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Blue sighed "Jane"

"Oh, Jane! I thought that you were saying Blue for some reason It’s nice to meet you, Jane I’m afraid I have bad news for Gansey Would you let hiue -- that chap fro h -- and it just didn’t go very well My colleague, he will be all right, the doctors just say it will be a feeeks before the skin heals The grafts are working splendidly, they say"

"Wait," Blue said She grabbed the closest piece of paper fro He’d already doodled a cat attacking athis all down This is the ritual to wake the ley line, right? What exactly rong?"

"That is very hard to say, Jane Suffice to say the ley lines are even more powerful than Gansey and I had anticipated They ic, they ue stepped quite easily out of his skin I was certain I’d lost him; I didn’t think aOh, when you tell Gansey all this, don’t tell hi about death, and I don’t like to upset hi" about death, but she agreed not to tell him

"But you’ve still not said what you tried," Blue pointed out

"Oh, haven’t I?"

"Nope Which ht do it by accident, if we don’t know"

Malory chuckled It was a sound a lot like sucking just the whipped creaical, really, and it was based on one of Gansey’s ideas froo, to tell you the truth We set up a new stone circle using stones we found to have excellent energy readings -- that’s dowsing terms, of course, Jane, I don’t knoell you know all these things but it’s nice to see a girl involved with all this; ley lines tend to be a ame and it’s nice to hear a lady like yourself --"

"Yes," Blue agreed "It’s great I’ ht We set seven stones in a circle on e hoped was the center of the ley line and iddled the in thea prisht"

"And that’s when your partner’s skin ca in the middle and he -- I’m sad to say I cannot remember exactly what he said, as I was so overcoht re people are, Gansey himself can be quite one for the levity --"

Blue wasn’t certain that Gansey was quite one for the levity, but she made a mental note to look out for it in the future

"-- and he said so his skin or sos are quite literal I’ered any sort of reaction, and I don’t think we’ve woken this line, at least not properly, but there it is Disappointing, really"

"Apart fro to tell the tale," Blue said

Malory said, "Well, I’ht this was a joke In any case, she laughed and didn’t feel bad about it Then she thanked Malory, exchanged niceties with hi up

"Noah?" she asked the room, because Noah had disappeared There was no reply, but outside, she heard car doors sla and voices

Blue replayed the phrase in her head: My colleague stepped quite easily out of his skin Blue didn’t have a "thing" with death and even she thought it painted a rather horrible and vivid ie in her mind

A moment later, she heard the door clap shut on the first floor and feet sto up the stairs

Gansey was first into the room, and he clearly hadn’t expected to find anyone there, because his features hadn’t been arranged at all to disguise his ed to pull a cordial s She had seen his face just a second before, but even having seen his expression, it was hard to remind herself that the smile was false Why a boy with a life as untroubled as Gansey’s would have needed to learn how to build such a swift and convincing false front of happiness was beyond her

"Jane," he said, and she thought she heard a little of his unhappiness in his bright voice, even if his face no longer betrayed it "Sorry you had to let yourself in"

Noah’s voice and nothing ht

Adam and Ronan ca and backpack on his back, and Ada out of the top

"Nice Transformer," Blue said "Is that the police car one?"

Ada, as if he didn’t really see her Then, a hed doith the luggage, headed across the floor toward Noah’s roo "Ha Ha Ha" in ti that cauy called," Blue said She held up the piece of paper where she’d jotted his name The place she’d written itit out

"Malory," Gansey said with less than his usual enthusiasm As Adam carried the box after Ronan, he watched his back with narrowed eyes It wasn’t until Noah’s door closed behind them that Gansey tore his eyes away and looked at Blue The apartone into another world instead of another room

Gansey asked, "What did he want?"

"He tried the ritual on the ley line and he said it rong and his other person -- his, uh, colleague? -- got hurt"

"Hurt how?"

"Just hurt Badly hurt By energy," Blue said

With force, Gansey kicked off his shoes One flew over his miniature Henrietta and the other made it all the way to the side of his desk It slaround Under his breath, Gansey said, "Yee haw"

Blue said, "You seeht about?"

Gansey cast a glance at Noah’s closed door "How did you know?" he asked wearily He threw himself on his unmade bed