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The trees efacere via, erimus in debitum

"If you wake the line, they’ll be in your debt," Ronan said

For aat one another It was a lot to take in Because it wasn’tto thes, capable of watching their e wood, or did every tree observe theirto speak to theood or bad, if they loved or hated humans, if they had principles or coht Aliens that we have treated very badly for a very long time If I were a tree, I would have no reason to love a hu All of these years, he had been looking for this

Gansey said, "Ask them if they knohere Glendower is"

Ada, Ronan translated

It took a ain, Gansey didn’t need a translation

"No," Gansey said Sohtened until he’d asked the question He’d thought hearing the ansould release it, but it didn’t Everyone else was looking at hi It felt wrong He looked away froida What’s the way out? Please? Amabo te, ubi exitum?"

The trees whispered and hissed, and Gansey realized he ht have been only one voice, all along He wasn’t entirely sure he’d ever heard it aloud, either, now that he thought about it It was possible that it had been said directly in his head this entire tiht, and it distracted his listening Noah had to help hi that had been said, and Ronan had to think for a very long moment before he was able to translate

"Sorry," Ronan said He was concentrating too hard to remember to look cool or surly "It’s difficult It’s -- they said that we need to go back through the year Against … the road The line They said if we go back along the creek and turn left at the big … syca they think ant to find Then we’ll be able to walk out of the woods and find our way back to our … to our day I don’t know I missed parts, but I think -- I’ really well" In a low voice, he asked Adaht not be trusted"

Adam’s furrowed brow meant that this had occurred to him as well, but he replied, "Do we have another choice?"

"I think we should trust them," Blue said "They knew ht?"

She had a point Ronan’s handwriting, with its great care to prove its origin to the

"Back we go," Gansey said "Careful not to slip" Then, louder, he said, "Gratias Reveniemus"

"What did you say?" Blue asked

Adam replied for him "Thanks And that we’d be back"

It wasn’t difficult to adhere to the directions Ronan had translated The creek ide here, the water cold and slohite-frosted banks Following it took thean to warm Sparse red leaves spotted the branches, and by the ti white and gray trunk too wide for her to put her arrips of suainst one another in a constant murmured rustle If there was a voice now, Gansey wasn’t certain he’d hear it

"We missed summer before," Adaht to fall"

"Magical reat place this is"

Following the voice’s directions, they turned left at the massive sycaht they would want to find He thought there was only one thing he was looking for

Then the trees opened up into a su, and it beca, entirely out of place, was an abandoned car A red Mustang Newer model At first, it appeared to be covered with mud, but a closer inspection revealed that it was, in fact, coated with layers and layers of pollen and leaf litter Leaves had caught in drifts in the cracks of the hood and under the spoiler, gathered over the windshield wipers and bunched around the tires A sapling grew out fro around the front fender The scene was reminiscent of old shipwrecks, ancient boats turned into coral reefs by the wiles of tirown track that seemed to lead out of the woods; this ," Ronan re had massive, expensive wheels, and now that Gansey looked more closely at the car, he saw that it was covered with afteraping exhaust New money, his father would’ve said, burns in the pocket

"Look," Adaer over the dust of the backNext to a Blink-182 sticker was an Aglionby decal

"Figures," Blue said

Ronan tried the driver’s side door; it caer in here"

They all crowded around to see the interior, but apart froer seat, still sitting on its wrapper, there was not much to see

This car, too, was a riddle, like Blue’s voice on the recorder Gansey felt as if it was directed specifically at him

"Pop the trunk," he ordered

The trunk had a jacket in it, and beneath that, an odd collection of sticks and springs Frowning, Gansey withdrew the contraption, holding it by the largest rod The pieces swung into place, several sticks hanging and twisting beneath therod"

He turned to Ada verification

"Coincidence," Ada that it wasn’t

Gansey had the peculiar sensation he had first felt in the parking lot outside Nino’s, when Ada for the ley line Then he realized that Blue and Noah were no longer in sight "Where’s Blue and Noah?"