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Long pause

"I didn’t have to"

"So?"

"So why should I?"

"Why shouldn’t you?"

Talking in circles had its uses It had given her time to come up with an answer "I didn’t want Daria to see"

Ven’s eyes went so narrow she could no longer see their blue "I saw your face when the cat leaped You didn’t have time to take that into account"

"You wouldn’t have had ti to work this ti He , hard stare, clearly not liking what he was seeing

Isabel stared back, fairly sure that her expression was the saht up with Rokan halfway down the stairs, on a di with a tinycut into the thick stone wall The guards from the ballroo was a confusedat the guards to let hi to obey, the other half were trying to reason with hi, Rokan was drawing his sword

She reached around hi her hands to stone as they closed around the sharp edges She pulled the sword frorasp so deftly that he didn’t at first realize what had happened He stared at his empty clenched fist, then whirled around

Isabel flipped the sword into the air and caught it by the hilt A few of the nearer guards flinched or ducked, but Rokan stood right where he was and glared at her

"It’s probably not a good idea," Isabel said, "to draeapon on your own guards"

"I have to find Albin!"

"And you think he went back to the ballrooet to Clarisse--"

"Clarisse can’t help you Albin could be anywhere by now" Interesting, the difference between hue thather into ice She"If you want to find out what happened, you need to focus on the people still within your reach Have your soldiers arrest Owain"

He sed hard, turned, and issued a few short orders to the guards In addition to arresting Owain, he told theanize a manhunt; wasted efforts, but Isabel didn’t try to stop him By the time he finished and turned back to face her, he sounded almost coherent

Isabel handed back his sword He took it and sheathed it without everhis eyes from her face They ide and bewildered Isabel’s heart lurched This was a hurt it was too late to protect him from, a hurt beyond the Shifter’s ability to salve

Beneath her syry Daria was someone Rokan had chosen to love, and even before her betrayal, she hadn’t been worthy of it If hu to care so deeply, they should be more careful about whom they decided to spend their affections on

"Isabel--" Rokan began, and his voice cracked "I should have--"

Yes, you should have, she thought fiercely, but she didn’t say it She wasn’t angry at Rokan--or at least, she shouldn’t be She should have watched Daria more closely If she hat she was supposed to be, she would have stopped this before it happened

"Go find Clarisse," she said "I’llto discover how Albin did it Once Owain is in custody and you’ve calardens"

For another moment Rokan stood there, his hand still on the sword’s hilt Then he took a deep breath and set his shoulders "Right," he said, and turned to the reo ahead and uards exchanged glances, and he raised his voice--just a notch, but it was enough to make them scraarden?"

"Albin wouldn’t expect us to rown colder He won’t have set up any spells there"

Rokan nodded "I’ll be there, then"

Isabel let a so no further She bowed her head briefly "As will I, my prince"

Ven was one step ahead of her By the time Isabel reached the room where the snowcat’s corpse lay stretched across the floor, he was already working a spell She stopped in the doorway and watched hi unsteadily on his feet The air around hiht seen through lowered eyelashes, patternless and beautiful and threatening all at once

Ven drew in his breath and opened his eyes, and the colors vanished Isabel steeled herself for the expression on his face

But Ven merely shook his head and said, "I can’t find him, Isabel I’m sorry"

"Do you kno he did it?"

"Yes"

"Then that will have to do Colad of the excuse to turn away, but when he stuarded hihtly slack, and his eyes see