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That was a little hard to take

The Wolf is dead! She wanted to scream I killed him Don’t look at ht now, she had to be strong enough to look weak

"Co Issa, Zuzana, and Mik forward

But Akiva didn’t let it go so easily "Wait" He spoke in Seraphic, which none but Karou would understand "It’s not hiive you the choice if I could I want to knohat you want"

What I want? Karou quelled a ripple of hysteria that felt dangerously like laughter As if this life bore any reseiven the circumstances, was it what she wanted? She’d scarcely considered what itwith Akiva’s bastard brethren to take on the Empire?

Simply put, it was crazy "Even united," she said, "ould be massively outnumbered"

"An alliance means more than the number of swords," Akiva said And his voice was like a shadow from another life when he added, softly, "Souarded second, then remembered herself and forced her eyes down Some, and then more It was the answer to the question of whether others could be brought around to their drea," Akiva had saidto Thiago No one else knehat that meant, but Karou did, and she felt the heat of the drea

She’d said it to hi it now This hat his offer of alliance meant: the past, the future, penitence, rebirth Hope

It e it Not here Nisk and Lisseth had halted on the hill to peer back at the quietly in Seraphic while Thiago just stood there and let the The Wolf they kneould have had blood on his fangs by now

Every moment was a test of the deception; every syllable uttered made the Wolf’s forbearance less tenable So Karou dropped her gaze to the baked, stony earth and rounded her shoulders like the broken doll she was supposed to be "The choice is Thiago’s," she said in Chimaera, and tried to act her role

She tried

But she couldn’t leave it at that After everything, Akiva was still chasing the ghost of hope Out of ined in their days of love, he was trying to conjure it back to life What other way foras there? It hat she wanted

She had to give hi her elbow Karou leaned into her, turning so that the serpent wo chiht miss it, she raised her hand and touched her heart

It pounded in her chest as she ht, and was overcoal, her deeper self, who had died believing, and it was acute She bent into Issa, hiding her face so that no one would see her flush

Issa’s voice was so faint it alht "You see, child? Your heart is not wrong"

And for the first ti ti

Out of betrayal and desperation, aels and a deception that felt like an explosion waiting to happen, so

5

GETTING-ACQUAINTED GAME

Akiva didn’t ertips brush her heart as she turned away, and in that instant it all beca hi disbelief of Liraz at his side

"You’re mad," she said under her breath "I have an army, too? You don’t have an army, Akiva You’re part of an army There’s a difference"

"I know," he said The offer wasn’t his tofor them at the Kirin caves; this hters, or even men and wo theh they had rallied behind Akiva to oppose the Empire, an alliance with their

"I’ll convince them," he said, and in his exhilaration--Karou had touched her heart--he believed it

"Start with me," hissed his sister "We came here to warn them, not to join them"

Akiva knew that if he could persuade Liraz, the rest would follow Just hoas supposed to do that, he did not know, and the White Wolf’s approach forestalled hi

With his she-wolf lieutenant by his side, he strode forward, and Akiva’s exhilaration withered He flashed back to the first time he had ever seen the Wolf It had been at Bath Kol, in the Shadow Offensive, when he hi caht, and ht had forged his hatred of the beasts Sword in one hand, ax in the other, Thiago had surged through ranks of angels, ripping out throats with his teeth like it was instinct Like he was hungry