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When Blue started to rise, Maura said, a thinly veiled iron behind her tone, "Sit with us a moment, Blue Talk to us about yesterday And the day before And the day before And -- oh, let’s just talk about these past feeeks"

Blue realized then that Maura was furious She had seen her furious only a few tio instantly clammy

"Well, I was …" She trailed off A lie seeeonto bolt you in your roo out loud So you can just stop all the sneaking around stuff right now"

"I wasn’t --"

"You were I have been your mother since you’ve been born and I pro, then?" Maura’s expression was annoyingly knowing

"Mom"

"Orla told me about his ry and artificially bright The fact that Blue ell aware that she’d earned iton kissing him, are you?"

"Mom, that will never happen," Blue assured her "You didan old, loud Caluing cardboard trees to your bedroo like each other And they aren’t cardboard They’re repurposed canvas"

"The environh of relief" Maura atte her nose, she shot a glare at Persephone Persephone looked htly softer voice, "I’ in a car without air bags"

"Our car doesn’t have air bags," Blue pointed out

Maura picked a long strand of Persephone’s hair frolass "Yes, but you always take your bike"

Blue stood up She suspected that the green fuzz of the sofa was now adhered to the back of her leggings "Can I go now? Am I in trouble?"

"You are in trouble I told you to stay away from him and you didn’t," Maura said "I just haven’t decided what to do about it yet My feelings are hurt I’ve consulted with several people who tell ers still get grounded? Did that only happen in the eighties?"

"I’ll be very angry if you ground me," Blue said, still wobbly from her mother’s unfamiliar displeasure "I’ll probably rebel and climb out my ith a bedsheet rope"

Her er had completely burned itself out "You’re well into it, aren’t you? That didn’t take long"

"If you don’t tell ested

"This is what you get, Maura, for using your DNA to hed "Blue, I know you’re not an idiot It’s just, sorowled, "Don’t be one of them"

"Persephone?" asked Maura

In her s to add" After ato punch someone, don’t put your thumb inside your fist It would be a shame to break it"

"Okay," Blue said hurriedly "I’m out"

"You could at least say sorry," Maura said "Pretend like I have some power over you"

Blue wasn’t sure how to reply to this Maura had all sorts of control of Blue, but it wasn’t usually the sort that came with ultimatums or curfew So she just said, "I’ to do what you didn’t want ined it would be"

Calla caught Blue’s wrist again, and for a moment Blue orried that Calla would sense the level of strangeness surrounding Gansey’s quest But she , "What with all this running around, don’t forget our ht --" Blue repeated

Calla’s eyebrows hardened "You promised"

For a shapeless moment, Blue tried to reht with Calla, and then she realized what this was really about: the conversation froot that was this week," Blue replied

Maura swirled her drink, which still lookedother people drink to doing it herself "Which movie?"

"Even Dwarfs Started Sinal Geren"

Maura winced, though Blue couldn’t tell if it was at the movie or at Calla’s accent She said, "Just as well Neeve and I are out that evening"

Calla raised an eyebrow and Persephone picked at a string on her lace stockings

"What are you doing?" Blue asked Looking forin pools?