Page 40 (1/2)

"Where do you live?"

Ada"

"That’s not really an answer"

"It’s not really a place"

"And it would be terrible to live here?" She leaned her head back to gaze at the ceiling far above The entire place sood, old way of a library or a et out on my own, it will be to solionby"

He leveled that gaze on her "And that’s why I go to Aglionby"

"Even though you’re not rich"

He hesitated

"Adam, I don’t care," Blue said Parsed on the utsy sentence ever said, but it felt gutsy to Blue when she said it "I know other people do, but I don’t"

He htest of nods "Even though I’m not rich"

"True confession --" Blue said "I’hed out loud at that, and she discovered that she was starting to really like this laugh that burst out of him and seemed to surprise hie that she was starting to like it

He said, "Oh Hey Co under him, he led the way past the desk to the s on the far side Blue felt a sense of dizzying height here; these an only a few inches above the old wide floorboards, and the first floor was , Adah a row of cardboard file boxes that were shoved against the s

Eventually he dragged one of the boxes a few inches froestured for Blue to sit beside him She did Adam readjusted his posture so that he was ainst Blue’s He was not looking at her, but there was so about his posture that betrayed his awareness of her She sed

"These are things that Gansey’s found," Adas they couldn’t prove were old, or things he didn’t want to give away"

"In this box?" Blue asked

"In all the boxes This is the Virginia box" He tipped it enough that the contents spilled between theinia box, huh? What are the other boxes?"

There was so of a little boy in his smile "Wales and Peru and Australia and Montana and other strange places"

Blue took a forked stick froh she had never used one, she knew some psychics used them as a tool to focus their intuition and to lead them in the direction of lost items, or dead bodies, or hidden bodies of water A low-tech version of Gansey’s fancy EMF reader

"I guess Might just be a stick" Adaes-old dust off a tiny sculpted stone dog The dog was hter than the rest of the grubby surface

"He looks a little hungry," Blue co sculpture reminded her of the raven carved into the side of the hill -- head bent back, body elongated

Adah it The shape of it perfectly covered the last re stone and looked at hi hole One side of his face was red with the afternoon light "Why are these in the box?"

"Water bored these holes," Adam said "Seawater But he found them in the mountains I think he said they matched so at her through the hole, the stone lass She watched his throat move, and then, he reached out and touched her face

"You sure are pretty," he said

"It’s the stone," she replied iertip touched just the very edge of her ently pulled the stone out of her hand and set it on the floorboards between theers he threaded one of the flyaway hairs by her cheek "Myas they’re free’" His face was very earnest "That one wasn’t , Blue"

Blue plucked at the hem on her dress, but she didn’t look away fros like that"

"You can tellthee him and the fear of where it would lead "I like when you say things like that"

Adam asked, "But what?"

"I didn’t say but"