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"I can navigate Avon with my eyes closed" I can hear the sance that used to driveot hope

"Good Maybe we can lose the But if not…"

Flynn reaches up to squeeze my hand "If not, we just have to hope we find our proof before our people find us"

There are engines echoing through the swa of poles and oars--in the dark, without any reference points, it feels like both ar his alate without stars, without co except the bond he shares with Avon His adjusth the reeds in tense silence, waiting Watching I keep un, always Now and then I think I see the wisp, a di out of reach, but I can never be sure My irl I was keep surfacing, pulling with them flashes of pain, of happiness, of despair, all the colors in ht years old

It’s well into the night when the boat finally crunches up against solid ground Flynn ju knee-deep in water, and steadies the boat as I climb after hiht,track of each other by the sounds of our breathing I hear Flynn turn away to face the center of the island

"Flynn, wait" I reach out and touch his shoulder "LaRoux’s been able to force these creatures to do terrible things They’re responsible for the Fury They’re what took over Coht in front of me They’re what sent me to your caves when McBride massacred those people"

"I know"

I can’t stop the fear coursing throughshot, blown up, beaten to a pulp while tied to a stake, because through all of that, I’ into the center of it all, into a place that’s already taken over ain?" If I wake up soain, covered in blood, with no memory of what happened…

"I won’t let it happen" Flynn’s voice is hard

"You can’t stop a thing by willing it not to happen" I can’t help the note of fondness that escapes alongside "

"What is it?" He sounds wary I think he suspects what I’ain, just know that it’s not me I’m not in there That--that person who ordered us to turn ourselves in wasn’t Commander Towers, and I had to disobey her And if it happens to me, then it’s not…It’s okay"

"Okay?" Flynn’s voice is stiff "Okay to shoot you, you htens "I don’t know Maybe" I can feel his anger and frustration radiating through the darkness, and part of s to reach out for him If our positions were reversed, I don’t think I’d be able to listen to this either But it has to be said "Yes," I whisper "That’s what I’htly "And don’t ask ain, Jubilee"

"You can’t afford not to! This isn’t about us, this is everyone, all offor, Flynn, this chance to save Avon We can’t afford to let anyone stop us Even if that so me"

Flynn doesn’t answer in words Instead he reaches behind his back to pull his stolen Gleidel froun into the botto in there," he says, as fierce as he’s ever been "But I’ue, I want to tell hi senti to avoid when I stopped hi o, that’s exactly what Captain Lee Chase would’ve told hith in his voice, and in the choice he’s irl hea world in which no one has to die

I want that world to be real I want it so badly oes anywhere unarto fuse with the un behind--butmy Gleidel out of its holster It fits so easily in , so familiar I s, then toss it doith Flynn’s

When I lift ain, Flynn is nohold of ainst hiether, the extraordinary circuive it shape He could tell me he loves me, but he doesn’t know h, the curve of my heart, as I know his He could tell me he doesn’t want to lose me, but we’re both already lost, and only the tether between us keeps us fro out into the black