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This hy Daniel wouldn’t look at her Her throat felt like it was stuffed with cotton When she opened herunderwater "You need"--she sed in pain--"h and pressed a cold hand to Luce’s hot cheek "Good heavens, no, child! You keep yours I’ive you ht As I a out of this world, you will fill the Silver Pennon with my blood You will pour it into this depression just east of the golden arrow oblet, then fanned her hands out drarooves here and there and here and there until you find the star Then you will knohere to meet Lucifer and thwart his plan" Luce cracked her knuckles How could Dee speak about her own death so casually? "Why would you do this?"
"Why, it’s what I was created for Angels were made to adore and I have a purpose, too" Then, fro silver dagger
"But that’s--"
The dagger Miss Sophia had used to kill Penn The one she’d had in Jerusaleels
"Yes I picked this up in Golgotha," Dee said, ad the craftsmanship of the blade It shone as if freshly sharpened "Dark history, this knife It’s tiood use, dear" She held out the knife, its blade flat on her open pal toward Luce "It would mean a lot to me if you would be the one to spill my blood, dear Not only because you are dear to me, but also because it must be you"
"Me?"
"Yes, you You must kill me, Lucinda"
FIFTEEN
THE GIFT
"I can’t!"
"You can," Dee said "And you will No one else can do it"
"Why?"
Dee looked over her shoulder in Daniel’s direction
He was still seated, looking at Luce, but he didn’t seeels rose to help her
Dee spoke in a whisper "If you are, as you say you are, fully resolved to break your curse--"
"You know I am"
"Then you must use my blood to break it" No How could her curse be bound up in soht theels’ Fall That was her role as the desideratu to do with Luce’s curse
Did it?
Break the curse Of course Luce wanted to; it was all she wanted
Could she break it, right here, right noould she live with herself if she killed Dee? Luce looked to the old woman, who took her by the hands
"Don’t you want to know the truth of your original life?"
"Of course I do But ould killing you reveal s"
"I don’t understand"
"Oh dear" Dee sighed, looking past Luce at the others "These angels have done well to keep you safe--
but they have also protected you into complacency The time has come for you to awaken, Lucinda, and to awaken, you olden eyes was too pleading, too intense "I’ve seen enough death" A single angel rose in the darkness from the circle they’d formed around the Qayom Malak "If she can’t do it, she can’t do it"
"Shut up, Ca Luce His narrow frame cast its shadow across the Slab "We’ve taken it this far You can’t say we haven’t given it every kind of shot" He turned to face the others "But maybe she just can’t There is only so much you can ask a person to do
She wouldn’t be the first filly anybody lost a fortune on
So what if she happens to be the last?" His tone did not match his words, and neither did his eyes, which said with desperate sincerity, You can do this
You have to
Luce weighed the dagger in her hand She’d seen its blade slice the life out of Penn She had felt it sting her flesh when Sophia tried to murder her in the chapel at Sword & Cross The only reason Luce wasn’t dead noas that Daniel had crashed through the roseateto save her The only reason she bore no scar was Gabbe’s healing touch They’d saved her life for this moment So that she could take another
Dee perceived how far away fear had carried Luce
She motioned for Cam to sit down "Perhaps it would be better, dear, if you didn’t think of this as taking ift, Lucinda Can’t you see that I’ether in a smile "I know it’s hard to understand, but there comes a time in a mortal body’s journey when it seeks to die in the ood death’ It is tiood death, I pro her eyes, Luce looked past Dee
"Dan--"
"I can’t help you, Luce" Daniel spoke before she’d even finished saying his name "You must do this alone" Roland rose from his seat and examined the map He looked east at the moon "If it were done when it is done, then it would be well it were done quickly"
"There isn’ta frail hand on Luce’s shoulder