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"Balthazar?"

He tensed as the phantas him back in his own mind, in the here and now He still knelt in the snow, the taste of blood fading on his tongue Skye’s face was pale orry

"How long?" His voice croaked as though he hadn’t spoken inwas I … out?"

But Skye said, "Maybe a minute and a half? I don’t know Are you okay?"

"I think so" What the hell had just happened to hiasoline reminded him where they were; at the sound of distant sirens, she looked past him "I don’t want to leave Mr Lovejoy--we have to stay--but how are we supposed to explain this?"

"Leave it to th of will to stand upright again "I’ve got a lot of experience in covering this stuff up"

The police were told that Skye had been walking home from school, and that Balthazar was headed toward dohen they separately saw the explosion Mr Lovejoy’s car had then jumped the curb; no doubt he’d been startled Another car had sped away afterward, but they couldn’t say what it had to do with the explosion They were bewildered, innocent bystanders, no more

"I still can’t believe they bought that," Skye said as they walked away fro sky overhead

"Why not? It’s actually lanced back at the police cars behind thereater involve over the past few centuries

"I just--I feel awful Mr Lovejoy’s all banged up, because of me--"

"It’s not your fault" He spoke so forcefully that she stared at him, but it was important that she understand this "What happened is not because of you It’s because Redgrave and his crew came after you All of this is their fault Nobody else’s Never forget that"

"Redgrave?" Skye frowned "I thought you said his naht and this afternoon is Lorenzo The one who drove up at the end, the guy with gold hair? That’s Redgrave He’sLorenzo does, he does because Redgrave wants him to"

"But why?" Skye breathed out in frustration, her breath creating a little cloud in the frosty air around theh he was beginning to consider a disquieting possibility Skye was holding her injured hand She had reopened the cut on her hand during their escape If that was her blood he’d tasted on the ground--if that was the reason for what he’d just experienced--

But that was impossible Nobody’s blood had that kind of power Surely some of what had happened in his mind had rave for the first time in more than thirty years He’d been injured and dazed; he’d had a hallucination He couldn’t be sure of ain on Skye’s situation "I don’t knohat it means yet, but whatever it is about you that Lorenzo responded to--it’shi part of the speech? Because I’ part of the speech" His eyes met hers, and he could see Skye’s effort at a joke was her way of trying to be brave Good: She’d need soh this "This is bad This is real And until we figure out what to do--I’ht, at least, this e--hey, he was getting pretty good at this--Balthazar said, "Your parents really aren’t going to notice the guy staying in their house?"

"They’ll probably get hoht and leave before six AM Usually they don’t even look in here," Skye called froht-clothes He ought to have offered to stay downstairs, in sorave’s tribe tried to get in through the s of her bedroo close "They work really hard ever since--since Dakota" Frohtness in her voice, Balthazar knew that h Balthazar kneas no expert in dealing wisely with grief, he said, "They shouldn’t leave you alone so et hurt, they work harder Since last su harder than they ever have in their lives" The depth of her understanding surprised hier than Skye before he’d been able to look past his own pain to somebody else’s "They leave me little notes and treats I know they love me It’s okay"

Her rooht quilt on the bed, and a shelf laden with glea equestrian trophies and ribbons A couple pieces of hoazine cutouts that seery to be Skye’s oork, and a framed, blown-up, artistically Photoshopped photo of Skye with another girl he reht, Cle a little bare about the roo school the past two and a half years