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"What? That’s crazy We don’t kno that will - "

"We don’t know anything, Zane"

The pounding stopped, and Tally shushed his reply Specials weren’t just strong and fast, they had the sharp hearing of predators

Suddenly, a bright light sparked through the gap in the door, throildly jittering shadows into the shack, leaving tracers on Tally’s vision The cutting tool hissed as it burned into the chain, and the smell of molten metal reached her nostrils The Specials would be inside in seconds

"Together," she whispered, handing one of the pills to Zane With a deep breath she placed the other on her tongue Bitterness exploded through her rape She sed the pill, which trailed an acid taste down her throat

"Please," she pleaded softly "Do this withat the taste He stared at her, shaking his head "That may have been very stupid, Tally"

She tried to s forward, she grasped the back of his neck and kissed him David hadn’t come to rescue her He was either dead or he ly, and Zane was beautiful, and bubbly, and he was here "We need each other now," she said

They were still kissing when the Specials burst in

Part II

THE CURE

and kisses are a better fate than wisdo is first"

BREAKTHROUGH

Overnight, the first freeze of winter had coht with icicles Glittering black fingers stretched across the , cutting the sky into sharp little pieces

Tally pressed one hand against the pane, letting the chill leak through the glass and into her palht sharper, as brittle as she iined the icicles outside to be It focused the part of her mind that still wanted to sink back into pretty dreams

When she finally pulled her hand away frolass, then slowly faded

"Blurry Tally is no ainst Zane’s cheek

"What the," he e her hand away

"Wake up, pretty-head"

His eyes opened a slit "Make it dark," he told his interface cuff

The roo the

Tally frowned "Another headache?" Zane still soraines that could put him out for hours, but they weren’t as bad as the first weeks after he’d taken the pill

"No," he murmured "Sleepy"

She reached for thetheback to transparent "Then it’s ti"

He squinted at her through one eye "Ice skating is bogus"

"Sleeping’s bogus Get up and be bubbly"

"Bubbly is bogus"

Tally raised one eyebrohich didn’t hurt anyood pretty and had her forehead all fixed, though she’d memorialized the scar with a flash tattoo: black Celtic swirls just above her eye that spun in tiotten eye surge exactly like Shay’s, backward-running clocks and everything

"Bubbly is not bogus, lazy-face" Tally placed her hand against theagain to recharge its iciness Her interface cuff sparkled in the sun like the frozen trees below, and for the millionth time she searched for any seaed from one piece of steel, perfectly fitted to the oval of her wrist She pulled at it softly, feeling the slightest give; she was growing skinnier every day "Coffee, please," she said sweetly to the cuff

Brewing sain When her hand had grown sufficiently cold, Tally placed it on his bare chest He flinched but didn’t fight back, just squeezed two fistfuls of sheet and took a shuddering breath His eyes opened, their gold irises shining like the cold winter sun "Now that was bubbly"

"I thought bubbly was bogus"

He sed drowsily