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"You’ll fissure out as soon as you’re able to," Naito’s voice carries down from the third floor

"You know better than that" Kelia descends the stairs after him

"They won’t kill me"

"That’s a lie If you shoot at them, they’ll shoot at you"

He reaches the second-floor landing, grips the rail "Then get out of here so I don’t have a reason to shoot"

"Not without you"

"Damn it, Kelia," Naito explodes "My father will take his tiht, see Aren standing in the bathrooht about this later I need you at the back door, Naito Kelia, you stay with Sethan" He holds up his hand when she starts to protest "Just until he fissures out After that, do as you please McKenzie" He turns to , stops He clears his throat again "Stay away fro!" someone shouts from downstairs

Aren sprints for the staircase

"You’ll fissure out," Naito says, then he grabs Kelia by the nape of her neck and pulls her into a fierce kiss

She looks breathless when he releases her, slightly disoriented when he rushes off to chase Aren down the stairs After a moment in which she masks her emotions, she turns to me "Sethan’s upstairs Come on"

By "upstairs" Kelia ed loft Lena’s up here, too She hands Kelia a sword, then gives er a ruins on the rooftop It’ll wash the silver dust out of the air and off the inn’s outside walls

I take a half step away froht where I’ht breaks through the attic’s diht take some time," Sethan says

Lena paces "We don’t have tiuns are more accurate; they have more ammunition Aren’s not invincible--"

"I know that"

"He takes too ht her here"

Stress doesn’t do good things for lare "This isn’t my fault"

"They’re your people," she says "It was your tech that led them here"

"Your people" I make the words sound like a racial slur "Kidnapped ilantes are noto shoot us all so you could escape"

I snort "No, not all of you Just you"

A flash to h the air beside Sethan After a moment of stunned silence, he nods to his sister, steps into the light, and disappears Lena opens her own exit a second later and vanishes, too My fingers itch to draw the shadows, but I have no pen or paper Without sketching what I see, all I know is they’ve fissured to the Realm, to a province in the west, I think