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When you took off after Luce the night we fought the Outcasts, do you think the rest of us just sat around and played canasta? Gabbe, Roland, Molly, Arriane, even those two idiot Nephili to find her

You let them do that?

I'm not anyone's keeper, brother

Don't call me that, Daniel snapped I can't believe this How could they? This is e these days

Daniel's wings burned against his back, useless What could he do about half a dozen Anachronisels would kno fragile the past ould be careful But Shelby and Miles? They were kids They'd be reckless They wouldn't know any better They could destroy it all for Luce They could destroy Luce herself

No Daniel wouldn't give any of theet to her before he did

And yet--Cam had done it

How can I trust that you didn't interfere? Daniel asked, trying not to show his desperation

Caerous interference is Our end goals may be different, but we both need her to make it out of this alive

Listen tois at stake here

Don't demean me I knohat's at stake You're not the only one who's already struggled for too long

I'm--I'm afraid, Daniel admitted If she too deeply alters the past--

It could change who she is when she returns to the present? Cam said Yeah, I'm scared, too

Daniel closed his eyes It wouldfree of this curse--

Would be squandered

Daniel eyed Cam The two of thees She was alone? You're sure none of the others had gotten to her, either?

For a azed past Daniel, at a space on the mountaintop beyond them It looked as empty as Daniel felt Cam's hesitation made the back of Daniel's neck itch

None of the others had reached her, Cam said finally

Are you certain?

I'm the one who saw her here You're the one who never shows up on ti out here at all is no one's fault but yours

That's not true I didn't show her how to use the Announcers

Cahed bitterly I don't mean the Announcers, you moron I mean that she thinks this is just about the two of you A stupid lovers' quarrel

It is about the two of us Daniel's voice was strained He would have liked to pick up the boulder behind Cam's head and drop it over his skull

Liar Careen eyes It's far bigger, and you know it is He rolled back his shoulders and unleashed his giantthe sun for a moment When they curved toward Daniel, he stepped back, repulsed You'd better find her, before she--or someone else--steps in and rewrites our entire history And ers--obsolete

Daniel snarled, unfurling his own silvery-white wings, feeling the as they pulsed near Ca I'll handle it-- he started to say

But Ca sround Daniel shielded his eyes fros beat across the sky, then, in an instant, were gone

Chapter Eleven

COUP DE FOUDRE

VERSAILLES, FRANCE FEBRUARY 14, 1723

Splash

Luce came out of the Announcer underwater

She opened her eyes, but the war so sharply that she proed her down, so she wrestled off the mink coat As it sank beneath her, she kicked hard for the surface, desperate for air

It was only a few inches above her head

She gasped; then her feet found bottom and she stood She wiped the water from her eyes She was in a bathtub

Granted, it was the largest bathtub she had ever seen, as big as a s pool It was kidney-shaped and made of the siant roos were covered by enormous frescoed portraits of a dark-haired faolden roses fra truainst each of the walls--which were papered in elaborate swirls of turquoise, pink, and gold--was an oversized, lavishly carved wooden armoire

Luce sank back into the tub Where was she now? She used her hand to ski about five inches of frothy bubbles the consistency of Chantilly creae bobbed up, and she realized she had not bathed since Helston She was filthy She used the sponge to scrub at her face, then set to work peeling off the rest of her clothes She sloshed all the sopping garments over the side of the tub

That hen Bill floated slowly up out of the bathwater to hover a foot above the surface The portion of the tub frorit

Bill! she cried Can't you tell I need a few minutes of privacy?

He held a hand up to shield his eyes You done thrashing around in here yet, Jaws? With his other hand, he wiped some bubbles from his bald head

You could have warned e underwater! Luce said