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"Sometimes," Adam said, "I don’t kno you live with yourself"

Chapter 40

Barrington Whelk was not pleased with Neeve For starters, since getting in the car, she had done nothing but eat huarlic odor and cracker cheas incredibly aggravating The thought that she was filling his driver’s seat with cru ones he’d had in a week of extre she had done after they exchanged hellos was to use her Taser on hi tied up in the back of his own car

It is not enough that I should have to put up with a shitty car, Whelk thought Now I’ to die in it

She hadn’t told him she intended to kill him, but Whelk had spent the last forty minutes unable to easily seethere was a wide, flat clay bowl containing a collection of candles, scissors, and knives The knives were sizable and sinister, but not a guarantee of iloves that Neeve wore now, and the extra set inside the boere

Likewise, Whelk couldn’t be certain they were headed toward the ley line, but fro the journal before setting off down the road, he suspected it was a good guess Whelk was not ht his fate was probably meant to be the same as Czerny’s, seven years earlier

A ritual death, then A sacrifice, with his blood seeping down through the earth until it reached the sleeping ley line below Rubbing his tied wrists against each other, he turned his head toward Neeve, who held the wheel with one hand as she ate crackers and hum to some kind of trance nature sounds CD on his car’s radio Perhaps preparing herself for the ritual

His death on the ley line would, Whelk thought, have a sort of circularity to it

But Whelk didn’t care for circularity He cared for his lost car, his lost respect He cared for the ability to sleep at night He cared for languages dead long enough that they wouldn’t change on hione chef used to h

Chapter 41

After leaving Mon, Blue returned home and retreated to the far side of the beech in the backyard to try to do ho for x and iven up and leaned back by the tireen shadow of the tree from the house side

"Persephone said you were out here" He just hung there at the edge of the shadow

Blue thought about saying I’m so sorry about your dad, but instead she just stretched out a hand toward hih of the sort that she could see from six feet away Wordlessly, he sat beside her and then laid his head on her lap, his face in his arlance over her shoulder to make certain that the tree hid them from the house She felt a little like she’d been approached by a wild animal, and she was at once flattered by its trust and worried that she’d scare it away After a moment, she carefully stroked a few fine, dusty strands of his hair while she looked at the back of his neck It made her chest hum to touch him and smell the dust-and-oil scent of him

"Your hair is the color of dirt," she said

"It knohere it came from"

"That’s funny," Blue noted, "because then mine should be that color, too"

His shoulders moved in response After a moment, he said, "Sometimes I’er along the back of his ear It felt dangerous and thrilling, but not as dangerous and thrilling as it would have been to touch hi to say this once, and then I’ to be done with it," she said "But I think you’re awfully brave"

He was quiet for a long, long hborhood The windthem upside down in a way thathis head, Ada or not"

Blue’s fingers stopped

"I don’t want to hurt you," she said

He pulled hi just a few inches away His expression was bleak, nothing like when he’d wanted to kiss her before "I’m already all hurt up"

Blue didn’t think this was really about kissing her, and that made her cheeks burn It wasn’t supposed to be a kiss at all, but if it had, it definitely shouldn’t be like this She said, "There’s still worse than what you’ve got"

So about this made him s and turn his face away His hands were limp in his lap If I’d been anybody else in the world, she thought, this would’ve been my first kiss She wondered what it would’ve been like to kiss this hungry, desolate boy

Adah the leaves above He didn’t look at her when he said, "I don’t remember how yourThe choice I couldn’t hed This hat all this was really about, and she had known it all along, even if he hadn’t "‘Make a third option,’ she said Next ti a notebook"

"I don’t re the part about the notebook"

"That’s because it was et your cards read, take notes That way you can compare it to what actually happens and you’ll know if the psychic is a good one"

Now he looked at her, but she wasn’t sure if he was really looking at her "I’ll do that"

"I’ll save you the trouble this ti her head back as he clied for the boy she’d held hands with days before, but he didn’t seeood one"