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"Winter," Adaain, so was everything that had coht, like when he’d driven through the Lake District with Malory After a while, there had been too much incredible beauty for him to process, and it had become invisible

It was impossible that it inter But it was noelse that had happened

They had coentle slope, and below the, shallow creek Malory had once told Gansey that where there s, there ater Willows propagated, he said, by dropping seeds inthem to root on some distant shore

"And," Blue added, "there’s water"

Gansey turned to the others Their breath came in clouds, and they all looked badly underdressed Even the color of their skin looked wrong: too sun-flushed for this colorless winter air Tourists fro, but he didn’t know if it was from the neinter cold or from anticipation

"Okay," he said to Blue "What did you want to say in Latin?"

Blue turned to Ronan "Can you just say hello? That’s polite"

Ronan looked pained; polite was not his style But he said, "Salve" To Blue, he said, "That actually means be well"

"Super job," she replied "Ask if they’ll speak with us"

Now Ronan looked even more pained, because this made him look ridiculous, and that was even less his style, but he tilted his head back to the treetops and said, "Loquere tu nobis?"

They all stood quietly A hiss see, as if a faint, winter breeze rustled the leaves in the trees But there were no leaves left on the branches to rustle

"Nothing," Ronan replied "What did you expect?"

"Quiet," ordered Gansey Because now the hissing was definitely more than a rustle Now it had resolved into what sounded distinctly like whispered, dry voices "Do you hear that?"

Everyone but Noah shook their heads

"I do," said Noah, to Gansey’s relief

Gansey said, "Ask theain, and now, it seemed obvious that it was a voice, obvious that it had never been leaves Plainly, Gansey heard a crackly statement in Latin He wished, suddenly, that he’d studied harder in class as he repeated the words phonetically to Ronan

"They say they’ve been speaking to you already, but you haven’t been listening," Ronan said He rubbed the back of his shaved head "Gansey, are you ?"

"Do you think Gansey’s Latin is that good?" Ada on the rock, Ronan, that said they spoke Latin Shut up"

The trees hissed again, and Gansey repeated them to Ronan Noah corrected one of the verbs Gansey had misheard

Ronan’s eyes darted to Blue "They said they’re happy to see the psychic’s daughter"

"Me!" Blue cried

The trees hissed a reply and Gansey repeated the words

"I don’t knohat that means," Ronan said "They’re also happy to once more see -- I don’t knohat that word is Greywaren? If it’s Latin, I don’t know it"

Ronan, whispered the trees Ronan Lynch

"It’s you," Gansey said onder, his skin creeping "Ronan Lynch They said your naain"

Ronan’s expression was guarded, his feelings hidden

"Again" Blue pressed her hands to her cold-red cheeks, her eyes wide, her face holding all the awe and excite"

Ada Latin -- even in class, he rarely spoke it, and it was strange to try to translate his thoughts from words he could see written in his head to spoken ones -- Gansey said, "Hic gaudemus Gratias tibi … loquere -- loqui pro nobis" He looked at Ronan "How do I ask why you can’t hear the his eyes, Ronan thought for a moment "Cur non te audimus?"

Gansey didn’t need Ronan to translate the trees’ hushed answer; the Latin was sih

He said aloud, "The road isn’t awake"

"The … ley line?" Blue suggested A little wistfully, she added, "But that doesn’t explain why only you and Noah can hear it"