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I fu with possibilities, none of which explained the open hatch in the floor of our bedroom, or the fact that I’d been about to let Niko kiss me "I--uh--I--"

"Save it," she interrupted "All I wanna hear is that we’re going back to our roo in our floor is will not be used again Understood?"

I glanced nervously toward the unlit tunnel, wondering if Zafir was somewhere behind her

Her eyebrows ticked up as she crossed her arms "No I didn’t tell him," she answered before I could even ask the question "He still thinks you’re asleep" She cocked her head "In your bed" Then she turned to Niko "And you" She took a warning step toward hi into fists "I have no idea what’s going on here, but I’ you: Stay away from her"

"Brook--" I tried to interrupt, to take colare so cutting the words slid back downbut borrowed nightgowns, and she draggedthe door behind us

"What were you thinking?" Brook asked as I stared out at the flashes of lightning that caain, almost without pause

I wished I could explain it to her, but how could I host of a dead queen was leading eways to rendezvous with her long-lost lover?

Even I thought it sounded likethe storhed and joined me at the"Did you know the palace doors are barricaded for the night? Because of the storoes On Queen Neva’s orders"

"Why would she do that?" I wondered aloud

"Ice stor out, trying to see past the crystalline bloolass panes "It’s si," she said at last "Only here, they’re far round, rather than from the sky? Almost as if they’re made from the ice itself? Before you arrived, arned about the danger of the ice stor hues search out anything with a pulse" As if on cue, a huge flash sparked in the distance, illu the black sky beyond the walls of the palace