Page 33 (2/2)

"Like, if you kiss your true love, he’ll die," he said, "or is it when you kiss your true love, he’ll die?"

"I don’t get what the difference is"

He rubbed the side of his face on the pillow "Mmmmsoft," he remarked, then added, "One’s your fault The other one, you just happen to be there when it happens Like, when you kiss hiets hit by a bear Totally not your fault You shouldn’t feel bad about that It’s not your bear"

"I think it’s if They all say if"

"Bu to kiss anyone?"

"Looks that way"

Noah rubbed the so away It never did He said, "I know somebody you could kiss"

"Who?" She realized his eyes were aed He was rity of a shrug while lying down "It’s not like you’re not going to kill ht she was curious It hadn’t been an option, after all Not being able to kiss so poor She tried not to dwell on the things she couldn’t have

But now --

"Okay," she said

"What?"

"I said okay"

He blushed Or rather, because he was dead, he became normal colored "Uh" He propped himself on an elbow "Well" She unburied her face from the pillow "Just, like --"

He leaned toward her Blue felt a thrill for a half a second No, more like a quarter second Because after that she felt the too-firm pucker of his tense lips Hiswas at once sliasped an e her mouth, but felt that would be rude It was all fairly underwhel

She said, "Well"

"Wait," Noah replied, "Waitait" He pulled one of Blue’s hairs out of his mouth "I wasn’t ready"

He shook out his hands as if Blue’s lips were a sporting event and cra was a very real possibility

"Go," Blue said

This tiot within a breath of each other’s lips when they both began to laugh She closed the distance and was rewarded with another kiss that felt a lot like kissing a dishwasher

"I’ested

"Soue," he replied dubiously

They regarded each other

Blue squinted "Are you sure you’ve done this before?"

"Hey!" he protested "It’s weird for me, ’cause it’s you"

"Well, it’s weird for me because it’s you"

"We can stop"

"Maybe we should"

Noah pushed hiuely Finally, he dropped his eyes back to her "You’ve seen, like,to be kissed"

Blue touched herthemselves"

She pursed and unpursed her lips She saw his point

"So ihed and sifted through her memories until she found one that would do It wasn’t atree had showed her in Cabeswater Her first and only kiss with Gansey, right before he died She thought about his nice hed She closed her eyes

Placing an elbow on the other side of her head, Noah leaned close and kissed her once , a soft heat that began at her h the rest of her One of his cold hands slid behind her neck and he kissed her again, lips parted It was not just a touch, an action It was a sier Noah Czerny and Blue Sargent They were now just him and her Not even that They were only the tiht Blue So this is what I can’t have

Not being able to kiss whoever she fell in love with didn’t feel so different than not having a cell phone when everyone else at school did It didn’t feel very different froy abroad for college, or going abroad period It didn’t feel very different fro to be the only extraordinary thing about her life

Which was to say that it was unbearable, but she had to bear it anyway

Because there was nothing terrible about kissing Noah Czerny, apart fro cold She let him kiss her, and kissed him back until he pulled back on an elbow and clumsily wiped away sootten very dark, and he was cold enough that she shivered

Blue gave hied, eyes doleful, shoulders curled in on theh him It was that it was hard to re at him When he turned his head, she saw him s Hewas fair

"I’d say okay," she replied

She only had tione

She rolled onto her back in the loith the summer sun Blue touched her mouth It felt the saotten her first and last kiss