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I didn't have to answer She knew She could see it better perhaps than I could see it And all I saas the suffering in her black eyes The pain, the inco for me

It see I could do now; nothing to save them; or me I loved her! But I couldn't stand with her! Silently, I begged her to understand and forgive

Her face was frozen, almost as if the voices had reclai before her throne in the path of her changeless gaze

"I will kill you first, ently "I want you gone froain "

"Harnal," Maharet whispered "We shall ainst you as one "

"And youat Maharet "When I finish with this one I love, I shall kill those you love; those who should have been dead already; I shall destroy all those whom I can destroy; but who shall destroy me?"

"Akasha," Marius whispered He rose and came towards her; but she moved in the blink of an eye and knocked him to the floor I heard him cry out as he fell Santino went to his aid

Again, she looked atas before And through the veil of my tears, I saw her smile sadly "My prince, my beautiful prince," she said

Khayman rose fro ones rose, and lastly Pandora, who moved to Marius's side

She released ht was so quiet suddenly that the forest seelass

And this is what I've wrought, I who alone re At the s sweep of edies, oodness, and of fame

What was she doing? Assessing their power? Looking fro down froht And so now the fire comes, Lestat Don't dare to look at Gabrielle or Louis, lest she turn it that way Die first, like a coward, and then you don't have to see them die

And the awful part is, you won't knoins finally- whether or not she triu what it was all about, or why, or what the hell the drea You just won't ever know

I eeping now and she eeping and she was that tender fragile being again, the being I had held on Saint-Doue, the one who needed h it would certainly destroy me

"Lestat," she whispered as if in disbelief