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Cade had alotten her presence "What?"

"Unneeded," she repeated "This dying"

"Of course it’s unneeded!" Cade snapped

But she disregarded him and knelt beside the Guardian She laid her hands over his wounds When she withdrew them, a bullet lay on each paler flowed frothened on his wrist The breathing apparatus wheezed back to life

"Thank you, Yolandhe," the Guardian said

"You freed me"

The Guardian refused help and rose under his oer, showing no sign he’d been dealt ically healed himself, but it still amazed him Dead The Guardian should have been dead

The three of theore splattered across it Cade’s feet slapped in puddles that had not been there before Water seeped between the stones of the wall and dripped froed on the door and yelled for them to release hi that the drubbing of the turbines had increased Now they pounded like a rapid heartbeat, the shuddering floor sending ripples across the surface of the water that was now ankle deep

"It’s flooding," Cade , he had no doubt

"Yes," said the witch, Yolandhe

Cade followed the Guardian into the lift, Yolandhe serenely stepping in after hi Cade saas the corridor rapidly filling ater It now poured down the walls and out of the ceiling, sounding like a storm, the turbines the thunder Even over the cla on the steel door of his cell

• • •

Yolandhe did not speak as the lift ascended She tilted her face up as if gazing at the ceiling, though she had no eyes To Cade, the farther the lift carried theaunt she appeared, the more power she emanated It made his skin prickle

"I have to reach Arhys and Lorine," he told the Guardian "They are not safe here"

"The little girl and her governess? I assume one of them is more important than she seeirl, and you were training as a Weapon"