to control It was low and weak during the dark moon, but it was even, which was safer Fluctuations in potency could be devastating when suht before the full h to do with a third-level dehth or ninth level was best left to the night of the full The restrictions of the phases of thepotency that I kneas the one the Symbol Man had used--torture and o there

Ryan let out a lohistle "That looks seriously ugly"

"It’s ridiculous," I complained "Why the hell did she need all of this?"

"I dunno, but she was apparently not kidding about keeping people out"

"I’et in"

He peered at the winding wards Ryan was able to sense the arcane, though not to the degree I could "Fucking shit Where would you even start?"

"That’s the problees for the past couple of weeks, because it doesn’t look so bad there But every tiet that part undone, it re-for wards I’d been spending almost as much tiun to keep clothing and toiletries in her spare roo knot in the in to unravel the das; all I needed to do ork up the nerve to touch the chicken, I beratedzap Get over it!

"Well, here goes nothing," I an to mentally reach out "It’s not like my aunt would try to--"

I threw myself backward as I saw the protection ward flash red in htning bolt crackled over h my extremities as I landed heavily on my back on the hard wooden floor

"Shit! Kara!" I heard Ryan shout "Are you all right?"