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Blue shuddered at the thought A fair number of the clients who entered 300 Fox Way wereMaura would see love andtrapped in the house with that all day was excrutiating Blue knew it had to be very te her psychic powers stronger When she was younger, she’d never appreciated how little Maura called on her to join in a reading, but now that Blue understood hoell she honed other people’s talents, she was impressed at Maura’s restraint

"Not unless it’s a very ied over the subtle line between disco to be proud of, you know To er is a rare and valuable thing"

"Oh, pshaw," Blue said, but not cruelly She et used to the idea that she wasn’t privy to the supernatural She didn’t want Neeve to think she was experiencing an identity crisis over it She tugged a string on her glove

"And you have plenty of tirow into your own intuitive talents," Neeve added Her gaze seery

Blue didn’t reply She wasn’t interested in telling other people’s futures She was interested in going out and finding her own

Neeve finally dropped her eyes Tracing an idle finger through the dirt on the stones between thelionby Acadeo?"

Blue’s eyes widened with humor But of course Neeve, an outsider, couldn’t know Still, surely she could have guessed fro lot full of cars that spoke German that it wasn’t the sort of school that they could afford

"It’s an all-boys school For politicians’ sons and oil barons’ sons and for" -- Blue struggled the think of who else lionby -- "the sons ofoff hush money"

Neeve raised an eyebroithout looking up

"No, really, they’re awful," Blue said April was a bad tilionby boys; as it war boys in shorts so tacky that only the rich would dare to wear thelionby uniform: khaki pants and a V-neck sweater with a raven e army Raven boys

Blue continued "They think they’re better than us and that we’re all falling all over ourselves for them, and they drink themselves senseless every weekend and spray paint the Henrietta exit sign"

Aglionby Academy was the number one reason Blue had developed her two rules: One, stay away frolionby boys, because they were bastards

"You seem like a very sensible teen," Neeve said, which annoyed Blue, because she already knew she was a very sensible teen When you had as little rained young

In the aht of what Neeve had drawn in the dirt She asked, "What is that? Mom drew that"

"Did she?" Neeve asked They studied the pattern It was three curving, intersecting lines, le "Did she say what it was?"

"She was drawing it on the shower door I didn’t ask"

"I dreamt it," Neeve said, in a flat voice that sent an unpleasant shudder along the back of Blue’s neck "I wanted to see what it looked like drawn out" She rubbed her palh the pattern, then abruptly held up a beautiful hand

She said, "I think they’re co"

This hy Blue and Neeve were here Every year, Maura sat on the wall, knees pulled up to her chin, staring at nothing, and recited names to Blue To Blue, the churchyard remained empty, but to Maura, it was full of the dead Not the currently dead, but the spirits of those ould die in the next twelveone half of a conversation Sonize the spirits, but often she would have to lean forward to ask them their names Maura had once explained that if Blue wasn’t there, she couldn’t convince them to answer her -- the dead couldn’t see Maura without Blue’s presence

Blue never grew tired of feeling particularly needed, but sometimes she wished needed felt less like a synonym for useful

The church watch was critical for one of Maura’sas clients lived in the area, she guaranteed to let them know if they or a local loved one was bound to die in the next twelve months Who wouldn’t pay for that? Well, the true ansas: most of the world, as most people didn’t believe in psychics

"Can you see anything?" Blue asked She gave her nu up a notebook and pen fro just touched ain, a shiver thrilled up Blue’s arms "One of them?"

In a husky voice, Neeve said, "The future dead have to follow the corpse road through the gate This is probably another … spirit called by your energy I didn’t realize what an effect you would have"

Maura had neverattracted by Blue Perhaps she hadn’t wanted to scare her Or maybe Maura just hadn’t seen them -- maybe she was as blind to these other spirits as Blue was

Blue beca her face, lifting Neeve’s curly hair Invisible, orderly spirits of not yet truly dead people were one thing Ghosts that weren’t compelled to stay on the path were another

"Are they --" Blue started

"Who are you? Robert Neuhmann," Neeve interrupted "What’s your na quickly to catch up, Blue printed the names phonetically as Neeve solicited the to glirown crabgrass, the barely visible oak trees The blackto hear, nothing to see No evidence of the dead except for their naht Maybe Blue was having a bit of an identity crisis Some days it did seem a little unfair that all of the wonder and power that surrounded her family was passed to Blue in the form of paperwork