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" ’S beautiful, this is," Grin said

The Borderkind stood in the midst of yet another ruin, this time of a Greek-style amphitheater, an outdoor theater on top of a h whatever perforods for an audience

Below, there stretched a city, though Blue Jay could not have said which The theater was probably Greek, but the Greeks had influenced the world once upon a tiuely Italian, even froray san

Frost was beside him "Didn’t you hear the Mazikeen? Akrai We’re in Sicily The volcano there is Mt Etna"

The trickster tossed his hair, feathers dancing on the breeze He stretched and sta the soil beneath his boots Whenever he crossed the Veil, he needed a moment to become acclimated

"We’re on an island?" Blue Jay asked He turned to look at the others They were spread across the stones that had been laid down as a stage thousands of years before, as though they were theto make our way to the Atlantic coast from here?"

Frost arched an eyebrow, the ice of his face crackling He turned his head, icicle hair tinkling musically

Chorti threw his head back and howled

"So sylphlike up behind the across her face, "I think that is the least of our concerns"

Blue Jay followed the line of her gaze, and there in the sky, he saw the terrible, angular figures with their antlers jutting fros spread out behind the from his nostrils as he held out a hand, in which a ball of flarew

"At least seven," the Grindylow said He pried a e and prepared to hurl it

But that was not what Chorti had scented He scraped hischasing its tail Blue Jay glanced around and then he saw, co over the top of the hill, above the stone rows of seats that surrounded one side of the aures

A hideous crone, the dawn’s light illuure that slunk doard therotesque parody of humanity, its mouth impossibly wide and lined with hundreds of ivory needle teeth, tipped with veno us," Frost said, icyfrom his eyes "They would not come into the Latin Quarter, but once they kneere in Lycaon’s Kitchen, they gahed "An ambush Wonderful"

CHAPTER 10

Halliwell sat on a fallen tree, catching his breath His right hand ed tips of several broken branches and he wondered what had taken the tree down He would have thought a storm responsible, but there was a section of the trunk where the bark had been stripped off and deep gouges cut in the wood, as if froht be anything

He hoped that whatever had knocked down the tree was long gone

Julianna had continued on sixty or seventy yards in the general direction of what Kara called the Orient Road He was both erateful for her courtesy They’d stopped to let hi they had done in the past two days Halliwell often thought of himself as an old e; no oldto make this journey and not drop dead of a heart attack by now

But he felt older than ever

Kara had none of Julianna’s courtesy The little girl hung from the low branch of a tree just across from the fallen one and studied Halliith open curiosity and a bit of disdain The detective--could he even think of himself as a detective in this place?--forced his, ignoring the twinging protests of his thighs and calves His feet didn’t hurt, so that was a plus But he suspected that they would, and soon How far he would be able to go after that, he did not know

Halliwell returned Kara’s stare, but she was unfazed by his attention The girl swung on the branch and studied hi He was reminded of a mental patient he had tried to interview once in an asyluor

"How old are you?" Halliwell asked

Kara dropped to the ground, dry grass crunching underfoot She did a pirouette, a herself as children do "I’m not really sure How old are you?"

He hesitated aThen, reluctantly, he picked hi he could sit there all day but knowing they had to irl a sh to wish I was anywhere else"

Kara’s dark, lustrous features expanded into a glorious sinning to think you’re quite a clever girl"

Halliwell studied herin her eyes awatt smile did not help at all Thus far she had proven herself a knowledgeable and skilled guide…or at least she seeood she was until she led theht hi at her almost constantly Whoever and whatever she was, it seemed obvious to him that Kara was not quite hu to run into a lot of that here

But that did notof here and there It brought back the panic that churned within him His nerves were frayed, and sometimes his hands shook He tried to control it as best he could, knowing that Julianna had noticed

Kara had noticed, too A clever girl, he’d said But there was far er Kara did another pirouette and it was as though she had no idea he was there to watch her Yet at the saht she was completely aware of him, and this little dance was a perforesture for thenal enough She was getting impatient Halliwell could not blame her

Kara led the way and Halliwell had to hurry to catch up For her size, she moved with uncanny swiftness He tried not to look too closely at her when she alking, or to atte with his eyes if he did that, and a needle of pain would thrust into each temple

"You’re sure this is the way? Oliver and the…shapeshifter…the fox-woirl turned and walked backward as she replied "I can s "Can’t you?"

"No," Halliwell replied, knitting his brows