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A heavy sigh was followed by a soothing uards are pathetic"

Cress pressed her hands against herShe stared into the darkness, atteht pass out if she didn’t get roaned Not far away fro’s allies The question is, what are you doing in the palace?"

A beat, then Thorne’s voice "Just kissinga little Cress scrunched up her whole face and buried it against her knees, choking back a sob "I didn’t realize that was a … a capital offense around here"

The irl you ith?"

"I think you scared her off"

Another sigh "We don’t have ti cell--we’ll deal with hihtful Earthen pet for one of the fairl--alert reat hall They’re plotting so, and Her Majesty will kill us all if the cererunt Cress flinched, her head filling with all the things they could have done to Thorne to cause that grunt--all the things they could still do to him

She bit her lip until she tasted blood, the pain alone keeping her fro him away

Seventy-Three

"Jacin" Cinder’s tone was full of warning "Iko did not sacrifice herself so you could crash us into a crater and kill us both"

"Cal to be calainst his chest

"I thought you said you’ve never driven one of these before"

"I haven’t" He banked hard and the terrain-speeder careened to the left, fast and sasped and reached for a bar overhead A hiss of pain followed--probably her shoulder wound acting up again--but she didn’t say anything and Jacin didn’t slon

The vehicle was by far the slickest Jacin had ever piloted Little more than a risky toy to some rich Artemisian, it hovered close to the rocky, uneven surface of Luna, soaring so fast the white ground blurred beneath the it feel as if they were out in the airless terrain rather than in a protective vehicle

Though protective was a subjective word Jacin had the feeling that if he clipped any rocks, this thing would crumple around them like an aluminum can

Hell, maybe it was alued antigravitythem on a smooth trajectory as they sailed over the crater below, before descending toward the other side and continuing on as if nothing had happened Jacin’s stoh speed and not quite having adjusted to the weightlessness outside of the gravity-controlled doh her teeth, "but we have a lot of fragile and i Maybe we don’t want to crash?"

"We’re fine" His attention dropped to the holographic map above the controls Any other day this would have been a daring game, but now they were on a mission Every spare corner of the speeder was full of antidote vials and every

And one of them was Winter

A dome appeared on the horizon Even from here he could see the lines of tree trunks on one side and the clear-cut stumps on the other