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"You didn’t make a mistake," I said I couldn’t see Lewis or David I couldn’t see anybody, since my hair had fallen acrossclosing in aroundof plastic, sealing me off from access to the powers that I was about to be driven to use "No! Wait, listen to me! You didn’tto you; don’t you understand? She’s"
The wind blew my hair away from my eyes, and I saw her The othernext to David like she belonged there
It was a good thing I’d had a lot of recent experience seeing et over the shock fast Yeah, that was me, down to the last well-dressed detail David, or soed pantsuit with a fitted jacket, soed her body and ant, and businesslike In short, she looked like she belonged Like she waswhatever needed to be handled
Me, I was a cheap fax copy, grubby and soiled with road dirt and sot her," she said "SheShe shouldn’t be this easy to catch"
David took her hand The Deed a look with him and smiled It was my smile, dammit Andot lucky," David said "We’re even luckier that Venna decided to cut her losses Although why she’d be helping a Denored me
"I want you out of here," David said to the other ain" I hated the way he leaned into her space, the way his lips brushed the shining curtain of her hair The way his hands curled around hers, so gently and protectively "Take the truck back to the lodge and wait there"
"David, she’s a liar!" I said "So, Fake Joanne, what’s next? You can’t control David, can you? He’s too powerful So maybe you find a way to hurt him so badly one of the other Djinn has to take over, one you can subvert Got to be a weak one in the bunch, right?"
She watched me with steady, familiar eyes She looked completely real Completely me "I’d never hurt David The fact you think I would just proves who you are"
"You’d never hurt David unless you know you could get aith it" I panted "Look, what do you really want? My life? Well, you can’t have it, so just hand over the clothes and stop using e Like I could rip her head off withto me All I wanted to do was live, and she’d taken that away
She stared atlike pity in her face There but for the grace of God I knehat she was thinking It made ," I said
"Why?" she asked "What’s to say? You tried to steal my life away, and you’ve failed Ga him to believe me "David, if you kill hed "Nice I aiting when she’d pull the old ’You’re the bad twin’ on us Co to believe you this ti but a cheap copy"
That was an echo of what I’d been thinking I blinked, startled Either she could read hts-icky, but possible-or her mind simply worked the same way If she’d taken on my memories, my experiences that completely, if she could fool David and Lewis, then maybe she really had become me, as much as a Demon could
That madeAs Venna had warned, she really was me, in all the ways that would count
I looked desperately at Lewis, at David "Guys What if you’ve got the evil twin standing right there? What if I’ away from? Kill me, and you’ll never be able to fix that; it’ll be too late-"
Evil Twin snorted, exchanged a wry look with David, and walked away, ar calmly back for the SUV
"Wait!" I yelled "David, you know me! You have to know that’s not er-side door of the truck and clied another one of those unreadable looks God, I’d never realized how scary it was from this end, faced with these extremely co side
She’s going to pull it off She’s going to have David, live my life, and be happy until she pulls off whatever evil plan she’s concocted, and there’s not a godda
Wind whipped across rit and awreck of et it over with," I choked "If you’ve got the guts, just do it"
The SUV’s engine started up, and it drove away, sloinding around the trees Takingto kill you," Lewis said with an eerie amount of calm "We couldn’t, could we? If you’re a Demon, you’d just assume another for a Djinn is with another Demon"
"Guess you don’t have one of those handy," I said, and closed my eyes in exhausted relief
When I opened the a sealed bottle out of his coat There was red wax around the stopper, and an ancient-looking seal dangling fro in harder when I tried to raise up, driving led to reach for power, but whatever they’d done tofast I couldn’t rab for the slow throb of energy in the earth, so force
Lewis I’d recognized the handprint of the slap
"No," I said quietly "You can’t David, you can’t I’m not a Demon! David, no!"
He walked toward me, put a hand in between o The relief of the pressure coht not have been as heavy, but it was just as effective in restraining me
"This bottle contains a Djinn," he said "A Djinn infected with a Derate back to a human, but you’re different Demons will destroy each other by preference If there’s any good news, it’s that by destroying you, we’re going to save a Djinn’s life"