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"Go ahead" Cam’s voice came for the first time, low and even Luce nearly cried out when she heard hi" Luce had watched Sophia kill Penn with her bare hands and no reling to break free fro him with her into the chapel

Slowly Miss Sophia craned her body around toward Luce and Daniel, clutching her fistful of starshots Her eyes gleahastly sainst his relentless grip

"We have to stop her, Daniel!"

"No, Luce, it’s too dangerous"

"Oh, there you are, dear" Miss Sophia bea for you" Then she winked and whipped the starshots over her head in a dense cluster straight at Daniel and Luce

TWELVE

UNHOLY WATER

It happened in the broken fraction of a second: Roland tackled Miss Sophia, knocking her to the ground But he was half a heartbeat too late

Five silver starshots sailed silently across the empty space of the chapel The cluster of the in midair for a moment on their path toward Luce and Daniel

Daniel

Luce pressed herself back against Daniel’s chest He had the opposite instinct: His arainst the floor

Two great pairs of wings crossed the space in front of Luce, erupting froold, the other the purest silvery white They filled the air before her and Daniel like enorone in the blink of an eye

Sole starshot ricochet off the gray stone wall and clatter to the floor The other starshots were gone

A fine iridescent grit settled around Luce

Squinting through thebeside her A roused Dee struggling atop a writhing Miss Sophia Annabelle standing above the other Elders, who lay lifeless on the floor Arriane holding an e hands Cam, still bound on the altar, stunned

Gabbe and Molly, just freed from their altars by Arriane--

Disappeared

And Luce’s and Daniel’s bodies covered in a film of dust

No

"GabbeMolly--" Luce got to her knees She held out her hands, exaht played off her skin, turning the dust a soft, shi silver as she flipped her hands to gaze at her palms

"No no no no no no no no"

She looked back, locking eyes with Daniel His face was ashen, his eyes burning with such a concentrated violet it was hard to hold their gaze

That became harder still when her vision blurred with tears

"Why did they--?"

For awas still

Then an ani free fro his ankle raw in the process He strained to free his wrists, bellowed as he tore his right hand loose fro that had been pinned with the iron post and dislocating his shoulder His arruesomely distended way from his shoulder, as if it had nearly been ripped off

He leaped fro Dee aside The force knocked all three of theround

Ca to crush her with his weight She let out a tortured howl, pulled her arms weakly before her face as Ca is theViolence 101 "Now let’s see the beauty of your death"

But Miss Sophia’s struggle was ugly Gargles and grunts bubbled frohtened, slaain and again and again Blood began to trickle from the old woman’s mouth, darker than her lipstick

Daniel’s hand touched Luce’s chin, turned her to face hi for a way to tune out Sophia’s wet groans

"Gabbe and Molly knehat they were doing," Daniel whispered

"They knew they were going to be killed?" Luce said

Behind the almost like she’d accepted that this was how she’d die