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CHAPTER FIFTEEN

I was proud of myself that I didn’t panic when it went black Mostly nized this darkness: it was like the blackness that Blondie took me to when she’d wanted to talk

Which an was still standing exactly where she’d been, a few feet fro I’d freak out and she could use e

But instead I took a deep breath, and gave her rasp

I’d re to me how this mind trick worked, back ere in that cave and she was about to send me to meet the creature She’d needed to talk to me, so she’d put everyone in that cave into their own little illusory box They couldn’t attack us, but we couldn’t attack them, either She’d explained how the trick actually worked--that the best she could do was to put everyone in their own mental space, but thatThey just couldn’t see anything, like I couldn’t see anything

Thinking hard, I tried to figure out how to use that inforan had learned this particular trick It had not been a part of her repertoire, at least that I knew, before she left the Compound

"Well, Jane Isn’t this nice? Just the two of us Like we used to be, when you caan’s accent was still upper-crust British, and it flowed from her lips too naturally to be faked The Alfar queen was full of secrets, apparently

I narrowed an"

"Oh, don’t be such a stick-in-the-ift of privacy"

"I’d rather not be so private with you"

"You wound me, Jane You really do Now, talk to irl like you?"

I stayed quiet I didn’t even knohat she was asking, exactly, so I couldn’t have addressed her question if I’d wanted to

"I hear ruan continued, unfazed by my silence She paced in front of ht

"I hear that you have a weapon That you were given power Is that true?"

I touched the part of lad I’d kept it hidden for our an," I said, instead of the whole truth "But because I’an s about nor about the power of the champion"

"Me?" I scoffed "The champion? I know you realize how ridiculous that sounds," I said After all, it was ridiculous that I was the charimace of concentration as she turned to look at

"And yet you see your al," I said, fury inflecting et hurt," Morrigan said, taking another step closer "And you do look harder, yes But there’s more There’s power…"

Before she could continue, I also took a step back, towards where I esti, in his own little box I didn’t know if I was e ofBut I figured I had to be ht me those milkshakes at that Ben & Jerry’s, the first tio in Rhode Island

"Speaking of changes," I said, trying to keep Morrigan distracted as I took another step backwards "You’re different too You’re dressed a bit like the sleazy hanger-on of a movie villain, to be honest I al and an hissed at me--and I mean hissed--and took another step towards me that I balanced out with one of my own, backwards

"Plus there’re the speech patterns You were totally Alfar before And now you’re all casual--almost huan What have you been up to? Or were you always just a big phony?"

Morrigan hissed again, and I could have sworn she was growing Her pants suit definitely looked a little strained at the seaer now, in a face that was elongating

"And what is it with those eyes?" I asked, taking another long few steps backwards, right towards where I knew Anyan should be standing, assued position and that I was actuallyto have a very irate Alfar chasing me around my own mind for what could be millennia