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"Once he finishes his revenge, he will turn against the lesser targets He will seek to rule because that’s what he did in life"

And ould be his targets We had to end this chain of power-ups before it went any further

"You’ve allowed me one question I will allow you one as well," he said

"Why is he using the ghouls?"

"Because he is used to ruling He likely thinks that he requires an ar, and they, by their very nature, are easy for hi ware had run dry I had houls and about defeating the ifrit, but my time was up One question was all he would answer, so I settled down to eat the rest of my cake

• • •

THE EVENING WAS dying slowly, the sun bleeding its lifeblood onto the horizon when Curran pulled into our driveway We had taken a short detour The answer ave me at dinner made me rethink our stalker, so we stopped by the address the Clerk had given ed from the shadows as we had pulled up and reported that he hadn’t seen anyone We picked him up, I left a short note by the door, held in place by a rock, and ent hoain took the planet in its grip At least we’d get a short break from the ifrit

There were so s I had wanted to ask houls I wanted him to tell me why he had broken Christopher’s mind I wanted to know more about my mother But this was a slippery slope

There was one person I could ask about all of this Trouble was, he wasn’t always reliable

I stepped out of the Jeep

"You okay?" Curran asked o talk to Christopher for a little bit Do you think the note ork?"

"It can’t hurt"

I walked to Barabas’s house Here’s hoping Christopher was lucid

Barabas let me in and went back to the Guild Manual I found Christopher on the floor of the downstairs living roo, surrounded by open books His face lit up when he saw me, his eyes clear

"Mistress"

"Hi, Christopher" I sat on the carpet outside his book fort