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He put the key in the door

It fit

He turned it

The lock popped up

A sh there was no

one to see it Especially because there was no one to see it

Ronan sank into the driver’s seat The vinyl was infernally hot in the sun, but he just filed that information away It was yet another sensation that er around the thin steering wheel, rested his palearshift

Gansey’s heart would stop if he saw Ronan Lynch right here Unless the key didn’t work in the ignition

Ronan put his feet on the clutch and brake, inserted the key,

and turned it

The engine roared to life

Ronan grinned

On cue, his phone buzzed as a text e came in He slid

it out of his pocket Kavinsky

my neheels will blow you away see you tonite11

An hour later, Noah let Blue into Mon The sun had made the space vast and musty and lovely The warm, trapped air was scented with old wood and h Gansey had been gone only hours, it suddenly seeer, like this was all that was left of him

"Where’s Ronan?" she whispered as Noah closed the door behind her

"Making trouble," Noah whispered back It was strange to be here without anyone else: speaking felt a little forbidden "Nothing we can do anything about"

"Are you sure?" Blue s"

"Not about this"

She hesitated by the door It felt like trespassing without Gansey or Ronan here What she wanted was to so inside her head and keep it there She was struck with anxious longing

Noah held his hand out She accepted it -- it was bone cold, as always -- and together they turned to face the huge roo to explore the jungle instead of stepping deeper into Moner with just the two of the mobiles overhead They turned their heads sideways and read the titles of the books aloud Blue peered at Henrietta through the telescope Noah daringly reattached one of the broken h the fridge tucked in the bathroom Blue selected a soda Noah took a plastic spoon He chewed on it as Blue fed Chainsaw a leftover haed to inhabit the rest of the apartment, Ronan’s presence was still decidedly pervasive in his room Noah showed Blue his room They juaed on the new sofa while Blue persuaded the old record player to play an LP too clever to interest either of them They opened all of the drawers on the desk in the ainst the interior of the topmost drawer as Blue withdrew a fancy pen She copied Gansey’s blocky handwriting onto a Nino’s receipt as Noah put on a preppy sweater he’d found balled under the desk She ate a , they crab-walked along the aerial printout Gansey had spread the length of the rooin of it Some of theraphy Soarded Gansey’s bed, which was just a barelyon a ht in the le as if it had been driven into the building Without any particular discussion, they curled on top of the blanket, each taking one of Gansey’s pillows It felt illicit and drowsy Only inches away, Noah blinked sleepily at her Blue cruainst her nose It srass, which was to say, like Gansey

As they baked in the sunlight, she let herself think it: I have a crush on Richard Gansey

In a way, it was easier than pretending otherwise She couldn’t

do anything about it, of course, but letting herself think it was like popping a blister

Of course, the opposite truth also seemed self-evident

I don’t have a crush on Adahed

Noah, his voice muffled, said, "Sometimes I pretend I’m like him"

"What part?"

He considered "Alive"

Blue draped an ar to say todead better

For a few sleepy minutes, they were silent, nested in the pillows, and then Noah said, "I heard about how you won’t kiss Adam"

She turned her face into the pillow, cheeks hot

"Well, I don’t care," Noah said With quiet delight, he guessed, "He sht?"

She turned back to him "He does not smell Ever since I was little, every psychic I know has told me that if I kiss my true love, he’ll die"

Noah’s brow furrowed, or at least the half of it that wasn’t buried in pillow His nose was more crooked than she’d ever noticed "Adam’s your true love?"

"No," Blue said She was startled by how quickly she had answered She couldn’t stop seeing the dented side of the box he’d kicked "I mean, I don’t know I just don’t kiss anybody, just to be on the safe side"

Being dead made Noah more open-minded than most, so he didn’t bother with doubt "Is it when or if?"

"What do you mean?"