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" You're in there somewhere." He tapped at her collarbone. "You'll pop out again when-Well,when the time is right. But for now,you've slipped entirely inside your past. Like a cute little turtle in a borrowed shell.Except it's more than that.When you're in Lys's body, your very beings are entwined, so all sorts of good stuff comes with the package.Her memories,her passions,her manners-lucky for you.Of course,you also have to grapple with her shortcomings.This one,if I recall,puts her foot in her mouth with some regularity.So watch out."
"Amazing," Luce whispered. "So if I could just find Daniel,I'd be able to feel exactly what she feels toward him."
"Sure,I guess,but you do realize that once I snap my fingers,Lys has obligations at this ball that don't include Daniel.This isn't really his scene,and by that I mean,no way the guards would let a poor stable boy in here."
Luce didn't care about any of that. Poor stable boy or not,she would find him. She couldn't wait. Inside Lys's body she could even hold him, maybe even kiss him.The anticipation of it was almost overwhelming.
"Hello?" Bill flicked a hard finger against her temple. "You ready yet? Get in there,see what you can see-then get out while the getting's good, if you know what I mean."
Luce nodded.She straightened Lsys's black gown and held her head a little higher. "Snap to it."
"And...go." Bill snapped his fingers. "
― Lauren Kate , Passion (Fallen, #3)
86
" With a loud whoosh he stretched his wings out,and then deftly wrapped them tight around her, a cradle of soft white holding the two of them fast.
"You really believe it?" she whispered. "That someday I'll live through this?"
"With all my heart and soul," he said, cupping her face in his hands, pulling his wings tighter around them both. "I will wait for you as long as it takes. I will love you every moment across time."
By then,Luce was broiling hot. She cried out from the pain,thrashing in Daniel's arms as the heat overwhelmed her. She was burning his skin, but he never let her go.
The moment had come. The starshot was tucked inside her dress,and this-right now-was when she would have used it.But she was never going to give up.Not on Daniel. Not when she knew,no matter how hard it got,that he would never give up on her.
Her skin began to blister.The heat was so brutal,she could do nothing but shiver.
And then she could only scream.
Layla combusted,and as the flames engulfed her body,Luce felt her own body and the soul they were sharing untwine,seeking the fastest escape from the unforgiving heat. The column of fire grew taller and wider until it filled the room and the world,until it was everything,and Layla was nothing at all. "
― Lauren Kate , Passion (Fallen, #3)
87
" Daniel came up and walked beside her, and the other victor walked beside Ghanan.
For the briefest instant,Daniel's fingertips grazed her bound wrists. Ix Caut tingled at the touch.
Just outside the temple door,the four drummers were waiting on the ledge. They fell in line behind the processional and, as the party descended the pyramid's steep steps, played the same hectic beats Luce had heard when she'd first arrived in this life. Luce focused on walking,feeling as if she were riding a tide instead of choosing to put one foot in front of the other,down the pyramid,and then, at the base of the steps,along the wide, dusty path that led to her death.
The drums were all she could hear, until Daniel leaned in and whispered, "I'm going to save you."
Something deep inside Ix Caut soared. This was the first time he had ever spoken to her in this life.
"How?" she whispered back, leaning toward him,aching for him to free her and fly her far,far away.
"Don't worry." His fingertips found hers again,brushing them softly. "I promise,I'll take care of you."
Tears stung her eyes.The ground was still searing the soles of her feet,and she was still marching to the place where Ix Caut was supposed to die, but for the first time since arriving in this life,Luce was not afraid. "
― Lauren Kate , Passion (Fallen, #3)
88
" I thought I'd never find you," Luce heard her past self say.
"We will always find each other," Daniel answered, lifting her off the ground and squeezing her closer. "Always."
"Hey,you two!" A voice shouted from a doorway in a neighboring building. "Are you coming?"
Across the square from the empty lot, a small group of people were being herded into a solid stone building by a guy whose face Luce couldn't make out. That was where Luschka and Daniel were headed. It must have been their plan all along, to take shelter from the bombs together.
"Yes," Luschka called to the others. She looked at Daniel. "Let's go with them."
"No." His voice was curt. Nervous. Luce knew that tone all too well.
"We'll be safer off the street. Isn't this why we agreed to meet here?"
Daniel turned to look back behind them, his eyes sweeping right past the place where Luce was hiding. When the sky lit up with another round of golden-red explosions, Luschka screamed and buried her face in Daniel's chest. So Luce was the only one who saw his expression.
Something was weighing on him. Something greater than fear of the bombs.
Oh no.
"Daniil!" A boy near the building was still holding open the door to the shelter. "Luschka! Daniil!"
Everyone else was already inside.
That was when Daniil spun Luschka around, pulled her ear close to his lips. In her shadowy hiding place, Luce ached to know what he was whispering. If he was saying any of the things Daniel ever told her when she was upset or overwhelmed. She wanted to run to them, to pull Luschka away-but she couldn't. Something deep inside her would not budge.
She fixed on Luschka's expression as if her whole life depended on it.
Maybe it did.
Lsuchka nodded as Daniil spoke, and her face changed from terrified to calm, alost peaceful. She closed her eyes. She nodded one more time. Then she tipped back her head, and a smile spread slowly across her lips.
A smile?
But why? How? It was almost like she knew what was about to happen?
