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"I don’t kno She’s broken free from it on her own before I never hts "You need to see this"

The alley was still dark, but the sound of the party on the street echoed off the walls The streetlights illuminated what had put so much fear in Lily’s voice

The rips that had noticed us on Bourbon, at least thirty of thele one stared at Hallie

"Hallie Come back" Please

As if she heard uish soed wouy with a gash on his left cheek

A girl Hallie’s age, her hair in ringlets and tears in her eyes

The sa the alley

And then I caught a brief glimpse of Hallie, and she whispered rabbed her hands "Open your eyes"

Hallie groaned a little and her eyelids fluttered When she gritted her teeth and squeezedto control the rip She’s pulling it in"

In the street where the Mardi Gras parade raged on, a bright light flashed and narrowed The rips began to fade around the edges A prean folding in on itself Inches faded at a ti the alley disappeared all at once, and then everything was gone except for Hallie There were a few seconds of peace, and I thought it was over

I rong

Voices roared A gravitational pull fought against our hands, tugging at Hallie, snatching at her hair The force of it ht, and Lily and Kaleb grabbed her ar for her as hard as I was, but she had to fight for herself

"Don’t leave me, Hallie" I had to yell over the chaos

Her eyes flew open and locked onair around us snatched my words as they cao" She sat up Her whole body tensed as a scream that sounded like a thousand voices ripped its way out of her Power surged through the alley, and the roaring ceased

In one short second, the darkness sed the light, leaving us in complete silence

Chapter 18

Hallie

I slept for five hours

When I woke up, Dune was inone hand The other was on my hip "Dune?"

"Hey" After a couple more key clicks, he put the coet for you? What do you need?"

"You" I grabbed hihtly It took less than a second for hi time" He tucked my hair behind my ears "I think you took about thirty thousand breaths"