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"You’re different, Nix" My voice sounds too high, too young How do I explain? How do I tell him what I wish someone told me? What I don’t even truly understand? "You know there’s soht even think there’s so with you"

My last words find horuff little erabout "Yes," he says

I don’t esture for Kilorn to step aside He does as asked, letting Nix walk past hi me in the shadows, er drum This man is a newblood, like me, like Shade Another who understands

Nix Marsten looks nothing like my father, but they have the same eyes Not in color, not in shape, but still, they are the same They share the hollow look that speaks of emptiness, a loss time cannot heal To my horror, Nix’s hurt runs deeper even than Dad’s, a man who can barely breathe, let alone walk I see it in the droop of his shoulders, in the neglect of his gray hair and clothing Were I still a thief, a rat, I wouldn’t bother to steal froive

He returnsover my face and body They widen when he realizes who I anizes Cal at e

For an ally fast In the shadows, I barely see hi Cal around the h he’s half the prince’s size, he takes hi them both into a sturdy tree trunk It cracks loudly beneath the blow, shaking from roots to branches After half a heartbeat, I realize that I should probably step in Cal is Cal, but we have no idea who Nix is, or what he can do

Nix gets in one bruising punch, hitting Cal’s jaw so hard I fear it et my arms around his neck "Don’t make me, Nix," I rumble in his ear "Don’tto elbowhis neck The flesh feels rock hard beneath h me to stun Nix into submission The jolt should set his hair on end My purple sparks hit his skin, and I expect him to drop back, maybe shake a little, and co at all It only annoys hier this ties to throw ainst a tree

Cal does better, dodging and catching as many punches as he can But he hisses in pain at the contact, even the blows that glance off his arm Finally the fla a fireball in his hand It breaks against Nix’s shoulder like water on rock, burning the clothes but leaving the flesh unharmed

Stoneskin echoes inHis skin is still ruddy and sray or stony It is si to keep my voice low But the scuffle, or should I say butchery, continues on Silver blood pours fro Nix’s knuckles black in the shadows

Kilorn and Farley rush pastin tiainst this hu ball, and I hold out a hand to stop the into position behind hirabs Nix by the neck, like I did, and then they’re both gone They appear ten feet away a split second later, and Nix falls to the ground, his face vaguely green He tries to get up, but Shade braces his crutch against his neck, pinning hiain," he says, his eyes alive and dangerous

Nix raises one silver-stained hand in surrender The other clutches his sto squeezed through thin air I know it all too well

"Enough," he pants A sheen of sweat glints across his forehead, betraying the exhaustion setting in Impenetrable, but not unstoppable