Daniil held her in his arms and dipped her low. He leaned in for another kiss, pressing his lips firmly against hers, running his hands through her hair, then down her sides, across every inch of her.
It was so passionate that Luce blushed, so intimate she couldn't breathe, so gorgeous that she couldn't tear her eyes away.Not for a second.
Not even when Luschka screamed.
And burst into a column of searing white flame. "
― Lauren Kate , Passion (Fallen, #3)
92
" Don't worry," she whispered. "You're going to make it."
"I know." His whisper came so quietly, and sounded so impossibly sad, that Luce wasn't sure she'd heard him right. Until then,she'd thought he was unconscious,but something in her voice seemed to reach him.
His eyelids fluttered. Then, slowly, they opened.
They were violet.
The jug of water fell from her hands.
Daniel.
Her instinct was to crawl in next to him and cover his lips with kisses, to pretend he wasn't as badly wounded as he was.
At the sight of her, Daniel's eyes widened and he started to sit up. But then the blood began to flow from his neck again and his face drained of all its color. Luce had no choice but to restrain him.
"Shhh. She pressed his shoulders back against the stretcher, trying to get him to relax.
He squirmed under her grip. Every time he did, bright new blood bloomed through the bandage.
"Daniel,you have to stop fighting," she begged. "Please stop fighting. For me."
They locked eyes for a long,intense moment=and then the ambulance came to an abrupt stop. The back door swung open. A shocking breath of fresh air flowed in. The streets outside were quiet, but the place had the feel of a big city,even in the middle of the night.
Milan. That was where the soldier had said they were going when he assigned her to this ambulance. They must be at a hospital in Milan. "
― Lauren Kate , Passion (Fallen, #3)
93
" She didn't really know what any of that meant, but she did know it could be very bad. Like erase-your-whole-existence bad.Or maybe kill-your-angel-boyfriend bad.
That was when Luce panicked. Grabbing hold of Daniel's shoulders, she began to shake. Lightly, gently-he'd been through a war,after all.But enough to let him know that she needed a sign. Right now.
"Daniel," she whispered. "Daniel?"
There.His eyelids began to flutter. She let out her breath.His eyes opened slowly,like they had last night. And like last night, when they registered the girl in front of them,they bulged. His lips parted. "You're...old."
Luce blushed. "I am not," she said, laughing. No one had ever called her old before.
"Yes,you are. You're really old." He looked almost disappointed. He rubbed his forehead. "I mean-How long have I been-?"
Then she remembered: Lucia was several years younger. But Daniel hadn't even met Lucia yet.How would he have known how old she was?
"Don't worry about that," she said. "I need to tell you something. Daniel. I'm-I'm not who you think I am. I mean, I am, I guess, I always am,but this time,I came from...uh..."
Daniel's face contorted. "Of course. You stepped through to get here."
She nodded. "I had to."
"I'd forgotten," he whispered, confusing Luce even more. "From how far away? No.Don't tell me." He waved her off, inching back in his bed as if she had some sort of disease. "How is that even possible? There were no loopholes in the curse.You shouldn't be able to be here."
"Loopholes?" Luce asked. "What kind of loopholes? I need to know-"
"I can't help you," he said, and coughed. "You have to learn on your own.Those are the rules. "
― Lauren Kate , Passion (Fallen, #3)
97
" You're right," he said, jerking open the portal. "There is one place she's sure to go."
"Yes."
"And you.You should take your own advice and leave this place," Daniel said grimly. "You're rotting in here."
"At least this body's pain distracts me from the pain in my soul," his past self said. "No.I wish you luck, but I won't leave these walls now.Not until she's settled in her next incarnation."
Daniel's wings bristled at his neck. He tried to sort out time and lives and memories in his head, but he kept circling around the same irksome thought. "She-she should be settled now. In conception. Can't you feel it?"
"Oh," his imprisoned past self said softly. He closed his eyes. "I don't know that I can feel anything anymore." The prisoner sighed heavily. "Life's a nightmare."
"No,it's not. Not anymore. I'll find her.I'll redeem us both," Daniel shouted, desperate to get out of there, desperately taking another leap of faith through time. "
― Lauren Kate , Passion (Fallen, #3)
100
" Until three weeks before,Lu Xin had lived on her family's millet farm on the banks of the Huan River. Passing through her river valley on his shining chariot one afternoon,the king had glimpsed Lu Xin tending the crops.He had decided that he fancied her. The next day,two militiamen had arrived at her door.She'd had to leave her family and her home. She'd had to leave De, the handsome young fisherman from the next village.
Before the king's summons, De had shown Lu Xin how to fish using his pair of pet cormorants,by tying a bit of rope loosely around their necks so that they could catch several fish in their mouths but not swallow them. Watching De gently coax the fish from the depths of the funny bird's beaks,Lu Xin had fallen in love with him.The very next morning,she'd had to say goodbye to him. Forever.
Or so she'd thought.
It had been nineteen sunsets since Lu Xin had seen De,seven sunsets since she'd received a scroll from home with bad news: De and some other boys from the neighboring farms had run away to join the rebel army, and no sooner had he left than the kind's men had ransacked the village,looking for the deserters.
With the king dead,the Shang men would show no mercy to Lu Xin,and she would never find De,never reunite with Daniel.
Unless the king's council didn't find out that their king was dead. "
― Lauren Kate , Passion (Fallen, #3)
