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"No!" Dali exclaio back in time, I’d kill her the first time she set foot inup two shot glasses full of an a he’d just poured fro one of the his

"Then you’d both be dead three tihtly "You, Dali, are not yet ready to slip fro, neither are you, Gally Not like this--whi Rachel can do elven ic I don’t care if you don’t like it So can you, so can you all, if you would take that holier-than-thou noose off your necks!"

"Ah, Newt?" I hazarded, but Dali had stood, his face red and frustrated as the already insecure derips with the fact that he was helpless before a world that wanted to see him dead

"No

"You will!" Newt shouted back, and I pressed deeper into the couch "I have watched your cowardice and unfounded prejudice stain our existence long enough! We share a source of ain e ignore the source of our strength and take it in the dribs and drabs that exist in tiny pockets"

"Enough!" Dali shouted, and Newt strode forward to put her face inches from his

"You will listen!" she exclai her hands

Dali’s eyes flicked to them and she abruptly backed off, shoulders hunched and eyes down Al cleared his throat "This just got a lotback "Nehere are you getting your ic, love?"

Newt gri easier when Dali finally found so in elf usted as he pushed back fro about" Newt hid her hands in her sleeves I suddenly felt like two kids having been caught setting off stink spells in the girls’ bathroom Not that I had experience there--much

Brow furrowed, Dali took a sip of his drink, not as irate as I would’ve expected But then Neas known to be crazy "You knew about this?" Dali asked Al

Al shrugged "I didn’t believe her How could a demon hide that she and the Goddess--"

Newt’s head caoes insane trying to hide what she is, e all are The Goddess will speak to us, answer us as well"

"And leave us to die," Dali said bitterly "To fight and scratch out an existence when she turns her back on us? No Never again She has her favorites and I’ll not be played for a fool once ether, this bitter rivalry between the elves and the de faintly, crossed to where Dali now sat against Trent’s desk, his head bowed as harsh thoughts spun through him

"You don’t have to," Newt said softly as she touched his arm

A haze shifted between theiven hiht as he accepted that there was a way out of this--if he could let go of a lifeti have you hidden this?"

Newt turned away "I don’t re that the Goddess’s mystics don’t look to find me anymore"

Her expression was pained, and I started when Trent’s hand landed on ined that the hurt of losing the exaltation the mystics imparted never dulled with time but only intensified

Dali looked tired as he shifted his attention toprotectively beside ht her how to hide theed her aura so they can’t easily find her, but Rachel has a newer bond, one they haven’t forgotten yet" She hesitated "They’re still looking for her, knowing that the Goddess h Rachel, and the need to partake in it has left the rest predisposed to beco The Goddess had said that as well, but she’d feared it, as it would destroy her

"Dali, we can reopen the lines before sunrise with elven htened "I’ll rally the dewar and the enclave"

"No"

Dali’s as soft He never looked up, his ainst another man’s desk, in another man’s house, in a world that didn’t want them while the prison they’d desperately tried to escape stood poised to crumble and destroy the very world they wanted to live in but were afraid to

"You’d have us live like this?" Newt said bitterly, pulling at her clothes as if the tattered and stained remnants were their pride and power "We can reopen the lines, but itwith the Goddess--"

"What!" Dali’s head snapped up In the corner, Al clinked several glasses together, andpoured into the for Rachel, but she knows that if the lines stay shut, she’ll have reduced sight She’s already starving The only access she has to reality is through failing pixies and Weres who don’t even know she exists She’s not listening to the elves any the lines"

Interesting, I thought, wondering if this hy elven ic had failed A tiny wisp of possibility took hold, pulling hter in my seat I could do this, maybe I had wrestled control of the mystics’ individual power from the Goddess’s will before Several tile e her beyond recognition,new

"I cannot live by reality’s rules without ic to make it tolerable," Al said "Dali, we have a chance to not only survive, but in the doing, the world will thank us Perhaps give us a place again"

"Give us a place?" Dali thundered "We are demons! We don’t take charity, we take ant!"

"Well, what I want is to belong!" Al suddenly yelled "I want to try it this way for a while What the hell, Dali If you don’t like it, you can go back to bartering souls to fill your waitstaff, but I think we can do well here with other people’s rules" He hesitated, eyebrows rising wickedly "Finding our ways around the them squirm within their ownlaws"

Newt’s face was flushed "But first we need to reopen the lines"

I helddecided here than if we should try to save the ever-after

"We lack the strength," Dali said