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"I wondered if you were colow fronized the voice, and for a ely like the one that should be trapped inside of ht, all I wanted was ht, could I?"

Queen Langdon stepped forward, her skin looking even ht I cast "It didn’t look that way fro your coht dance forever"

I smiled, but it was s to brush past her "Good night, Your Majesty" But her fingers caught hter than should have been possible My eyes shot up to"What do you want from me?"

Her lips pulled into a hard line as she appraised : my skin and its unnatural radiance? My pale hair and eyes? Or just an inexperienced girl playing the role of queen?

She just held

And then she said them, the words that nearly undid ht I’d

I sed, and I tried to draay from her But she heldwas back, that sick and sinking sensation that she was inside s she shouldn’t--

couldn’t Sabara felt it too, and she unfurled inside , she prodon’s lips pulled back, nearly rese a sneer If it had been dark--if I hadn’t illunized it

But I did

I heard her too "I knew it" And there was so le phrase that I stumbled backward Yet still she held on to me

Her face loomed closer, alernails dug into my arms like claws "I kneas you I knew you were in there" But she was no longer talking toto Sabara

Her breath was bitter, vitriolic, and panic er mattered that she was an old woman and a queen She terrifiedI could iht in the hem of my dress and I heard the thin fabric tear, but I stu my balance I fell backward and she fell too We landed, her on top of me, in a heap, and before I could even think clearly, I was shoving her off of rasp

It was far easier to free myself from her than from Sabara

Sabara who cadon was fast for an old woot to her feet as quickly as I did

"Leave me alone," I said to her in the sa"