Hunter and Fox

  At that moment, the woman walked out of the air to stand at her side. The Caisah, where he was pinned to the wall, didn't even take any notice; perhaps he couldn't see her at all.

  “You cannot kill him,” the woman whispered, wiping the blood from Talyn's eyes, “not yet, that is.”

  The Hunter grasped her with her one good hand. “Tell me you can help me! Tell me you can stop him!”

  “You know in your heart of hearts that we can. Let us show you the right path; there is still hope for our kind. Come with us.” The Caisah's power was subsiding about her.

  None of what she'd believed in mattered. She was an empty vessel, worth nothing to anyone—least of all herself. Beyond words, she took the hand offered to her. The woman was Vaerli, the closest thing to kin she would ever know now. Perhaps they were more her family than her own had been for centuries.

  The woman guided her away from the Puzzle Room, the still-laughing Caisah, and the past she had wasted on him.

  Let the Caisah rage, Syris mourn, and the Vaerli search in vain for her, she would not come to V'nae Rae again. Talyn's last thought before she left was bitter indeed.

  So many gifts…and I wasted all of them.

  PHILIPPA BALLANTINE is the coauthor of the Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences series with Tee Morris. Ballantine also wrote the Books of the Order series: Geist, Spectyr, and the forthcoming Wrayth and Harbinger. Her works have won both a Sir Julius Vogel Award and an Airship Award. Although she was a citizen of New Zealand, love brought her to Virginia, where she currently resides with her family, including five cats. Naturally, because she is a trained librarian, she's addicted to the smell of old books.

  http://www.pjballantine.com/

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  @PhilippaJane