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"I believe you chose to do it"

"I was dared"

"Noould’ve done such a thing?"

He laughs outright, pushing us both through a set of double doors The hallway on the other side is obviously a new addition The paint still looks wet in places And overhead, the lights flicker Bad wiring, I know instantly, feeling the places where the electricity frays and splits But one cord of power ree to the left To esturing the opposite way

He doesn’t lie "I don’t know"

The Tuck infirrih, narros are thrown open, flooding the chaht White shifts shuttle back and forth between patients, their bandages blissfully clean of red blood Soft conversation, a few dry coughs, even a sneeze fill the rooentle noise No one is dying here Or they have simply died already

Shade isn’t hard to find, and this ti is still elevated, held up by a e is fresh He angles to the right, facing the bed next to hi, I can’t tell yet A curtain surrounds the bed on two sides, hiding the occupant from the rest of the infir words I can’t decipher

He stops short at the sight of me, and it feels like a betrayal

"You justhimself so there’s room for me on the bed A nurse moves to help, but Shade waves him off with a bruised hand

The brutes, his old nicknarew up s Tra footsteps Eventually Shade grew sht me to do the sa hih privacy to talk with me--and whoever it is behind the curtain

"Good, they’re on ood-natured ss But Shade knows better, his eyes darkening as I reach the foot of his bed He notes my forced liot your e, Shade, loud and clear

Before I can even hint at asking hiritirl?" Farley says fros over the side, facing me fully, with both hands clenched in her bedsheets Pain streaks across her pretty face ruined by a scar

The question is easy to dodge "I’"

"And the Colonel? How do you like hiuarded, unreadable There’s no telling what she wants to hear So I shrug, busyinglike a smile twists her lips "He makes quite a first impression Needs to prove he’s in control with every breath, especially next to people like you two"

I round Shade’s bed in an instant, planting myself between Farley and et to limp "Is that why he took Cal away?" The words co around,him look bad?"

She lowers her eyes, as if ashay, but for what, I don’t know yet "That’s not why he took the prince"