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?If you lose your way, I?ll follow you down,? Helen told him,

already feeling the baked air of the dry lands leaching all the moisture

out of the atmosphere.

Suddenly, Helen knew what the dry lands were and why she had

always been too frightened to recognize the truth when it was staring

her in the face. The desert that she wandered into while she

slept, the land Jason now had to traverse to save Claire, was the

land of the dead. For the briefest of moments she could see Claire?s

fetch, confused, scared, and soundlessly calling out Jason?s name.

Helen banished that disturbing image and spoke directly into

Jason?s ear. ?I know the way through the rubble, and I promise, if

you can?t make it on your own, I?ll come down and carry you both

out.?

Jason?s eyes snapped back open in shock, but his spirit was

already following Claire?s, and although he tried to fight it, his eyes

closed again as he slipped into a deep comalike slumber. Helen left

the room

, trusting him completely with Claire?s heal. Mentally, she

was already joining the battle that awaited her in the living room.

Helen picked her way down the stairs, hearing her mother?s

raised voice as she neared. It was already hauntingly familiar even

though she had known the woman only a few short hours.

Daphne?s voice was Helen?s own, coming from outside her head

like a recording played back on a crappy answering machine.

Helen hated it?not the sound, but feeling like she was stuck in

someone else?s mistake, doomed to adopt the worst qualities of the

people she was supposed to love the most.

Helen paused for a moment to steel herself before she went into

the living room. In the few short minutes Helen had been upstairs,

Tags: Josephine Angelini Starcrossed Fantasy
Source: readsnovelonline.net