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It wasn’t what he would’ve expected to find here, or at all From what he could remember of his history, shields like this weren’t in popular use by Glendower’s time Good armor had rendered theh Certainly the fine work piece of weaponry And it did see to bury with a king He traced the ravens Three ravens le -- the coat of arical father

Who else had touched this boss? A craftsman, hisit into a boat to cross the Atlantic

Maybe even Glendower himself

His heart was on fire with it

"So, it’s ancient," Blue said froht"

"And what about this?"

At the tone in her voice, he lifted his eyes to the large object that rested upright against the tops of her thighs

He knehat it was He just didn’t knohy it was

He said, "Well, that’s a wheel off the Camaro"

And it was

It looked identical to the wheels currently residing on the Pig -- except this wheel was clearly several hundred years old The discolored surface was pocked and luantly symmetrical wheel didn’t appear that out of place beside the shield boss If you overlooked the tattered Chevrolet logo in the o?" Ronan asked "Like, five hundred years or so?"

"We know the ley line messes with time," Gansey said immediately, but he felt undone Not exactly undone, but unic When the rules of time became flexible, the future seemed to hold too many possibilities to bear This wheel promised a past with the Camaro on it, a past that both hadn’t happened and had Hadn’t because the keys were still in Gansey’s pocket and the car was still parked back at Mon And had because Blue held the wheel in her stilldamp hands

"I think you should leave these with o to your mom’s this weekend," Blue said "And I’ll see if I can convince Calla to do her thing on them"

The boat was steered back toward shore, Orla was handed her bell-botto, and the sonar device was dredged from the water Ada into the truck -- Gansey was going to have to talk to hiood for theether -- and Ronan retreated to the BMW to drive back by hih he didn’t knohat he would say to him, either

Blue joined him in the shade of the boat, the shield boss in her hand This discovery was not Cabeswater, and it was not Glendower, but it was sory for Glendower and Glendower alone These tantalizing clues used to be enough to sustain hirown old inside his young skin I tire of wonders, he thought

He watched Orla’s orange bikini disappear hopefully into the BMW His h: still absorbed with the mystery of the ancient Cafully, "Seen enough?"

"Of -- oh, Orla?"

"Yea h"

The question annoyed hied hi to deserve it He was not Blue’s business, not in that way

"What care is it of yours," he asked, "what I think of Orla?"

This felt dangerous, for some reason He possibly shouldn’t have asked it In retrospect, it wasn’t the question itself at fault It was the way that he’d asked it His thoughts had been far away, and he hadn’t beenhow he looked on the outside, and now, too late, he heard the dip of his oords How the inflection seeht Don’t ruin things

Blue held his gaze, unflinching Crisp, she replied, "None at all"

And it was a lie

It should not have been, but it was, and Gansey, who prized honesty above nearly every other thing, knehen he heard it Blue Sargent cared whether or not he was interested in Orla She cared a lot As she whirled toward the truck with a dismissive shake of her head, he felt a dirty sort of thrill

Suot into the truck

"Let’s go," he told the others, and he slid on his sunglasses

25

Of course, the Gray Man had to get rid of the two bodies It was a nuisance, but nothing more The sort ould break into a house for supernatural artifacts also tended to be the sort who didn’t get reported , for exaerprints and then

drive them someplace ne Abomination, the Gray Man had fuel cans and two Peruvian pots that were too hot to sell yet wrapped in Dora the Explorer blankets, so he put the bodies in the backseat, buckling them so they wouldn’t flop around toostain in yet another rental car His father was right: past performance really did seem to be the best indicator of future performance

While he drove, he called the Veranda Inn and Restaurant and canceled his dinner reservation

"Would you like to change it to a later time?" the hostess asked The Gray Man liked how she said later It was soht just won’t work, I think Can I reschedule forThursday?" He took the exit for the Blue Ridge Parkway The force of the turn knocked one of the thug’s heads against theThe thug was beyond caring