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"I don’t think these fish are real," Gansey said softly

It was such a ridiculous thing to say that Blue turned to look at hi his hand back and forth as he watched the water

"I think they’re here because I thought they ought to be here," Gansey said

Blue replied sarcastically, "Okay, God"

He twisted his hand again; she saw the fish’s forms flash in the water once , as it that the one woman said? With the hair? She said it was about -- perception -- no, intention"

"Persephone Intention is for cards," Blue said "That’s for a reading, for letting someone into your head, to see patterns in the future and the past Not for fish How could intention work on a fish? Life isn’t negotiable"

He asked, "What color were the fish e arrived?"

They’d been black and silver, or at least they had looked it in the reflection Gansey, she was certain, was reaching for signs of inexplicableto be swayed so easily Blue and brown could look black or silver, depending on the light Nonetheless, she joined hi in the moist dirt beside the pool The fish were all dark and indistinct in the shadow of his hand

"I atching theotten here and then I remembered that there was a kind of trout that often live in smaller creeks," Gansey said "Wild brook trout, I think they’re called I thought, that would make a little more sense Maybe they were introduced by man, somehow, in this pool, or a pool farther up the strea Brook trout are silver on top and red on the bottom"

"Okay," she said

Gansey’s outstretched hand was very still "Tell me there were no red fish in this pool e arrived"

When she didn’t answer, he looked at her She shook her head There’d definitely been no red

He pulled his hand back quickly

The tiny school of fish darted and leapt for cover, but not before Blue saw that every one of theht red, sunset red, red as a dream Like they had never been any other color

"I don’t understand," Blue said Soh, like she did understand, but couldn’t put words to it, wrap her thoughts around it She felt like she was a part of a drea, or it was a part of a dream of hers

"I don’t, either"

They both turned their head at the same time then, at the sound of a voice froe that she had to ask, but nothing felt very definite

Again they heard Adam’s voice, more clearly this time He and Ronan stood on the other side of the pool Just behind hiaped blackly in its trunk In the pool at his feet was a reflection of both Adae colder and more distant than reality

Adam rubbed his ar over his shoulder at so Blue couldn’t see

"Come here," Adato learn meant that he was too bothered to hide it

Blue peered at the cavity Like all holes in trees, it looked us in the bark still working away at enlarging the crater The edges of the entrance were jagged and thin,the tree’s continued survival seem miraculous

"Are you okay?" Gansey asked

"Close your eyes," Ada his biceps The way he was breathing reht from a chase you never really ran "After you stand in there, I o in there?" Gansey asked Ronan, who shook his head

"He’s the one who pointed it out," Ada in there" When he said it, it sounded like principle instead of cowardice, like his refusal to take a card at the reading

"I don’t ine being intie the forest around itinto the cavity, she turned so that she faced the outside world The air inside the cavity sh Blue knew itprocess, it made the tree seem as warripped around himself What does he think will happen in here?

She closed her eyes Almost at once, she could s, shifting odor of a stor through water Then she beca her face

When she opened her eyes, she was both in her body and watching it, nowhere near the cavity of the tree The Blue that was before her stood inches away froht stoop to his posture, and his shoulders were spattered darkly with rain It was his fingers that Blue felt on her face He touched her cheeks with the backs of his fingers

Tears coursed down the other Blue’s face Through soic, Blue could feel the er than her The other Blue’s tears see an identical path down her cheeks

The boy in the Aglionby sweater leaned his forehead against Blue’s She felt the pressure of his skin against hers, and suddenly she could smell mint