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I slowly leaned in and found his earlobe with estively as I breathed hih ripped the back of ht?"

I hadn’t meant to put a sexual innuendo in there, but there it was

"Sort of"

His sour tone slumped my shoulders, and I pulled back His eyes wouldn’t meet mine, but his hands never fell frolanced at the book "The charm I’m familiar with affixes souls based on aura identification Felix doesn’t have his natural aura anye, his long fingers ers over a keyboard "We can use the first part to capture the soul, no problem," he said when he found it, "but we’ll need to tinker with the second half to find soether alive and coated in someone else’s aura"

"Al and Newt have collections of souls I bet they have a way to affix the Al"

"I know" I leaned to put my head on his shoulder It ard, but I didn’t care when his arain "I’ll ask Newt unless you have so in your library" This was nice I didn’t want to move

"Newt isn’t any better than Al," Trent muttered, but we had little choice Elves and witches seldo thing The Were’s focus was kind of like a soul Maybe I could use that curse?

Trent squirether couidance, but , I looked at the cookies, wishing I had so better to offer Trent I’d seen his taste in cookies, and I was a bohemian by his culinary standards "You don’t have any more books on the subject, do you?" I asked as I pulled the bag to me and snapped one to check for staleness Flat

"No"

"Maybe sih ti down and sat in the chair next to hi until I took three cookies before he reached in and pulled out five I swear, I didn’t knohere the man put his calories Maybe a box in his basement "Al would know," I said softly, and his eyes jerked to , then hesitated

"Is that really how you eat those?"

I looked at the bite out ofthe cru the cookie part first and scraping all the frosting into one gigantic wad But I wasn’t going to in front of Trent

"Huh" Trent screwed his cookie open and scraped the frosting out with his teeth "I thought everyone opened the, and saw him file my lie away for later Trent leaned closer "Don’t call Newt," he said "We’re not out of options yet Landon owes you a favor"

"Landon?" I said around a mouthful of crumbs "The man is sli "Nothing but apolitically perfect engineered piece of backstabbing elf slime who thinks only of hi uncomfortable, he nodded "I know"

"He tricked his predecessor into suicide!" I said, hand flying up into the air

"I know"

Frustrated, I stood up "Trent, I’ Landon for help I don’t trust hied the Goddess to begin with!"

"I know But it all worked out"

Worked out? I sputtered, trying to find the words, and Trent took ree it’s risky The elven dewar and enclave would still like to see the va the elves, I’ot a little blackmail left in me"

Expression sour, I pulled my hand from him, arms around my middle as I moved to stand beside the sink Trent silently waited I knehienetic medicines in his basement labs, but noashim in than the other way around

"You think Landon kno to fix souls to bodies?" I asked

Sighing, Trent unscrewed another cookie, stacking the black cookie with the rest he’d already scraped clean "Positive If I can convince him that success will mean the end of the va

"You think he’ll believe that?"

Trent’s gaze sharpened on mine "Why not? It’s a distinct probability"

"But" I thought of the chaos that had taken Cincinnati and the Hollohen the undead had fallen asleep for four days Head cocked, I leaned back against the counter "Re to topple the vampires’ power structure" Not like I really had a choice

Trent put an ankle on his knee, looking totally yummy with that cookie in his hand "The charm Landon would knoorks one to one, not eninto the sun isn’t going to have an i his soul will send him into the sun, they’ll all accept that it’s not a viable way to extend their undead existence"