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It was David
He smiled at me with so much love and relief that it broke o, after all this?"
I cried out and turned in the circle of his ar flood
At the top of the canyon we had a welco committee It consisted of Rahel, Lewis, and Marion Rahel, of course, was spotless; Marion and Leere sweaty and dirty and breathless
We touched down, and I winced at the burn of hundred-degree sand onin ot all about the discomfort My shoulders couldn’t take the strain I had to let him fall
"David?" I hovered anxiously over hi brown "David-"
"He’s too weak," Lewis said, and fulass bottle out from his pocket "David, back in the bottle"
He faded into mist I rounded on Lewis in a fury, but he held up a hand to stop ain The bottle is all that’s keeping hiht now Djinn life support"
"And you called hiry "Do me a favor-don’t help, okay?"
"I was supposed to let you get smashed to pieces?"
"You were supposed to take down Quinn!" I yelled "Did you?"
They looked anywhere but me Rahel said, "We will"
"We will," I mocked "Yeah, fine, whatever Just let et up Marion took
"You’re in no shape to take on anything erous than a week in bed," she said "You’ve torn ed your shoulder-"
"I don’t care" I bit the words off furiously and wiped wet hair back fro that I were still a Djinn so I could clean hteous aot God knoout of this without a fight, and where exactly is Kevin?"
I ran it all together, alar my voice, and saw Marion and Lewis look around in shock
"He was right here," Marion began, but I wasn’t watching her I was caught by Rahel’s expression Alone a us, she wasn’t surprised by his absence
"Let hiht"
"Do what!"
She shrugged I shook free of Marion’s hold and turned around, looking down the edge of the canyon It couldn’t be that far, a few sand dunes in the way,blew up out there
So
The shock wave rippled over me, and the noise whited out my eardrums; a fireball the size of a bli in on itself in reds and crimsons and ropes of hot yellow, in waves of smoke like tattered silk
A shattered round, powered by another explosion Theout over the canyon and dropping down to s water with a hiss of superheated steam
"That was a Hummer," I said numbly
"And I think that was Kevin," Lewis said
The kid had finally found a decent use for his powers over fire
Then ere running
The explosion had left a crater the size of a lass
Quinn was down near the edge of it, bleeding fro up mouthfuls of red The second I saw him, memory clicked into place: baseball cap, windbreaker, the sa his face
Quinn Orry One and the sa over hi down When we pelted over the sand toward hiely expensive SUV, I saw Kevin kneeling nearby He looked blank Exhausted That explosion had taken everything out of him
No time for him now I fixedet crazy here We come in peace"
"No, you don’t," Jonathan said absently
"Okay, I lied, we don’t But it looks like Quinn’s not going to make it, so let’s not increase the body count, okay?"
"I don’t have a choice" Ouch The bleak fury of that was painful "I thought since he wasn’t a Warden, I’d have ood He knew exactly what to say, what to do"
The first co any poithout your express order The second is to order them to protect your life unless you expressly countermand it The third
I’d told Quinn how to do it I’d screaht hi he needed to know
I’d told all that to the Wardens, of course, during the debriefing, and they’d said, It doesn’t matter He’s not a Warden He’ll never be able to use the knowledge
Except he had, hadn’t he? Quinn was nothing if not ruthless and resourceful
But I hadn’t told his, even so
"Can he talk?" I asked Jonathan It came out cold and even Quinn’s eyes rolled toward me, wild and rimmed hite
"No"
"Then his last commands to you remain in force"
"I’m supposed to protect his life," Jonathan said He atching Quinn, not us, but I knew that he’d have no choice but to act if we moved "The kid was clever He went for the car, not Quinn Took the bottles out at the same time I didn’t have to stop hi down on us "Where’s your bottle?"
Jonathan gestured down at the kneeling man "On him In his jacket pocket"
I looked at Lewis He esture