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Kestin stood up His crown shifted backward on his head "Why do you care? You’re Rael ian You think the ghosts shouldn’t exist Your thinking that is the reason the Guardian brought you here!"

You can pretend along with the rest of them, Darri’s voice whispered in her ht She didn’t think the ghosts should exist

But they did exist; she knew that with a bone-deep certainty that Darri could never understand She thought of Jano, of his bit erness and pranks, of the sly jokes that had helped her survive her first year here She thought of Lady Velochier with her arht of Clarisse, heady with her newfound power, fighting to remain in this world And then she looked at Kestin, dead and regal, glaring down at her with eyes like black fire

This hy the Guardian had brought Darri here Because he had known Cal ie could never destroy her friends and acquaintances, people she had known for four years People who shouldn’t exist, but did

"You can’t let her do this," she said

"Yes I can," Kestin said "If you were dead, you would understand"

She didn’t even flinch at that She said, "I would But not al of the the"

Kestin’s lips thinned "Nobody asked them if they wanted to be here in the first place"

Cal ie stepped back She asting her ti hi her ti him Not when he had just accepted hope, for the first time after weeks of hopelessness

He would come around to it eventual y; he was too smart not to Maybe in a few minutes Maybe in a few days, or weeks, or ht, then," she said, angry despite herself "I’l stop her myself"

She half-expected Kestin to try and prevent her, but the dead prince didn’t move or ut er a sound He stood and watched, his eyes bleak, as she whirled and ran across the marble floor

Chapter Nineteen

Varis’s first move, once he and Clarisse were alone in the cavern, was to retrieve his tunic and slip it over his head; not out of modesty, but because the si By the time he turned to face Clarisse, he was able to appear perfectly calm

Until he saw the stone shard in her hand, and realized what should have been the obvious answer to the question of who Clarisse was going to betray

Both of them

Clarisse lifted the shard and threw it He whirled to the side, and the pointed stone whizzed past his ear and ricocheted of a rock Clarisse knelt, picked up another, and stepped closer

Varis drew his silver knife, and she shifted her hold slightly, so that she could use the stone to block a throw

When he just stood there, the knife smal and useless in his hand, her lips curved into a smile

"A dilemma, isn’t it?" she said "Throw it, and you lose your only defense But I don’t intend to get close enough to let you use it any other way, before I kil you"

"I don’t think," Varis said, "that you’re going to kil ood"

Varis’s stomach twisted You have no idea what she real y wants froain? You have what you want The Defender is gone, and the way is clear for you to be the leader of the dead"

Clarisse’s sed "That did work out quite wel , didn’t it?"

"Then why kil me?" Varis said

Her eyebrows arched "The correct question is, why not?"

"It’s not that simple You tried to kil me before, on the hunt, and I don’t believe it was just because the Defender ordered it" He risked a step toward her She didn’t move back "I think it was because if I was kil ed in Ghostland, eance Between that and the succession dispute, it would be years before we recovered suf iciently to cross the Kierran Mountains"

Clarisse ht on the stone; and for a ht she had thrown it He stumbled to the side before he realized that she had only raised it defensively, as if it was he who had throeapon

"And why," she said, her eyes like green fire, "would I care about that?"

"You’re trying so hard to care about nothing," Varis said, "that thereyou real y do care about Souess"

She lowered the stone shard, just low enough to give him a clear view of her face She was so furious she couldn’t hide her anger, and al at once he was sure he was right

"I used to care about nothing" She stepped forward, sliding her feet over the rough stone ground, until she stood right before him "It’s not as easy as you would think, but I did it I broke of al connections with everything I ever had cared about I died, which was rather extreme but did seem to work And then you cah that it wasn’t directly in her line of view

"I didn’t even realize, at first, why I was so fascinated by you" Her face went flat "You’re soainst A threat to him"

He nodded "To your brother"

She actual y flinched "How do you--"

Varis reen eyes "The portrait in your roohter looks just like you"