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"What are you going to do?" Kitsune asked

"Fix this," Oliver said, laughing a bit wildly, feeling hysteria overco to fix all of this shit"

He said nothing of his father’ssister Noas not the time Later there would be an opportunity At theout of London without further trouble

They had reached the bridge and started to walk over it Fro police siren Oliver spun and saw a police car stopped at the corner where he had called Julianna, where the Borderkind had appeared in front of Battersea Park and likely shaken the faith those people had in the world around the Any et out of here with him"

The trickster sar Square"

Then Blue Jay due Oliver shouted but could not stop hi his body around, trying to spread his wings He hit the water like an anchor and sank

"What the hell--"

Kitsune grabbed Oliver’s hand "He will be all right He is the Black Dragon of Storms He needed to sleep to heal He saved our lives Noake"

Upon those words there was a crash of thunder across the sky so loud that Oliver scanned the storn of catastrophe It sounded like the whole world was cracking open Lightning played up in the clouds but did not reach its fingers doard earth The snow sped up, fallingbefore and noas growing steadily into a blizzard

Oliver looked down over the bridge to where Gong Gong had hit the water and saw a ripple on the surface of the river and a shapethat seeone

"Until we ain," Blue Jay said

It was not the blink of an eye, but a fraction of that Blue Jay vanished, and where he had been was a small bird with the same cerulean feathers that had been tied in his hair The bird flapped its wings and darted out over the Thah at play

Kitsune twined her fingers with his

"We will be all right now," she said

The braying siren-- so different in its grating wail frolanced over and saw that the traffic had started toway to the police car

He shook his head "No, Kitsune"

"We’ll walk hand in hand," she said, wincing slightly as she touched her abdo weakly "They will think us lovers"

He stared at her "You don’t understand, you’re unht not matter, but if they ask you for identification and you don’t have any, they ht want to question you about whatever those people back there saw, and we can’t afford that If you’re being held, and the Hunters come for you--"

She held up a hand to cut hi clearly I shall see you at midday at Admiral Nelson’s feet"

Oliver would never watch her transfor his breath in astonishment The cloak flowed around her He watched those jade eyes as her face beca face of the fox and copper fur enveloped her The woone At Oliver’s feet was the small, lithe fox

The police siren warbled

Kitsune darted away across the bridge, northward through the falling snow, a small limp to her walk

Oliver started to walk after her, taking his ti attention to reat him Then the voice was drowned out by the police siren and he heard the squeak of brakes in need of fixing as the car rolled to a stop beside hi A door opened

The siren cut out

Back along the way Oliver had coe, electrician Keith watched warily, keeping well back as though afraid a battle ht break out

"Oh, thank God!" Oliver said as the officers got out of their car and caave them no opportunity to ask questions "You know, in the States we have a saying, there’s never a cop around when you need one I’ht?" said the larger and older of the two, his cap pulled down snugly over his thinning silver hair "Got the iot a few questions for you"

Oliver blinked in feigned confusion, re the exhilaration he had felt the first tie as an actor The freedom in it There was freedom in this as well, for it was just another sort of perfor some snow out of his eyes "Whatever you say But, look, I really need so in the park and stopped to anizer out-- the one withguy, he bu Looked like an Indian, that’s the weirdest thing Native A"