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"Listen to me."
Val took a step back, not allowing him to get as close as he wanted. "Listen to me. You don't understand. You're not listening. I need you...need you to listen to me."
She took a deep breath, trying to settle herself enough to finish. "Whether you want that for me or not, whether you...you think I deserve it or not is...is irrelevant. It's my gift. I can give myself to you, but...but I am not yours to give. Don't you...don't you understand? I can't...I can't go on, not like this, not unless...not unless you really love me." She sheathed the dagger in a quick motion, and then her arms hung limply at her sides. "My father is dead. My friends...half-souled or not...have rejected me. Your love is...is all I have left of that world, and I don't...don't even have that. I would accomplish anything...anything at all...if I had a reason. I don't...I don't even know if you know me anymore, Umbrosus. There is...is a fire in me, and I would...I don't know if you know how much I would do. I'd keep all my promises, all of them, but...but I can't do it if I...if no one cares. Really cares."
She swallowed and looked away. "I think about...about leaving sometimes. If I can do no...no good here...I will do something else. It is...is within my power to move the Sanguine's efforts forward...tremendously...or to set them back by the same factor. Or to do...to do nothing." She left the statement deliberately obscure. "Or about crossing over...to see if I can find my father...to see if he, wherever he is, still...still wants me. So that someone does." A tear fell from her eyes, though the girl's voice didn't change. "Or devoting myself to my political job...to working for Milo. Forget that I ever came here, that I was ever anyone besides...besides Valanthia L'Evienne. Besides Val. You...used to call me Val, you know."
She looked up, and her eyes were full of tears now. "I was...was worried about my safety. My brother is a...a celebrity. And so I bought...I bought faked identification. Another name. Sometimes...if I don't want to be known, I'm Angel now. Angel Haema." She bit her lip, hard enough for a pinprick of blood to appear. "Angel Talasma Haema. I...I bought your name...the name that's carved into the rock where I'm resting in...in your time."
The girl's voice was shaking now, shaking enough that she could hardly get the last words out. "Why, Umbrosus? Why won't...won't you love me?"
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