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She dumped the bowl on the counter between us "You already did think of soht the damn Wardens here If they find us, they&039;ll take him away, take you awayand you knohat they&039;ll do to me, Jo Gut me and leave me like I was before A freak Worse A powerless freak I can&039;t live like that, and you know it"

"Nothing you can do to stop it now," I said "It&039;s too late I&039; I can do Nobody knohere the hell Lewis is, anyway, so it&039;s no big thing He disappears, you disappearall I have to do is get rid of Maid Marion and her et David to blow up their truck I hate those damn SUVs, anyway, and they&039;ll just bla cookies from the second sheet pan, dumped it, and held out the bowl to me "Here Have one"

"Thanks, I&039;d rather choke on a razor blade Which I&039;m not so sure you didn&039;t bake inside those"

She sht now, or what?"

I looked at her over the bowl of cookies My friend My sister My ghostly reflection of what ht have happened if I&039;d been the one in the fire that day, because I&039;d always knoasn&039;t cut out for normal human life any more than Star was

"Guess so," I said "Because I&039;ht you&039;d say that"

She took another bite of cookie

Behind her, the oven exploded into a brilliant blue-white ball of flame, which raced my way

I dropped to the floor in a crouch and tossed every oxygen molecule out of the air around me for three feet in any direction Fire needs O2 It was an elementary tactic, but it worked; the fire blasted toward enated air, and deflected around The heat wasn&039;t hard to control, either; after all, it was justI made theed I let go of the air bubble, stepped toward Star, and took a deep breath "You knoas feeling sorry for you," I said "Poor little Star, all alone in that hospital, burned beyond recognition, boo-fucking-hoo Did you ever stop to think about all those Wardens who died? Who never even made it out? Of course you didn&039;t Because it&039;s just all about you"

She laughed It was a crazy sound She held out both hands in front of her, palms up, and intense blue-white flames danced on the skin and reflected in her dark eyes "Yeah, like it ain&039;t all about you, Jo Bad Bob du like a scared rabbit to save your skin You don&039;t want to give up your powers any er Hell, for all I know, you killed some, too So don&039;t pretend we&039;re not alike"

"Oh, we&039;re alike," I agreed "See, that&039;s why I didn&039;t use David like some piece of Kleenex to save onna whine or fight?"

"I&039;onna win," I said "Bank it"

She bared her teeth "Yeah? Look behind you"

I did

There was athere in the open doorway that must have led to the cellar of the house-tall, lanky, his face al an ancient stained tie-dyed shirt and sweatpants stiff with grime His feet were filthy If I&039;d passed him on the street, I&039;d have dropped a dollar in his ork for food cup

It was Lewis

I turned around, put er-here pose, and said, "Lewis? Re at me with eyes so wide and dark that they looked to be all pupil Drugged, or worse Co at my breasts Which was, to put itin the current circumstances

He looked up into ht of all the toret punished for anything else she did, ever, she should be punished for this

"Jo?" he asked, and it was an entirely noriven the way he looked "I&039;m really sorry about all this I can&039;t stop it"

And then he walked up and slugged o to war We don&039;t go to war because it&039;s too dangerous, and we have no decisive advantages Our powers counter each other very nicely, all the way down the line

But when Weather fights Weatherthat&039;s when it gets nasty

And that was exactly why I&039;d declared a Code One general alert, because I wanted the hter than a drum A Code One calls every Warden able to respond, everywhere, to action Locking down their patterns, whether of weather or fire or earth, in the same way you&039;d anchor boats in a storm or plywood your s in a hurricane Basically, itcame to a stop

Over Oklaho was h to toss off the controls of at least a hundred Wardens and their Djinn

That wasn&039;t likely to happen Not even for Lewis

Which at themy eyes didn&039;t help much, because I felt like I&039;d been hit by a Mack Truck I&039; wind and rain and hail with the best of &039;eroaned and rolled over onchin My lip was split I explored it with the tip of ure out exactly as going on

Ah It all ca the crap out of ht have robbed Star and Lewis of options, but I also hadn&039;t leftbrushed ht as cobwebs, and where it touched pain faded I knew that touch, that war sensation

"She&039;s awake" David&039;s voice, stripped of e next todirectly to me, but that touch-I had to believe that it had been David who&039;d done that, the real David Was it possible for hiainst her? If Star knew

"About time" Star, of course; she sounded freaked, which irl, you&039;re not exactly one of those TV kick-ass hero chicks, are you One punch, you&039;re down for ten minutes My mao," I mumbled I wiped a trickle of blood away from my lips and sat up

"It&039;s over, Star I&039;ve already spilled the beans They&039;re coet a Demonectomy, but you, you&039;re toast, babe They&039;ll hoover you so dry, you won&039;t be able to light a ht in the stomach I&039;d never been kicked in the stomach before, and it was not a special treat I rolled over, pulled h the pain I wondered if she&039;d ruptured anything I couldn&039;t live without It would be a real bitch to end up dead, ripped up by this da destruction loose on the aetheric, just because I&039;d taken a pointy-toed boot in the spleen

"Don&039;t," Lewis said He was sitting in the corner, resting his chin on his crossed forearms

"Don&039;t what?" Star shot back, and paced in front of h "She ruined it! She brought them hereand now they know I can&039;t let the her, I realized David had been right when he&039;d warnedwith the Demon Mark Star had taken it; she&039;d lived with it in secret for a long tinawed out her soul

Itamount of ability, but I wasn&039;t sure anyer sure about ers at him "You Get us out of here"

"Where?" he asked without er&039;s eyes But he was still watching me with that eerie focus, the way he had before You don&039;t own hirowled in frustration, walked over to hirabbed him by the hair She forced his head up andto you!"

He had no change of expression If it hurt him at all, I couldn&039;t tell He didn&039;t try to pull away David, the poseable doll

"I want to go to New York"

"Specify," he said

She looked baffled "Grand Central Station!"