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The Sword of Hunyadi felt heavy at his hip

Whatever truth there end-Born, and no matter how much he wanted to be hoed hiht be, had alished, he was beco back now

He drew the sword

In the ht of solanced over and saw Kitsune by the doors of the Sand back to watch for the sand creatures that had attacked theleaht The hurt and bitterness on her face was unht his breath In the exultation of saving Collette and the shock of seeing Julianna, he’d barely spared a thought for Kitsune

He forced himself to break the moment, raised his sword, and ran after Collette

"Wait!" he shouted "Coll, wait!"

If she heard hiured the Sand to stay alive that he couldn’t control the constructs inside the castle anymore, which helped But even so, the ered the? Even the coun see to stop hio anywhere near the Sand, he thought

But fear would not turn Oliver away Why none of the Myth Hunters had shown up was a uredthem busy elsewhere, and whoever their hidden enemy really was--Ty’Lis or someone else--they assumed an ordinary brother and sister, soft and pae for the Sandht Oliver would have been dead many times over if not for Kitsune, and they’d both be dead if not for the Dustman And he knew the Dustman had come at his request, but hadn’t been too difficult to persuade They all faced the saht now, Oliver wasn’t feeling solidarity with anyone Not Kitsune or the Dustman or the tall woman with the sword or the soldiers who followed her And sure as hell not the lunatic with the gun Collette wasn’t going to fall into the Sandain, and now that Julianna was here, he wanted nothing except to get the her

The sight of the sand-brothers at war sickened hi and battering The Dustman seeain, to forreatcoat and bowler hat and ue shape remained the same, but the details were a blur, like an old statue with its features eroded by entropy

After her imprisonment, Collette was in no condition to run Oliver overtook her easily He grabbed her arm from behind and pulled her up short She spun on him, eyes wild

"Stop!" he shouted "Stay here I didn’t coet you just to watch you die!"

"I won’t die We’re not helpless here We can fight! We can hurt him" Collette held up her hands "I’ve done it!"

Oliver wanted to ask what she was talking about, but there just wasn’t ti seconds, and he turned to see the shooter ai sand, the twist and tur brothers, the un and stared lanced at Collette, and then they were running together

"You’re sure about this?" he asked

She said nothing, but when he looked down at her, he saw the set of her jaw and the grie in her eyes, and he knew she had never been so certain of anything in her life

The tall soldier caught up to the gunet the gun free, to shoot again, no uy?" Oliver snapped

"Halliwell He’s a detective He was looking for you when you disappeared," Collette said, huffing, trying to keep up with hier of dread went up Oliver’s spine So he was responsible for this Halliwell being here as well

They were twenty feet fro battle between the Dustunman shot an elbow into the tall soldier’s abdoered back a step and let go of hiht her hands up to cover her ers splayed across her eyes and she peered between thes have been cut, all the strength left her muscles and she went down on her knees

She watched Collette and Oliver run toward Halliwell, but could not rise A terrible chill enveloped her She had watched his o nu, she had wanted nothinguntil they could find Oliver, find the answers that they were looking for Guilt consumed her now as she accepted the selfishness of that Yet it had not been only for her She’d wanted to give Halliwell hope, soh for theo ho had told thee, and King Hunyadi himself But Halliwell had never let himself believe it

Julianna knew that his denial of that fact was the only thing that kept hi apart coain, he would shatter

Noas happening right before her eyes

Collette and Oliver ran toward Halliwell Captain Daain, to keep him back But Julianna could see, even in profile, the expression on his face, and she knew there was no point Ted had lost all hope, and now all that was left was his anguish

Halliwell started firing again, and he ran right into the midst of the sandstorm created by the Dustman and Sandman at war

"No!" Oliver shouted "What the hell are you doing?"

Too late, Julianna thought But, in her eon had changed when they had crossed the Veil into this world, could reer and cynicism that had eaten away at him, and she wondered if it had always been too late

In the starlight, Julianna could see a difference in the hue of the sand and dust that ray Striations of that sandstor in on each other And when Halliwell stepped into their un one last time His clothes flapped around him, driven by the force of the wind the two Borderkind were creating Collette screaet back, to step away, but it was too late The sandstorm had him, the war of these two brothers had consu stor around It tore Halliwell’s clothes fro the skin and ristle froered to a stop in horror Beside hied on her knees, a hundred feet away, Julianna let her hands slip from her face Warm tears painted tracks in the dust on her cheeks

"Ted," she whispered

As they watched, the stor, Halliwell’s bare bones fell to the ground