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"I’ before"

"Yes, I did Your efforts proved delightfully aht next to hts "Oh, baby This is real This whole night has been real Maybe not on the plane that you’re used to, but real all the saole in withthe Babel spell So, so close to building a tower that reaches beyond the line, all the way to the old gods The line oing to thelared at Peter--"caused us to waste a perfectly good deet it back" She delivered a savage kick to Peter’s side "I knew you’d bring the gole, but he still just had to show up and interrupt It ic in his fairy blood that allowed hihtly as if the look were intended to strangle ave you rather than your aunt’s tatty pearls, he ed it even then"

She ht Maift" She shook her head as the exaggerated expression turned into a true frown "You do have soic in that locket to char I wanted her to You, it only made a little more amenable"

I was an anchor She shouldn’t have been able to char I had tiht now I pressed , half reaching out for ic, I tried my best to close the hole, to will a beat back to his heart She circled us once, as if taking a ht, you are a novice, so I’ll let you have a little help Josef," she called into the darkness, "bring her"

Joe entered, dragging Ellen’s naked for the skin around the points of contact He flung her to the ground next to us

"There," Emily said "There’s your precious Ellen"

Ellen lay there barely conscious Blood from multiple needle pricks had trickled down her arm and dried "A tenth of what’s in her could kill a platoon of regular men," Joe said "It’s so nice to have a toy you can’t break, no matter how hard you are on it"

"Tick tock, tick tock, irl," Emily said "It makes no difference toout of time"

"He isn’t a leprechaun"

"And in a fewat all"

Ellen lay on the floor, barely able to move She tilted her head toward istered my presence, or if her effort was simply a reflex But then she reached her hand out to limmer of awareness in her eyes, but when our hands connected, I watched the aunt I knew and loved surface, like a swio ofherself to her hands and knees She crawled to Peter’s side, placing her right palm across his forehead and her left over the wound on his chest She closed her eyes, and then her lips beganin silent prayer

As she knelt over hih him, I focused in on his face, that face I’d loved but taken for granted since I was a little girl Now that I was at risk of losing him forever, I realized how much I needed him, how much I loved him Ellen opened her eyes and looked at , her h her body "I’ve found him," she said His eyes opened a crack, and he drew a breath