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Through the constant hiss of the rain, Gansey heard a scrape across the floor upstairs, and another bang as so fell over

"It’s not just the blood," Ronan said His chest ot out, too"

The door to Ronan’s room was closed A bookshelf had been emptied, tipped on its side, and pushed in front of it The books were hastily piled beside the knocked-over telescope Everything was silent and gray as the rain beaded on the s The smell Gansey had noticed downstairs was more prominent up here: moldy, sweet

"Kerah?" croaked Chainsaw from Ronan’s ar her onto Gansey’s desk; she disappeared into the rain-black shadow beneath it Switching the crowbar to his right hand, Ronan pointed to the box cutter on the desk until Gansey realized he meant for him to take it He dubiously extended and retracted the blade a few ti at Noah The latter looked ready to vanish, either froe

"Are you ready?" Ronan asked

"What is it I’ scratched on the floorboard

Tck-tck-tck Like ain Gansey’s heart thrilled with fear

Ronan said, "What’s in my head"

Gansey didn’t think there was a way to steel oneself for that But he helped Ronan push the bookshelf out of the way

"Gansey," Ronan said The doorknob was turning on its own accord He reached out and held it still "Watch -- watch your eyes"

"What’s our plan?" Gansey’s attention was on Ronan’s grip on the doorknob His knuckles hite with the effort of keeping it fro open the door

The first thing Gansey saas the disaster: Chainsaw’s cage flattened, the perch splintered The mesh cover of a speaker was bent like a claed beneath an overturned stool A tattered shirt and pair of jeans sprawled on the floor, at first glance a corpse

Then he saw the nightmare

It moved from the rear corner Like it was a shadow, and then it was a thing Fast Black Bigger than he’d expected Realer than he’d expected

It was as tall as he was Two-legged Clothed in so at the beak

"Gansey!" Ronan snarled, and then he swung the crowbar

The creature hurtled to the floor It twisted out of Ronan’s reach as he swung again Gansey became aware of a claw No, claws, dozens of them Massive, shiny, curled to needle points They snatched at Ronan

Gansey darted in, slashing at a li parted beneath the blade It leapt up, straight at Ronan, who blocked it with the crowbar With a h the air and perched on the doorja like a spider There was nothing human about it It hissed at the boys Red-pupiled eyes snapped shut and open A bird A dinosaur A demon

No wonder Ronan never sleeps

"Close the door!" snapped Ronan "We don’t want to play hide and seek in there!"

The bedroom seemed too small to shut theht He slammed the door just as the creature flew at him Hooks and beaks, black and twisted At the sa Gansey to the floor

In a brief, crystal moment, pinned beneath both Ronan and the beaked creature, Gansey saw the thing’s claws seize Ronan’s ar scabs crisscrossed beneath the fresh ones The beak darted for Ronan’s face

Gansey stabbed the box cutter blade into the waxy black flesh between the claws

The thing ain with the crowbar, and when it glanced off the creature, he aimed a fist instead The two of thehtht soundlessly; Ronan could die, and Gansey wouldn’t know it until after

Sweeping a hand across Ronan’s desk, Gansey seized a beer bottle and sainst the creature’s skull Instantly, the smell of alcohol filled the room Ronan cursed fro’s li? Rrevulsion coursed up his throat -- and swiped at its body with the box cutter He felt the blade reasy flesh Suddenly, there was a claw around his neck, a claw shoved into the thin skin under his chin Hooked like a fish

He are of how tiny the blade of the box cutter was How insubstantial in co He felt a wars filled with the fecund smell of rot

Ronan smashed the crowbar into the creature’s head And then he s cruht of it was an anchor on Gansey’s skin He was caught, irip

The box cutter was taken fro what Ronanbeak So it was the creature holding Gansey holding the creature And then Ronan cutting its throat It was neither fast nor bloodless It was as ragged and slow as cutting wet cardboard

Then it was over, and Ronan unhooked the claw carefully from Gansey’s skin

Released, Gansey scrambled back from the creature He pressed the back of his hand to the wound on his chin He couldn’t tell as his blood and as its blood and as Ronan’s blood Both of them were out of breath

"Are you murdered?" Ronan asked Gansey A scratch came down his temple and skipped across his eyebrow to his cheek Watch your eyes

A soft probe with Gansey’s fingertips revealed that the actual wound under his chin was quite sht on the claouldn’t soon leave hih He felt perilously undone, like he needed to hold on to so or be washed away He kept his voice even "I think so Is it dead?"