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"Mo my knee now that I kneouldn’tabout?"

She offeredshe felt compared to the years of frailty, and with effort I stood Ava stayed glued to my side as my mother led me to a bench in the antechamber, and I eased myself down It wasn’t possible that Henry had been in thisto do with the council granting me immortality only six months before

Or maybe Henry was iered in the doorway, leaning against it casually, but one look at him and I could see the fear beneath his mask of neutrality First Ella, now hiood

"Do you remember the Titans from your lessons with Irene?" said my mother in such a soft voice that I was jolted back to the days spent in a hospital, leaning over her so I could understand her dry and broken whispers

I shook my head Irene had seemed to hit only the most salient points in thosemuch of that information past the f irst exam anyway At the time, it hadn’t seemed important

"They were your parents?" I said My mother was Walter’s sister, but not by blood, as they had insisted tio, fa close to the bond they shared, but it wenta few drops of blood on her sleeve, she waved her hand and they vanished

"The Titans were the original rulers of this world, and eventually they grew bored and created us There were six of us in the beginning--myself, Walter, Henry, Phillip, Sof ia and Calliope"

"They were slaves," said Jahtforay she spoke, it was clear she’d told this story before

"That was our purpose To be the playthings of the Titans

They loved us, and we loved theh, so they made a new race that, unlike us, could cease to exist if they fought one another"

"They created war"