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It could have been any one of the s in the last year and a half Ronan and Adaive hi class, then he and Adaainst Declan

Ada open, Gansey crashed onto the driver’s seat In the background, Ronan played the recording again For some reason, from this distance, the sound of the voicesinside him said that this unconscious speech h he didn’t knohat yet

"Co!" snarled Ronan Sohway

Gansey turned the key The engine turned over once, paused for the briefest oflife The Ca, playing the Stevie Nicks song that always sounded to Gansey like it was about a one-winged dove He tried one of the french fries they’d brought him They were cold

Adam leaned into the car "We’ll follow you back to the school It’ll get you back, but it’s not done yet," he said "There’s still so with it"

"Great," Gansey replied, loudly, to be heard over the engine In the background, the BMW pumped out a nearly inaudible bass line as Ronan dissolved as left of his heart in electronic loops "So, suggestions?"

Reaching into his pocket, Adam retrieved a piece of paper and offered it to hi His letters always looked like they were running fro "A nuht, this was going to be next Now you have so to ask them about"

Gansey considered Psychics tended to tell hireat things The first one he kneas always true and the second one he was afraid ht be But maybe with this new clue, with a new psychic, they’d have so theital recorder He knocked the top of the Camaro once, twice, pensive

"That see to"

Chapter 3

Mornings at 300 Fox Way were fearful, jus Elbows in sides and lines for the bathroos placed into cups that already had tea bags in them There was school for Blue and work for soot burned, cereal went soggy, the refrigerator door hung open and expectant for led as car pools were hastily decided

Partway through breakfast, the phone would begin to ring and Maura would say, "That’s the universe calling for you on line two, Orla" or so like that, and Jimi or Orla or one of the other aunts or half aunts or friends would fight over who had to pick it up on the upstairs phone Two years ago, Blue’s cousin Orla had decided that a call-in psychic line would be a lucrative addition and, after soe, Orla won "Winning" involved Orla waiting until Maura was at a conference over a weekend to secretively set up the line, and it was not so much a sore spot as thein around seven AM, and some days a dollar a s were a sport One that Blue liked to think she was getting better at

But the day after the church watch, Blue didn’t have to worry about battling for the bathroo lunch while Orla dropped toast butter-side down When she woke up, her norht room had the breath-held di to either her boyfriend or to one of the psychic hotline callers With Orla, it was difficult to tell the difference between the two sorts of calls Both of theht to shower afterward

Blue took over the bathrooave most of her attention to her hair Her dark hair was cut in a bob, long enough to plausibly pull back but short enough that it required an assembly of clips to do so successfully The end result was a spiky, uneven ponytail populated by escaped chunks and mismatched clips; it looked eccentric and unkeet it that way

"Mom," she said as she jumped down the crooked stairs Maura was at the kitchen counter

Her mother didn’t turn around On the counter on either side of her were green, oceanic drifts of loose herbs "You don’t have to run everywhere"

"You do," Blue retorted "Why didn’t you wake me up for school?"

"I did," Maura said "Twice" Then, to herself, "Dammit"

From the table, Neeve’s mild voice said, "Do you need my help with that, Maura?" She sat at the table with a cup of tea, looking plu lost any sleep the night before Neeve stared at Blue, who tried to avoid eye contact

"I’ a damn meditation tea, thank you," Maura said To Blue, she added, "I told the school you had the flu I e Remember to look peaked tomorrow"

Blue pressed the heels of her hands to her eyes She’d never missed class the day after the church watch Been sleepy, perhaps, but never wasted like last night

"Was it because I saw hi her hands She wished that she couldn’t remember the boy so clearly Or rather, the idea of hiround She wished she could un-see it "Is that why I slept so long?"

"It’s because you let fifteen spirits walk through your body while you chatted with a dead boy," Maura replied tersely, before Neeve could speak "From what I’ve heard, anyway Christ, is this what these leaves are supposed to smell like?"

Blue turned to Neeve, who continued to sip her tea with a sanguine air "Is that true? Is it because spirits walked through y from you," Neeve replied "You have quite a lot, but not that hts about this One was I have quite a lot of energy? and the other was I think I am annoyed It was not as if she had intentionally allowed the spirits to draer from her