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She breathed "This is lovely"

It was for Adalance over his shoulder at her Beside hi about his posture defensive

"What are we even looking for?" Ada hi water had become too wide to straddle, and now it ran in a bed of pebbles and sharp fragh, a few of the oyster shells "What we’re always looking for"

Ada to hate you"

"She’ll text ets too mad," Gansey said To demonstrate, he slid his phone out of his pocket "Oh -- there’s no signal"

Given their location in the , but Gansey stopped short While the four of theh the screens on his phone In his other hand, the EMF reader glowed solid red His voice sounded a little strange when he asked, "Is anyone else wearing a watch?"

Weekends were not generally days of precise ti for Blue, so she was not, and Ronan had only his few knotted leather strands around his ar watch with a grubby band

"I a ruefully, "but it doesn’t see, Gansey turned the face of his phone to them It was set to the clock function, and it took Blue aFor a long moment the four of them just looked at the three still hands on the phone’s clock face Blue’s heart marked off every second the clock didn’t

"Is it --" Adaain, "Is it because the power is being affected fro "Affecting your watch? Your windup watch?"

"It’s true," Gansey answered "My phone’s still on So’s the reader It’s only that the time has … I wonder if …"

But there were no answers, and they all knew it

"I want to go on," Gansey said "Just a little farther"

He waited to see if they would stop hiain, cla over the top of a slab of stone, Ronan beside hilanced at Blue His expression asked, Are you okay?

She was okay, but in the way she’d been okay before the helicopter It was not that she was scared of flashing lights on the EMF reader or Adaotten out of bed in theto encounter a place where possibly time didn’t work

Blue stretched her hand out

Ada for her to offer it He said in a low voice, just for her, "My heart is beating like crazy right now"

Strangely enough, it was not his fingers twined in hers that affected Blue the strongest, it here his rist pressed against hers above their hands

I need to tell hiht now, she wanted to feel his skin pressed against hers, both of their pulses rapid and uncertain

Hand in hand, they clirown together into trunks like castles, turreted and huge The canopy soared high overhead, rustling and reverent Everything was green, green, green Somewhere ahead, water splashed

For one brief ht she heard music

"Noah?"

Gansey’s voice sounded forlorn He’d stopped by aup to him, Blue realized he’d stopped by the shore of aThe pool was only a few inches deep and perfectly clear The water was so transparent that it begged to be touched

"I thought I heard --" Gansey broke off His eyes dropped to where Adaain, his face was sorip tightened, although she didn’t think he h she didn’t think either of the boys knehat they were trying to say

Gansey turned to the pool of water In his hand, the EMF reader had gone dark Crouching, he hovered his free hand over the water His fingers were spread wide, millimeters from the surface Beneath his hand, the water shifted and darkened, and Blue realized that there were a thousand tiny fish just underneath They flashed silver and then black as theyto the faint shadow he cast

Adam asked, "How are there fish here?"

The stream they’d followed into the woods was far too shallow for fish, and above theher up the mountain Fish didn’t come from the sky

Gansey replied, "I don’t know"

The fish tu, tiny enight she heard ht perhaps it had just been the sound of his breathing

Gansey looked up to them, and she saw in his face that he loved this place His bald expression held so the ley line or the sly pleasure of teasing Blue She recognized the strange happiness that ca why you did, that strange happiness that was so that it felt like sadness It was the way she felt when she looked at the stars

Just like that, he was a little bit closer to the Gansey that Blue had seen in the churchyard, and she found she couldn’t bear to look at hio to the beech tree Gansey stood beside Carefully, she stepped over the exposed knots of the beech’s roots, and then she laid her palray bark Like the tree behind her house, this beech’s bark was as cold as winter and oddly co

"Adam" This was Ronan’s voice, and she heard Adae of the pool toward it The sound of snapping branches became softer as he moved farther away