Page 149 (1/2)

Renna stabbed hard into the wood de the blade up into its heart Next to her, Arlen had wrestled the other one to the ground, holding it prone while the killing wards all over his body did their work

There was a growl, and Renna looked up to see a third demon appear in the branches above her She twisted as it dropped, but caught the hilt of her knife on the ridged ar fell dead, and the weapon isted fro to her back and coiling her legs as Arlen had taught her She caught the wood demon’s branchlike ar its own ht in front of Arlen, who crushed its skull

"You’d let me paint my knuckles, I could do that myself," Renna said

"Ent no need to ward your skin," he told her "Knife’s good enough for now"

Renna went over to the wood de her knife free She held it up for Arlen to see "Din’t have the knife"

"You handled it well enough without"

"Only because you wern’t still wrestlin’ that other one," Renna said "Ent looking to use a needle, only a brush and some blackstem"

Arlen frowned at her "Feedback’s different when the wards are on your skin, Ren Strong enough to lose yourself in I was lost a long ti it, and I ent myself even now Don’t want to see that happen to you You mean too much to me"

"I do?" Renna asked

"Good to have someone to talk to other than Dancer," Arlen said, oblivious to her sudden interest "I…get lonely"

"Lonely," Renna echoed "Knohat that’s like Apt to lose yourself there, too World’s full of things to lose yourself in Don’t mean we should spend our whole lives behind the wards"

Arlen looked at her a long tied "Can’t tell you what to do, Ren You want to ignoreprince observed the courting for severalrituals It was clear the one barely understood his ic, oblivious to the mind demon’s presence or the extent of his oers He had the potential to be a unifier, but here in the wilderness he was no threat and could be safely observed

The de more deeply into her mind for information on the one, but there was little of value It planted a question on her lips

"How’d you bring back the lost wards?" Renna asked, surprising herself She knew Arlen hated to talk about what had happened to him after he left the Brook

"Told you Found them in a ruin," Arlen said

"What ruin? Where?" she pressed

"What does it a"

Renna shook her head to clear it "I’ot so interested Dun’t runted and headed off toward the keep they had spent the last feeeks warding while he trained her to hunt de prince hissed as the one refused the question Logic said to kill theency The nuested they would not leave soon It could observe another few cycles

As the humans crossed the wards, the mind demon was cut off from the fe and turned toprince slipped back down to the Core to consider

CHAPTER 28

THE PALACE OF MIRRORS