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It wasn't that she didn't understand his motivation. She had been in his
mind; she'd felt thestrength of his protectiveness for her. And she wanted to
protect him, too.
But it wasn't possible to forget about everyoneelse. Her parents, her
friends, her teachers, thepaper girl. If she let Delos give up, what
happenedto them?
Even the people in the Dark Kingdom. Laundressand Old Mender and Soaker and
Chamber-potEmptier and all the other slaves. Shecaredabout them. She admired
their gritty determination to goon living, whatever the circumstances-and
theircourage in risking their lives to help her.
That's what Delosdoesn't understand, shethought. He doesn't see them as
people, so he can'tcare about them. All his life he's only cared abouthimself,
and now about me. He can't look beyondthat.
If only she could think of a way tomakehimsee-but she couldn't. As the hours
passed and thesilence began to wear on her, she kept trying.
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No inspiration came. And finally the light outsideher cell began to fade and
the cold started to settle in.
She was half asleep, huddled on her chilly bench,when she heard the rattle of
a key in a door. Shejumped up and went to peer through the bars, hoping to see
Delos.
The door at the end of the narrow stone corridoropened and someone came in
with a flare. But itwasn't Delos. It was a guard, and behind him wasanother
guard, and this one had a prisoner.
"Jeanne!" Maggie said in dismay.
And then her heart plummeted further.
A third guard was half marching, half supporting Aradia.
Maggie looked at them wordlessly.
It wasn't like Jeanne not to fight, she thought, asthe guards opened the cell
door and shoved theother girls in.
The door clanged shut again, and the guardsmarched back out without speaking.
Almost as anafterthought, one of them stuck a flare in an ironring to give the
prisoners some light.
And then they were gone.
Jeanne picked herself up off the floor, and thenhelped Aradia get up.
"They've got P.J. upstairs,"she said to Maggie, who was still staring.
"Theysaid they wouldn't hurt her if we went quietly."
Maggie opened her mouth, shut it again, andtried to swallow her heart, which
was in her throat.At last she managed to speak.
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"Delos said that?"
"Delos and Hunter Redfern and that witch.They're all very chummy."
Maggie sat down on the cold bench."I'm sorry," she said.
"Why? Because you're too stupidly trusting?"Jeanne said. "You're not
responsible for him."
"I think she means because she's his soulmate,"Aradia said softly.
Jeanne stared at her as if she'd started speaking a foreign language. Maggie
stared, too, feeling hereyes getting wider, trying to study the beautiful
features in the semidarkness.
She felt oddly shy of this girl whom she'd calledCady and who had turned out
to be something shecould never have imagined.
"How did you know that?" she asked, trying notto sound tongue-tied. "Can you
justtell?"
Asmile curved the perfect lips in the shadows."I could tell before," Aradia
said gently, backing upquite accurately to sit on the bench. "When youcame
back from seeing him the first time, but Iwas too foggy to really focus on
anything then. I'veseen a lot of it in the last few years, though.
Peoplefinding their soulmates, I mean."
"You're better, aren't you?" Maggie said. "Yousound lots moreawake." It
wasn't just that. Aradia had always had a quiet dignity, but now therewas an
authority and confidence about her thatwas new.
"The healing women helped me. I'm still weak,though," Aradia said softly,
looking around the cell.
"I can't use any of my powers-not that breakingthrough walls is among them,
anyway."
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Maggie let her breath out. "Oh, well. I'm gladyou're awake, anyway." She
added, feeling shy again, "Um, I know your real name, now. Sorry about the
misunderstanding before."
Aradia put a hand-again perfectly accuratelyon Maggie's. "Listen, my dear
friend," she said,startling Maggie with both the word and the intensity of her
voice, "nobody has ever helped me more than you did, or with less reason. If
you'd been oneof my people, and you'd known who I was, it wouldhave been
amazing enough. But from a human, who didn't know anything about me . .
."Shestopped and shook her head. "I don't know if we'll even live through
tonight," she said. `But if we do,and if there's ever anything the witches can
do foryou, all you have to do is ask."
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