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Luce was about to step fully froure approach her past self
"There you are"
Lucinda released the rose, which snapped back into the garden, losing its blossom on the thorns as it crossed The red teardrop-shaped petals showered down on her shoulders as she turned to face the voice
Luce watched Lucinda’s posture change, a sht of Daniel And Luce felt that saht be different, their daily lives looked nothing alike, but when it caned coh his helolden hair was lank with sweat and dirt He’d clearly come from the road; the speckled white e in her body not to run into his ar arht
But this Daniel wasn’t her Daniel This Daniel belonged to another girl
"You ca in the wind
Her past self’s arms stretched out, inches froht wavered in the wind
And then it was gone Disgust crept into Luce’s stomach as she watched Daniel’s horse and armor vanish into thin air and Lucinda--who could not stop herself in tioyle
"Fu in a loop-the-loop
Lucinda screaown, and landed in the hter echoed off the façade of the castle He flitted higher in the air and then eyed Luce glaring at him from across the street
"There you are!" he said, cartwheeling toward her
"I told you never to do that again!"
"My acrobatics?" Bill hopped onto her shoulder "But if I do not practice, I win no medals," he said in a Russian accent
She swatted hi into Daniel"
"I didn’t do it to you, I did it to her Maybe your past self thinks it’s funny"
"She doesn’t"
"That’s not my fault Besides, I’ on behalf of all Lucindas ever, every ti your past lives It’s all in good fun For me, anyway"
"It’s cruel"
"If you insist on splitting hairs, fine, she’s all yours I suppose you don’t needout that what you do with ’eht o three-D"
"My point exactly," he said with an eerie cackle that sent goose bu up Luce’s aroyle capping one of the coluates He banked in the air, circled back to the coluoyle’s shoulder as if he’d finally found a true con theht?" He looked back at Luce "Not a big talker"
Luce could no longer stand it She ran forward, hurrying to help Lucinda up froround Her past self’s dress was torn at the knees and her face was sickly pale
"Are you all right?" Luce asked She expected the girl to be thankful, but instead, she recoiled
"Who--What are you?" Lucinda gaped at Luce "And what kind of devil is that thing?" She flung her hand in Bill’s direction
Luce sighed "He’s just--Don’t worry about him"
Bill probably did look like a devil to this medieval incarnation Luceup to her dressed in a futuristic ball gown that reeked of sirl’s shoulder at Bill, who see three-D?" Bill asked
Luce cracked her knuckles Fine She knew she had to cleave to this past body if she was going toin her past self’s face--bewilderment and a hint of inexplicable betrayal--that made her hesitate "This, uh, this will just take a moment"
Her past self’s eyes widened, but as she was about to pull away, Luce seized her past self’s hand and squeezed
The solid stones beneath her feet shifted and the world before Luce swirled like a kaleidoscope Her stomach lurched up toward her throat, and as the world flattened back out, she was left with the distinctive nausea of cleaving She blinked and, for that one unsettling instant, saw the diseirls There was medieval Lucinda--innocent, captive, and terrified; and there, beside her, was Luce--guilty, exhausted, obsessed
There was no tiret it On the other side of the blink--
A single body, one conflicted soul
And Bill’s fat-lipped s it all in
Luce clutched her heart through the rough linen dress Lucinda had been wearing It hurt Her whole body had beco Lucinda now, feeling what Lucinda had been feeling before Luce inhabited her body It was a move that had become second nature to her--from Russia to Tahiti to Tibet--but no matter how et used to suddenly feeling so keenly the landscape of her past eht noas the kind of raw pain Luce hadn’t experienced since her early days at Sword & Cross, when she loved Daniel so ht split her in two
"You’re looking a little green around the gills" Bill floated before her face, sounding more satisfied than concerned