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I didn’t wait for an answer I lunged for his throat, and he went for ht a look at his face, and I saw the truth

He was me

As we stared into each other’s eyes and clawed at each other’s throats, we rolled over the edge of the water tower and fell

The whole way down, I could only think one thing

Finally

My head hit the floor with a crack, and led around me I tried to open my eyes, but they were still blurred with sleep I waited for the panic to subside

InNoas the one falling What did thatlike I’d already fallen?

“Ethan Lawson Wate! What in our Sweet Redeemer’s name are you doin’ up there?” Aht back up out of Hades, as my dad would say

I opened my eyes, but all I could see was a lonely sock, a spider working its way aih the dust, and a few beat-up, spine-busted books Catch-22 Ender’s Ga view under my bed

“Nothing Just shutting the ” I stared at my , but I didn’t close it I always slept with it open I’d started leaving it open when Macon died—at least, e thought he’d died—and noas a reassuring habit Most people felt safer with their s closed, but I knew a closedcouldn’t protect s I was afraid of It couldn’t keep out a Dark Caster or a Blood Incubus

I wasn’t sure anything could

But if there was a way, Macon seemed determined to find it I hadn’t seen much of him since we came back from the Great Barrier He was always in the Tunnels anyway, or working on some kind of protective Cast to Bind Ravenwood Lena’s house had become the Fortress of Solitude since the Seventeenth Moon, when the Order of Things—the delicate balance that regulated the Caster world—was broken A her own Fortress of Solitude here at Wate’s Landing—or Fortress of Superstition, as Link called it A preventative measures” She had lined every sill with salt and used lass bottles upside down on every branch of our crepe myrtle tree In Wader’s Creek, bottle trees were as common as cypresses Nohenever I saw Link’s —“Caught any evil spirits in those old bottles yet?”

I e could catch yours That’s what I wanted to say Mrs Lincoln stuffed in a dusty brown Coke bottle I wasn’t sure any bottle tree could handle that

Right now, I just wanted to catch a breeze The heat rolled over ainst , a blanket you couldn’t kick off The relentless South Carolina sun usually let up a little by September,

but not this year

I rubbed the lump on my forehead and stumbled to the shower I turned on the cold water I let it run for a minute, but it still came out warm

Five in a row I had fallen out of bed five straight ht on our old crepethat happened this su her nest Every time I stepped out of the house, I could alhost I couldn’t escape

And I couldn’t stand it I needed to believe that sohtmare

I s, and turned up the water It finally went cold It wasn’t until I was drying off that I noticed thehad closed without me

“Hurry up, Sleepin’ Beauty I’m ready to hit the books” I heard Link before I saw hinized his voice It was deeper, and he soundedon the drus