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Dee’s gold eyes were paler, her skin al about her seemed muted and soft, as if she were already someplace else A new sob rose in Lu-ce’s chest as Dee took a halting step toward her

"Dee!" Luce closed the gap between the woman Her body felt like a shard of what she’d been before Luce had taken the dagger in her hands

"Shhh," Dee cooed "I only wanted to thank you, dear And to give you this sift" She reached her hand inside her cloak When she withdrew it, her thue

You must remember how to dream what you already kno it’s time for me to sleep and for you to wake up"

Dee’s eyes swept over Luce’s face, and it see there was to see about her--all her past and all her future Finally, she daubed the center of Luce’s forehead with her bloody thumb

"Enjoy it, dear"

Then she hit the ground

"Dee!" Luce lunged for her, but the old woman was dead "No!"

Behind Luce, Daniel clasped her shoulders with his hands, giving her all the strength he could It wasn’t enough It couldn’t bring Dee back or change the fact that Luce had killed her Nothing could

Tears blurred Luce’s eyes Wind swept in fro with it another shriek of Scale It felt like every inch of the world was in chaos, and nothing would ever settle down

She reached up and touched the bloody thuht blazed around her Her insides seared with heat She staggered, holding her ar as her body filled with

Light

"Luce?" Daniel’s voice sounded far away

Was she dying?

She felt suddenly galvanized, as if the thunition switch and Dee had launched her soul

"Is this another tiray but a brilliant white So bright she couldn’t see Daniel or any of the other angels around her on the slab

"No" Roland’s voice "It’s her"

"It’s you, Luce" Daniel’s voice trembled

Her feet skihtlessness For a moment, the world hummed with incandescent harmony

Now it’s time for you to wake up

The air before Luce seeray Then deep in the distance cas spread wider than the sky, wider than a thousand galaxies, filling herLuce with infinite fury

This tiging across bare skin

How close was he now?

Luce’s feet slaone

She fell to her knees, landing next to Dee, who had co out to cradle her head, her long red hair spilling out like blood Her eyes were closed, her face serene, so unlike the face that had been haunting Luce for the past week She tried to stand, but she felt clumsy

Daniel dropped to his knees at her side Sitting next to her on the Slab, he took her in his arms The smell of his hair and the touch of his hands soothed her He whispered, "I’m here, Luce, it’s okay"

She didn’t want to tell hiht She touched the thu happened Dee’s blood was dry

Daniel was staring at her, lips tight He brushed the hair out of her eyes and pressed his pal up"

"I’m fine" She did feel feverish, but there was no tiered to her feet and looked up at the moon

It was directly overhead, in the center of the sky This was the moment Dee had told them to wait for, the moment her death would become hile

"Luce Daniel" Roland’s voice "You’d better look at this"

He held the goblet at an angle and was tipping the last of Dee’s blood into the depression at the base of the map When Luce and Daniel filed in next to the others, the blood had already flowed into h Dee had said that the Earth was different back at the tily similar to a contemporary map of the Earth

South Aainst Africa

The northeast corner of North Aed more closely to Europe, but mostly it was the same There was the slip of water where the Gulf of Suez parted ypt from the Sinai Peninsula, and in thethe plateau where they were right now To the north was the Medi-terranean, dimpled with a thousand tiny islands--and on the other side of its narrow belt, at the point where Asia reached for Europe, was a shallow pool of blood sharpening slowly into a star

Luce heard Daniel s at her side The angels all looked stupefied as Dee’s blood filled out the points of the star, indicating modern Turkey--more specifically--

"Troy," Daniel said finally, shaking his head in auessed"

"There again," Roland said, his tone conveying a tortured history with the city

"I always got the sense that place was doomed" Arriane shivered "But I--"