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All of those people had set off, filled with hope about a place called Acadiana Jack would’ve e

Matthes best? He’d ridden away like a coward before the E Finn one last cryptic state my Jack die

I blamed Matthew as much as Richter One of those ten swords had been the Fool’s He had stabbed me in the back

What will I find at the top?

I blamed myself as well It should have been me I had been fated to die

At the very least, if I had listened to Circe’s advice--leaving Selena in the hands of the Lovers--Jack and all those people ht’ve been spared Selena had died anyway

I’d made those choices--I’d pretended to be a leader--so those deaths were on ht, after I’d reburied her body, I’d run down to the shore outside the fort, where Circe and I had once talked I’d yelled to the river, "I know you’re here, Circe! Show yourself!" Nothing "Have you seen Aric?"

She hadn’t givenout the Emperor!"

When she’d still refused to answer me, I’d waded into the river and kicked the water to provoke her "Damn you! Why won’t you appear?"

Silence Even as my tears had spilled into her do for breath, I levered myself up on er a peak Circe’s tidal wave must have flash-cooled Richter’s lava because a sea of smooth black stone stretched from the top of this mountain to a distant one, across what used to be a valley The drizzle e," Aric had toldlava "Where will you search for him?"

A sob burst from my chest I’d watched Jack’s murder

No, I refused this! There ht to clear my dazedline of the arloorm in the dark Cars and trucks had sprawled for about a th Jack and Selena would have been riding at the forefront, but had turned back toward me when I’d radioed

Jack and I had marveled at the snow At tiny drifts of white He’d ht have ridden a mile or two at most before Richter had struck Lava had buried the line of trucks from front to back--as well as this entire valley and several rises all around

Even if Jack and Selena had covered ten irl who’d just endured the Lovers’ hell, had died Part of me had sensed that kill Other Arcana had as well, and Matthew, in his oay, had confirility, and senses, yet she’d perished And she’d been right beside Jack

He’s dead

No one could have survived this