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The eainst ot to see you again…or that you’re the one ill end it for me”

God, I’d forgotten he called me that Thea pink dress with a frilly skirt and a play tiara He used to call me Reenie, and that day it became queenie, because of my princess outfit After that Halloween, I reme with chants of Reenie-ent air Hoished I could have more of these recollections; I needed them, craved them in a way that seemed more vital than air—but there were no more

I looked at Greydusk, who seemed transfixed by iven theretted the years I had spent calling hi a new fa for me

“Where do we start?” I asked the Imaron

He went to examine the apparatus, as the ansasn’t readily apparent After givingsqueeze, Chance joined hi machine, my father stared at me

“All I ask,” he said softly, the speaker crackling with his pain and resignation, “is that you make it quick”

“I won’t touch anything until they tell me how”

We talked then Precious, stolen , about Chance, who had beenbeside rew damp when I told him what I’d done in Kiled to hear:

“I am so proud of you” Only they came with reverb and distortion

They had taken everything but his loyalty and devotion My mother had been lucky to share even ten years with thisto replace him She knew that quantity mattered less than quality and that nobody could ever take Albert Solomon’s place in her heart—and that hy she stared wistfully out fro home someday but because she knew he never would

He gave up everything for you

“I love you,” I whispered

Greydusk stepped to my side andthere, he should feel no pain”

“Dad, I’ for a demon queen, but one who hurt this much could not help but weep

“I’m ready,” my father said

“Corine, let htly

For a ive the burden to him to bear, but then when I looked at him, I would see the man who killed my father, not the one I loved So I shook ainstwo in my throat that I had to sn like razor blades No, better I should be haunted by my own reflection, for I was used to that

So ht be the worst But there was none better At least I could offer him surcease from pain

Leaning in, I kissed my father on the cheek, as I had done so many times as a child He did not s shirt or a Panama hat, but he was still the man who held my dreams in his hands until the day he disappeared With his blue eyes set in an ascetic face, he s in a tuneless tenor the chorus from “Fire and Rain,” which he’d always belted out in the shower The speaker crackled with the emotion, and I couldn’t bear another moment As he finished the last word, I stepped behind the reaping ed

It popped free with a spurt of fluid, and I kept pulling The Irief and that I had to get my father down I would not leave him in this place Chance worked beside me, his face taut with echoed sorrow Because he loved me, he mourned with me I wondered hoould feel if we had found his mother in such a state

But due to his luck, we’d saved her And I’d killed my own father

At last I set Albie Solomon free and he fell intodown ainst s resembledfor so much pain, borne in my stead

Chance and Greydusk let rieve for a while before the demon dared to intrude “Your Majesty, we cannot reht return”

The queen surged forward then, taking over I bit off the words like chips of ice “Let them”

No Way Back

“I’ him” My tone brooked no refusal

In response, Greydusk knelt and collected my father’s body The Imaron cradled his wasted forh for me to rise and lead the way out into the corridor

Noe needed a rathole

I had an idea I toyed with it, wondering if the small creature that felt so ambivalent about me could truly help us But it orth a try