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She looked royally pissed off

Kevin hesitated, looking back His fingers were just a couple of inches froed him Learn what the real Wardens do See what a difference you can be in the world

I wished I’d duct-taped the girl to a chair Hindsight

"Kevin," Marion said, in a , just reht faded out of his face, and he took a step back "Why should I help them? What’d they ever do for me?"

Marion dropped her hand back to her side, turned, and walked away to kneel by the side of the first person she saw Marion was an Earth Warden Healing was so much a part of her that she couldn’t deny it, and I could see fro that part of the heritage he’d stolen froth, but also a carried a great load of compassion and responsibility

I watched as Kevin turned back to Siobhan, and I felt myself mourn inside for the lost opportunity

"Joanne" David’s voice drew ainst me in the narrow space "Are you hurt?"

I shook e Go help Marion Save whoever you can"

He kissed my forehead without comment, and left me I picked my way across rubble and allasses; I looked around for the waiter, but he was gone At least it didn’t look like there were too hted one of the unsplintered chairs and seated hi out at thenearby, Siobhan whispering, Kevin listening

"Not your bottle?" I produced the one I’d been clutching He shook his head mutely I took a closer look-not that I’d memorized the one I’d taken froer had the sense of Jonathan’s presence in ave me a bleak smile "You already knoho-" He stopped short So with the fluid ease of a tiger Even through the dust-choked haze, her clothes blazed with color

Neon yellow

Rahel sidestepped the wreckage of a slottokens, and walked toward us Beautiful as ever, confident and easy

S

Her eyes were black Jet-black, lid to lid

"Crap, I don’t have time for this Rahel, dammit-" Jonathan said, and that was all there was tiles and glittering coal, a thing es and teeth

The Ifrit had just found the rab her, but I wasn’t a Djinn any longer, even if I still had soh her like a ghost And through Jonathan, too He’d becohostly, trapped in her e Jonathan lost his huerous as a star, but the darkness engulfed that heat

"David!" I screamed, but I didn’t really need to; he was already on theon the back of the Ifrit Taking her sharp-edged head-was that her head?-in his hands and twisting with vicious strength

She didn’t so rew teeth, the back of her gres and spikes and arms They pierced hio through me, too It made me stumble and fall to my knees

"Rahel, no!" I cried "Stop! God, stop!"

She couldn’t She was totally out of control

There was a sudden odd sense of pressure changing, and my ears responded with a painfully abrupt pop I lurched forward, falling, and caught h the aetheric like a shattering bell, and I knew there was no tier

I had no idea if it would work, could work, but I had to try

I held out the e fist and yelled out the first iteration of the ritual "Rahel! Be thou bound to my service!"

The Ifrit turned onThat wasn’t real blood, any more than his was a real body; it was a physical representation of an aethereal energy; he could heal hih power left to form flesh

But it looked so real He was pallid, shattered, broken The copper of his eyes was dying

"Be thou bound to my service!" I shouted, and crawled backward as the diah me She couldn’t touch me I felt a hot spark of triued at

No! No no no no no

Not my baby

She could destroy the life inside et to me, determined to protect me or die in the atteed around Iile spark One instant’s pressure would be enough

As she hesitated, torn by whatever reasped it out "Be thou bound to les, coal and glass A three-di? Breathing? I didn’t know, couldn’t tell There was no sensation of power from the bottle I held, and no sense of connection to her Had anybody ever tried to bind an Ifrit before? Probably not humans couldn’t see them, and Djinn wouldn’t be able to do it

I was the only one who could see theo of my baby," I whispered

The hand inside of me unclenched Claithdrew It was the only part of her that moved at all

"Rahel," I said "Can you hear me?"

No answer I shuddered and opened the black leather purse still slung aroundin there for two bottles I shoved Rahel’s in, careful that it wouldn’t knock against David’s, and left her frozen there to fu

His torso was a one as brown as dying leaves, and his lips were a light shade of lilac

She’d alet my breath as I knelt next to hi war out

I whispered his name, over and over, like a chant I ordered hih his eyes fastened onin the world

His hand found ernails were the same pallid shade as his lips