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"In that case," she said, "would you do my closet, too?" Jimi frowned "Was Neeve ever in there?"

"With Neeve," Blue replied, "you never know"

"I’ll say an extra little prayer in there"

The little prayer turned out to be a little longer than Blue

had expected, and she fled the smoke after a few minutes In the hallway, she discovered Jiing Neeve’s old quarters It felt like an invitation

With a glance down the hall, she stepped into the stairwell and clirubby smell of asafetida, one of the charms Neeve had used, still per to improve upon it

At the top of the stairs, she hesitated Most of Neeve’s things were still up here, but they’d been heaped and boxed on the throw-covered mattress for later removal All of the masks and symbols had been removed from the slanted, unfinished walls, and the candles had been carefully packed taper-side down in a plastic bin But Neeve’s th mirrors pointed directly at each other And there was a deep black bowl sitting on the floor beside the bowl

The base was slicked with the h Neeve hadn’t been in this room for nearly a month Blue wasn’t sure who else would use it She knew that Maura, Persephone, and Calla generally frowned upon the ritual The technique was theoretically simple: The scryer looked into a mirror or dark bowl full of liquid, drew her mind into a space outside itself, and saw the future or another location in the reflection

In practice, Maura had told Blue that it was unpredictable and dangerous

The soul, she’d said, is vulnerable when it’s outside the mind

The last ti into someplace hidden on the ley line Possibly somewhere in Cabeswater And when Blue had interrupted her, she’d found Neeve possessed by whatever dark creature she’d discovered there

Now, in the attic’s suffocating heat, Blue shivered It was easy to forget the terror that had accompanied their hunt for Cabeswater But the shiny circle in the base of the scrying bowl brought it all back in a second

Who’s using you? Blue wondered And of course, that was only the first half of the question

The other half was: And what are you looking for now?

Ronan Lynch believed in heaven and hell

Once, he’d seen the devil It had been a low, lateat the Barns when the sun had burned off the es off the ground until everything shiot hot in those protected fields, but that , the air sweated with it Ronan had never seen cattle pant before All of the cows heaved and stuck their tongues out as they frothed with the heat His mother sent Ronan to put theone to the searing limpsed his father, already in the barn Four yards away from him had stood a red e of a fire ant And he was not truly a man, because of the horns and the hooves Ronan remembered the alienness of the creature, how real it had been Every costu in every cootten that the devil was an ani at the red man, Ronan had been struck by the intricacy of the body, how many miraculous pieces moved smoothly in harun in hand -- the Lynches had an enoruns of all sizes -- and just as Ronan had opened the gate, his father had shot the thing about thirteen times in the head With a shake of its horns, the unharenitalia to Niall Lynch before bounding off It was an ie that had yet to leave Ronan

And so Ronan becarew inside him, and it was laid upon him to share it with no one No one was et there No one should have to live with the devil So er required it for belief

Noas Sunday, and as with every Sunday, he was headed to St Agnes Gansey wasn’t with hiion that only required church attendance on Christmas -- but Noah came with Noah had not been Catholic when he was alive, but recently he had decided to find religion No one in the church ever noticed him and it was possible God didn’t, either, but Ronan, as sonored as well, didn’t reat old doors and clawed some holy water from the font while the choir members narrowed their eyes at him He scanned the pews for Declan It was the devil who drove him to church every Sunday, but it was his brother Mattheho drove him to a pew beside Declan

His older brother sat in the rear on the wood, his eyes closed As always, he’d dressed for church: collared shirt white as innocence, knot of his tie tight and sanctified, slacks obediently pressed This week, however, Declan had zo beneath both of his eyes, a terrifically red, sutured split across a cheekbone, and a decidedly broken nose

Ronan’s mood improved He flicked holy water onto Declan’s face froers "What the hell happened to you?"

The to three pews forhispered to each other The organ round

Declan didn’t open his eyes "Burglary" Hehis h for the word to escape

Ronan and Noah exchanged a look