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She was unsurprised when his voice came from behind her instead of from the other side of the door When she turned, she sees first, and then, slowly, the rest of him She still wasn’t sure he was actually all there, or if he had been there all along -- it was hard to make a decision about existence and Noah these days

She allowed hiers

"Not so spiky as usual," he said sadly

"I didn’t get lad to see you"

Noah crossed his arms, then uncrossed them, then put his hands in his pockets, then removed them "I only ever feel normal when you’re around I mean, normal like I was before they found my body That still wasn’t like what I hen I was …"

"I don’t believe that you were really that different when you were alive," Blue told him But it was true that she still couldn’t reconcile this Noah with that abandoned red Mustang

"I think," Noah said cautiously, re, "that I orse then"

This line of discussion see him vanish, so Blue asked quickly, "Where are the others?"

"Gansey and Ada Adam’s stuff so he can move in," Noah said "Ronan went to the library"

"Move in! I thought he said … wait -- Ronan here?"

With lots of pauses and sighs and staring off into the trees, Noah described the previous night’s events to her, ending with, "If Ronan had gotten arrested for punching Adalionby no e ride But Adaet off the hook ’Course that means Adam has to move out because his dad hates him now"

"But that’s awful," Blue said "Noah, that’s awful I didn’t know about Adam’s dad"

"That’s the way he wanted it"

A place for leaving She remembered how Adam had referred to his home And now, of course, she remembered his awful bruises and a dozen comments between the boys that had seemed inexplicable at the tiht was a strangely unpleasant one -- that she hadn’t been a good enough friend for Ada, and replaced almost immediately with the horrific realization that Adam had no family Who would she be without hers?

She asked, "Okay, wait, so why is Ronan at the library?"

"Cra," Noah said "For an exa Blue had ever heard of Ronan doing

The phone rang then, clearly audible through the floor above them

"You should pick that up!" Noah said abruptly "Hurry!"

Blue had lived too long with the wo quickly to keep up with him, she followed him into the stairwell and then up the stairs to the doorway It was locked Noah itated than she’d seen him

He burst out, "I could do it if --"

If he had ht She touched his shoulder at once Iainst the latch, wiggling the lock open and throwing the door free She hurled herself at the phone

"Hello?" she gasped into the receiver The phone on the desk was an old-fashioned black rotary nu with Gansey’s love of the bizarre and barely functional Knowing hi this particular phone on his desk

"Oh, hello, dear," said an unfamiliar voice at the other end of the line Already she could hear a significant accent "Is Richard Gansey there?"

"No," replied Blue "But I can take a e"

This, she felt, had been her role in life so far

Noah prodded her with a cold finger "Tell hi with Gansey," Blue added "On the ley line"

"Oh!" said the voice "Well How lovely to er Malory"

He was doing so extremely complicated with his r’s that ent"

"Blair?"

"Blue"

"Blaize?"