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"Do you knohere he is?" At least then I could bring hi else, I could do that

"No I lost the i spell She's used theain, of course"

"Thank you"

It was the first sincere, appreciative thing I'd said to hihtness left his face

"It is ive Bones the farewell he deserves"

We didn't say anything after that for a while At last, Mencheres spoke again

"By his order while he was yet alive, Bones bequeathed everything to you You are now Master of his line and co-Master of ed with him, so by my blood, I will swear to honor it with you, as was his wish"

A luot thrown back doith all the other emotions I couldn't allow myself to feel Instead, I nodded

"If that's what he wanted from me, I'll do it"

Mencheres did smile then "He'd be proud of you, Cat"

A s s"

There was the sound of so else? I have to see to Annette She sounds like I feel"

"The rest can wait until later Go on Tend to his people"

Despite e ht envy at the years she'd been with Bones, when I saw Annette, I wanted to comfort her If there was anyone here who knew exactly how I felt, it was her

"Come here, Annette"

I peeled her out of Ian and Spade's ar her, either for co else There were several broken objects around her Pinkish tears ran in torrents fro her look positively awful

"Let o," she yelled at Spade "Don't you understand, I don't want to go on without Crispin!"

Oh, how I seconded that Still, Vlad was right Bones deserved his retribution, and it was ot it

I grasped Annette's head

"You will go on, because you owe Bones that Patra's hoping his deathto show her that she est lad he changed you into a vao-and his enemies terrified of it"

Dark pink streaks continued to pour down Annette's cheeks, but her htened into a hard line I watched as her features changed frourement of sorrow to the steely, collected face of the female who'd tried her damnedest to ruin my relationship e met

She swiped at her cheeks and rose to her feet

They're going down, my look promised her

You bet they are, hers replied

Then she startled , her disarrayed head bowed "Crispin toldhappened to hie my loyalty"

I wasn't prepared for this Then the other an to follow suit, until even Tate knelt

Spade moved next to me, but he didn't kneel, since he was Master of his own line Instead, he lowered his head and kissed

"I'll stand by your side, Cat, for the sake of my friend ould have expected no less from me"

I wanted to say so in the face of all this, but my throat closed off Rodneyred stone Ian surprisedback the tears that tried to choke meDon't you dare cry, I reprimanded myselfDon't you dare

After all the vae, I cleared my throat

"Thank you I swear I'll prove worthy of your trust As Spade said, Bones would have expected no less Mencheres?"

He tilted his head "Yes?"

"What's next?"

"We'll hold an assembly in the near future for those under Bones's line to fore you After that, the focus is the same We are at war"

"Why in the near future? Is there aperiod?"

Mencheres wrinkled his forehead "No, but in light of this sudden, tragic event, you have time-"

"Bullshit I'et this out of the way Bones's people will be freaking out with hiets What's the soonest this thing can be arranged?"

Mencheres looked taken aback I ignored that and tapped my foot for punctuation

"Well?"

"Toht I will notify the proper leaders"

"Toht, then"

The question hat in the name of God was I supposed to do with myself until then?

After several comments that I hadn't slept, I went upstairs to one of the bedrooms just to shut everyone up But as soon as I stretched out on the bed and felt the gaping eave up and took a bath instead For two hours I sat in the tub, staring at nothing

Mencheres was in the doorhen I ca for you," he said, and held out a small square box of carved antique wood

"What is it?"

"Bones gave this tohappened to him"

"Set it on the bed" My voice was a rasp I was afraid to take it, because there was a tre in my hands that hadn't been there before "And leave"

He did as I asked, and I was alone in the room with the box It took e to open it, and then I bit back a cry