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Ronan echoed, "Ley line surging Right Yeah, I’ll bet that’s it"

All the whimsy of Dollar City was ruined As Gansey led the way out, Noah said to Ronan, "I knohy you’re mad"

Ronan sneered at him, but his pulse heaved "Tell me then, prophet"

Noah said, "It’s notyou could come with me," Gansey said carefully, two hours later He pressed the phone to his ear with one shoulder as he unrolled a massive scroll of paper across

the floor of Monh the roohts across the paper "To the party at ood at it"

On the other end of the phone, Adam didn’t i about it or being irritated about the suggestion

Gansey kept unrolling the paper It was a high-resolution print of the ley line as seen froet the ies spliced and then printed in color, but it would all be worth it if he spotted so else, they could use it to track their exploration Also, it was pretty

Froh He and Ronan were throwing various objects fro lot below There was a terrific crash

Ronan’s voice rose, exasperated "Not that one, Noah"

"I’d have to see if I could get off work," Adam replied "I think I can Do you think I should?"

Relieved, Gansey said, "Oh, yes" He dragged his desk chair onto the corner of the print It kept trying to roll back up on itself He put a copy of Trioedd Ynys Prydein on the other corner "Have you heard froht? She has work, doesn’t she?" Roll, roll, roll He nudged it with his foot to keep it straight It was surprisingly satisfying to see acres and acres of forest andacross his floorboards If he were a god, he thought, this would be precisely how he’d create his neorld Unrolling it like carpet

"Yeah I justhas she ever said anything to you about uess"

Gansey paused in his rolling As a point of fact, Blue had confessed a lot about kissing Namely, that she’d been told her entire life that she’d kill her true love if she kissed hie to remember that moment He’d doubted her, he recalled He wouldn’t have now Blue was a fanciful but sensible thing, like a platypus, or one of those sandwiches that had been cut into circles for a fancy tea party

She’d also asked Gansey not to tell Ada?" he repeated evasively "What’s going on?"

Another crash frohter Gansey wondered if he should stop thehts did

"I dunno She doesn’t want to," Adauess I don’t knohat I’"

"Have you asked her why she doesn’t want to?" Gansey asked, though he didn’t want to hear the answer He was abruptly tired of the conversation

"She said she was very young"

"She probably is" Gansey had no idea how old Blue was He knew she’d just finished eleventh grade Maybe she was sixteen Maybe she was eighteen Maybe she enty-two and just very short and re? You’ve dated waynow"

"Except for Glendower"

Gansey couldn’t argue that point "Look, Adam, I don’t think it’s about you I think she likes you fine"

Adah, because he didn’t reply It gave Gansey enough time to remember the moment he’d first approached her at Nino’s on Adam’s behalf How disastrous it had been Since then, he’d considered a dozen different ways he could’ve done it better

Which was foolish It had all worked out, hadn’t it? She ith Adam now Whether or not Gansey had made a first-class prat of hi

"No way, man!" Noah shouted, but he didn’t sound like he h already "No way --"

Gansey kicked the rolled print hard enough that it teetered crookedly out to its end, yards away, out of the circles of light Standing, he walked to the s on the eastern wall of the factory Leaning an elbow on the frareat, black spread of Henrietta below

Once, he had drea, but the day after He wouldn’t forget the sensation of the dream It hadn’t been joy, but instead, the absence of pain He couldn’t forget that lightness The freedoly," Adauess not But soet that way"

Gansey watched tiny car lights di him of his miniature version of the town An early, illicit firework sprayed up in the foreground "Well, she’s not really like a girl Isomeone It’s Blue You could just ask her We see her every day Do you wanthe definitely, 100 percent felt certain in his guts that he had no interest in doing

"I’, Gansey," Adaood at it Maybe -- maybe if it just comes up natural?"

Gansey’s shoulders collapsed; his breath fogged the glass and vanished "Of course"

"Thanks" Ada to be simple"

So do I, Ada on the door fra that thing where he looked like both the dangerous Ronan he was now and the cheerier Ronan he had been when Gansey had first met him "Is Noah out here?"