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"Far away isn’t the saone" This was Adalionby uniforreasy hands to the mask He didn’t ask permission, but Ronan didn’t stop him After the briefest of pauses, Adam took thea terrified warning, Orphan Girl dove behind Ronan

But Adaone, or it had become Adam’s face, or Adary; Ada His eyes were desperate and incensed A long, fat vein stood out in his neck

"Occidet eu It was beco, in love with his blood and his sadness Their wings flapped in tih to drive them away

Because Ada else, Adah to touch To think about it was to beco Adam be consumed from the inside out Ronan couldn’t even tell where the mask was now; there was only Adairl sobbed out, "Ronan, imploro te!"

Ronan took Adaed Tooth upon tooth upon tooth Even as he went for Ronan, one of his hands still tugged at the now-invisibleto free himself There was none of his face left Adaers hooks in his skin Ronan could not kill hied It was Adaaped, door to bloody ruin

Niall Lynch had taught Ronan to box, and he had once told his son: Clear your mind of whimsy

Ronan cleared his mind of whie was to snatch Adaedly clawed at the slenderhimself for the effort, Ronan wrenched

But the mask came away as easily as a petal from a flower It was only for Adaered back

In Ronan’s hand, the asped breaths Orphan Girl buried her face in his side, her body shaking with sobs Her tiny voice was muffled: "Tollerere me a hic, tollerere me a hic"

Take round, Ronan’s night horrors drew closer Close enough to s peculiar, dreadful sounds When Ronan lifted his eyes, he saw that the mask had been all that was left of his face When he’d pulled it from Adam, he’d revealed lobule of blood froainst the wall, life leaking froripped the mask, his limbs aith adrenaline

"I’ll put it back on"

Please work

"Ronan!"

Ronan curled on his bed, half-propped against the wall, his headphones still around his neck His body was frozen, as it alas after dreah every nerve The nighth he couldn’t reat, uneven puffs He couldn’t uncurl or answer or stop seeing Ada, rain beating on thebeside his head He floated above himself The boy below hi on his arms and neck

"Ronan," whispered Noah He crouched inches away, colorless in this light He was solid enough for his knees to leave an ih to cast any sort of shadow "You’re awake, you’re awake"

For a longout Gradually, his heart slowed With an icy touch, Noah worked Ronan’s fingers free of the drea it with him He’d have to destroy it Maybe he could burn it

Noah lifted it into the ’s diffuse light and shivered The mask’s surface was splattered with red-black drops Whose DNA, Ronan wondered, would a lab find in that blood?

"Yours?" Noah asked, barely audible

Ronan shook his head and sealed his eyes again Behind his closed eyelids, it was Adam’s dreadful face he saw, not Noah’s

In the corner of the rooe was And not a sound like a young raven It was a long, slow scrape on the wood floor Then a rapid sound like a drinking straw in bicycle spokes Tck-tck-tck-tck-tck

It was a sound Ronan had heard before

He sed

He opened his eyes Noah’s eyes were already wide Noah said, "What were you drea about?"

18

Gansey had woken before dawn It had been awhile since he’d had to wake up early for crew teaht at 4:45 am, ready to hit

the river Usually, he’d spend those sleepless earlythe Internet for new references to Glendower, but after the disappearance of Cabeswater, he couldn’t bring himself to be productive Instead he had retreated outside through the drizzle to the early- Immediately, he had been co in it like this -- doing his ho in to class, or stranded by the side of the road, or wondering what he would do if he never found Glendower -- that it felt like ho, the car sle mosquito found its way into the car and worried at his ear, a high treainst the basso continuo of the rain and thunder