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Fionn let go of Andrea’s hands and pulled her into a bone-crushing ehter I knew you’d come to me at last" He released her and looked her up and down "Nohere is the Sword of the Guardian?"

Andrea put her hands on her hips "As a matter of fact, I came here to ask you about that Why do you want the sword so hter, that sword has unbelievable inal Sword of the Guardian, did you know? The first one forged by a Fae woman and her Shifter mate"

"Yes, Sean told s, and her reat It runs in the family Our fa about?"

"We are descended from Alanna’s brother He was an evil bastard, I’h his pure-Fae offspring Thus, the ic in her family has passed to me, and so to you"

"And that means what?" And who actually used the word thus? "That I can wield the sword? I doubt that Sean is the Guardian, chosen by the Goddess And please don’t tell me I’m related to him, even distantly, because that would just be too weird" Shifters had an even greater horror of inbreeding than did humans

Fionn shook his head "Sean is descended from the Shifter sword-maker’s sons by his Shifter wife, not from Alanna He is pure Shifter as our family is pure Fae But it h the sword By ic" Fionn put a hand on her shoulder "Think, Andrea The sword speaks to you, does it not? It connects with you"

Andrea thought of the way the sword’s threads wove through her fingers, how it seemed to whisper whenever she drew near, how she’d drawn in its power to heal Ely "Yes"

"That means it will connect to rowled "It’s not for you It’s Sean’s, and it’s not a weapon of war"

"I never said it would be Andrea, our Fae enemies want it They know its power, and they know its power over Shifters They want Shifters under their control, and having the sword is one way to get it"

"Fae want it? But "

"Daughter, the enemy Fae clan believes that if they have you and they have the sword, they will gain power over Shifters again They’d be able to bring Shifters back where they belong, as slaves of the Fae"

Andrea grew cold Mist was for under the trees, and Andrea already missed the dry blue sky of Austin and the wind from the river valley "Slaves of the Fae? How? Shifters will never let that happen again"

"Think it through If they capture the Guardian’sin here to find the an army to best the hated Fae So there we have it--soest Shifters on your earth, already weakened by the Collars, now in Faerie surrounded by thousands of Fae It’s a trap, child, an elaborate trap The Fae will defeat your Shifters, strengthen the ic of the Collars, and settle down to breed even more captive Shifters And after that, ouldn’t they be able to do with hundreds of Shifters forced to fight for the with each word She knew damn well it could happen the way Fionn outlined it If Andrea were trapped here, Sean wouldn’t hesitate to search Faerie to find her, and Liaanize a rescue, and if it cained them, all the friends she’d made in the last weeks--Ellison and Ronan, Connor and Liaulars at the bar--surrounded by arht very hard, just wait until the Collars weakened the Shifters enough before taking the able to override the Collars wouldn’t help the The pain would catch up to them all too soon, and then the Fae would have them

"Holy shit," she whispered She wondered whether the Collars had been part of a grand Fae plot all along A half-Fae huic for the Collars--what if he’d been employed by the Fae to help weaken the Shifters? The Fae resented Shifters for winning their freedoh to wait centuries for their revenge

"What makes you think the sould be safe with you?" Andrea asked when she could speak again

"Because if I have the sword, the other Fae would have to fight me and my armies And they’re hesitant to do that My armies are the best in the world" Fionn said it without conceit--he was stating a fact "I’ve been trying to keep you safe, child, frohtht, white threads that tried to sht the to trap me into stop thehter When you moved here, so near a ley line, they tried to use your dreaic And it is my fault" He looked suddenly ashamed, this tall, proud warrior

"Your fault? How can it be?"