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The fire pit was a bizarrely seventies Playboy touch, but it worked, not least as the flames of the fire were a supernatural kind that wouldn’t actually burn down the library

Standing there, I felt almost overwhelirl who considered herself a strong contender for the ultimate reader

"Do you like it?" Anyan asked, his voice teasing Looking up at his iron-grey eyes, I realized I was beyond words

In response, I could only asm

CHAPTER FIVE

What is this place?" I breathed, when I’d gotten my brain back online

"It’s our Great Island’s Great Repository," cah-backed chair alht I couldn’t see her, as the chair had its back to us and she must have been seated But then the voice stood, and turned, and I found e

For there was Jane, just as I’d last seen her inher face, the same black eyes in which the pupils were barely discernible, the sah cheekbones, and button chin, followed byjeans and a long black wool sweater, anda si for , my brain observed And then some

It’s cushion, harrumphed my libido For the pushin’

"Ue cocked her head at , "Ummm"

I looked over at Anyan, and then the otheron?" I demanded, as the not-me version of me rolled her eyes and walked from behind the chair and away a few paces After a few strides and a few seconds, I realized that the not-h, an utterly nondescript wo at e, I ht her hair was mouse-brown, and then I decided it was dull blonde, and then I decided it wasFroreen Her figure and facial features appeared to e Indeed, that was the woes: the fact she was utterly average, at all tiet her face the minute I walked away fro before my very eyes

"Still here then, Sarah?" Blondie, now standing slightly behind ht, asked the wo features

"I’e, Cyntaf," she said, in a thick Scottish brogue "You know that"

"Aye, Sarah I do," Blondie said, her own accent , then"

Sarah walked past ure changed swiftly back into ain, but then Blondie was holding another Blondie tight, stroking a muscular little hand over the side of her twin’s head, below her Mohawk

The Blondie that was really Sarah was shivering, clinging to our original Original like a worief and wariness

"It’s been so long," the Sarah-Blondie whispered

"I know," our own Blondie replied "I’m sorry"

"I’ve missed you"