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"Look, it’s going to take weeks--"

"We don’t have weeks!" Frost said, spinning on her The air around Collette dropped thirty or forty degrees Her breath fogged and her eyelashes stuck together when she blinked

"Listen--"

"No Collette, stop You haven’t been thinking properly since we crossed the Veil Perhaps it’s because you’re back in your world and you think, suddenly, that means that you need to follow the rules of humanity But you can’t think that way Authorities all across your world will be looking for you, now You vanished, remember? After your father was murdered"

"So, now I’m a suspect, the way Oliver was?"

The look on Frost’s face chilled her

"Perhaps That does not ardless, you will be questioned They ant to knohere you have been All of that will take ti which Oliver and Julianna--and many thousands of others, both of your kind and mine--may lose their lives"

Collette shivered, then shook it off and faced him She’d been tormented by the Sandman, kept as his captive, and escaped only to fall into the hands of Ty’Lis and end up in the dungeon at Palenque In that tireat deal about herself She had found the th that came from her own heart Home had a powerful allure, but the tie that

Still, she studied Frost closely and did not care that he took offense at her scrutiny

"You doubt me," he said

"Why shouldn’t I?"

"Our goals are the sa when you brought Oliver across the Veil and left me to be murdered by the Myth Hunters?"

Frost cocked his head "They did not kill you"

"True The Sandman took me There were times I would rather have died Just because Oliver and I are both still alive doesn’t ," Collette snapped

"This is foolishness," Frost said He started walking again, but soht not be as confident as she had always thought Collette didn’t knohether to be heartened or frightened

"Frost--"

"It ht choice, but it was the only choice It kept you both alive Oliver and I owed our lives to each other, several tiain "And through all of that, you never trusted hih to tell hi "He was safer not knowing"

"But he deserved to know We deserved to know"

"And now he hates me," Frost said

Collette paused Frost went on several steps under the banana trees, soft rain pattering against his slick, icy form Then he stopped, but did not turn Collette had heard the weary sadness in his voice Maybe all he’d said was true Perhaps he had thought of Oliver as his friend, and the rift between them pained him

"No," she said, softly "I’m the one who hates you I’m the one you left behind Oliver only resents you Maybe he’ll forgive you, one of these days"

Slowly, the winter man turned For the first ties--looked almost human

"And you?" Frost asked

Collette shook her head "You and I were never friends"

After a h"

He turned and strodethe path In silence, Collette followed A little over a minute later and they had reached a fence that ran around the perimeter of the plantation Frost reached out and froze a section of the fence, then, with a fist, he shattered it

On the other side they ca that road--neither person nor vehicle--but twenty yards to the left a sray truck sat on the shoulder Rust had eaten away part of the front end and the sides of the truck were spattered with dried mud

Frost started toward it

"What the hell is this?" Collette said, hurrying to get a better look at the truck Anxious, she glanced up and down the road, but they were completely alone Frost moved with purpose, and that worried her

"What’ve you done?" she asked

At the truck, the winter lanced back at her Mist rose fro on the breeze The rain around him turned to sleet and pelted the truck with a

"I’ve become a thief," Frost said Perhaps he smiled as he said it "But not a esture, he indicated the roadside Under the trees lay a brown shape, and it took her a nize it as some kind of canvas tarp Beneath it, she realized, lay the driver of this truck

"He’s not dead?"

"He’ll live," Frost replied "Get in the truck and drive, please"

"Where are we going?"

The winter er door, clie at all about a creaturein a rusty old truck

Collette did as he asked The keys were in the ignition and the truck started instantly The ere open Several ti up into the sky, a twisting stor ahead of the truck, only to pour himself back into the seat a minute or two later with directions They stayed north of the city, though Collette got several glih her ; she was surprised at howplantation roads and then what ht have passed for a ht actually drive into Machala, and then Frost directed her to take a narrow, rutted turn to the northwest