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"That’s not what Ithis, and yet he knew beyond any doubt this was the only way to win "You want to stop her froht? Well, there’s one way to ht to consider it"

"Listen--you’re upset, you’re freaked out for Verlaine, I get that--"

"I don’t think you get it at all Coetting squeamish about it now?"

"I didn’t murder her on Halloween," Nadia said "She was the one who created the fire and stood in thedifference"

Obviously Nadia wasn’t thinking this through "The point is, we’re not exactly worried about keeping her alive In fact, the longer Elizabeth lives, the ets to eating our world alive So ouldn’t we kill her?"

"What makes you think we could? Just her Book of Shadows nearly killed me when I went into her house to look for you The protective spells she knows, the enchantle place she travels--it’s like she’s at the center of a fortress, Mateo We’re not getting through that fortress without soic on our side"

"And that’s exactly what she expects you to do! Outspell her, whatever you’d call it She wouldn’t expect us to justtake her out"

"You sound like you’re talking about a video ga about? Stabbing her? Strangling her? Are you the kind of person who could do that to another hu?"

That caught hiuard Once, in the final horrible hours before Halloween, the ical snares Elizabeth had used to bind Mateo to her had weakened He’d rushed at her; he’d le her He’d tried to And in the end he hadn’t been able to follow through

The result was that Elizabeth had opened this door for the One Beneath, and Nadia had very nearly been killed

Instead of answering, Mateo said, "I’ve seen Elizabeth as she really is You haven’t She’s hardly even a huer I don’t think she counts So maybe--maybe it doesn’t matter e do to her"