Page 23 (2/2)

Ouch times, like, a thousand

“I asked Dash how he felt,” Noctorno continued “He said the minute he met her, it was indescribable The instant connection The pull Now it’s constant He can barely stand to be away fro deep so separated fro a limb removed You need it there You can’t live without it When it’s gone, the phantom of it reh to touch, it drives you slightly mad She can leave hi inside Minerva has her, she has her and while she does,inside”

God, that sounded beautiful I wished I had that

It also sounded awful

Poor Dash Poor Rosa

“We should have that,” he informed me

“We don’t,” I informed him

“Why?” he asked

“I don’t know” And I sure as heck didn’t, except the part that I wasn’t fro world!

“I do,” he replied

Really? He did?

“You do?”

“Yes, Cora, I do”

“Then why don’t we have it?”

“Because to have that pull you have to have a heart You have to be able to fall in love He fell in love with her the second he saw her and she the same And, as you know, the minute my eyes hit you, I fell in love with you”

Whoa! Wait

What?

What, what, what?

Before I could verbalize“But you didn’t fall in love with me because you have no heart and then you proceeded to killelse entirely And you keep doing it Every bloody time I see you Every ti in it to recognize as anything even close to what it once was”

“You lovedinto his harsh,you loved ht I couldn’t breathe and his hand in entle anys, he barked in ame but don’t you ever, ever, Cora, play with that memory”

Oh

My

God

He used to love me! And, obviously, he’d told me And, just as obviously, I’d spurned that love

Or, more aptly, the other ave me a shake “Am I understood?””

“Tor –”

He lost it and I knehen his hand twisted in my hair, I cried out at the pain and he roared, “Am I understood?”

“Yes!” I shouted

At the sahty head back and whinnied loud

Noctorno’s head shot to his horse, his body went statue-still then he looked over my head to the mouth of the cave