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There was no ht he heard Noah’s voice, distantly The hairs on his arms slowly prickled

"I can’t understand you," he whispered "I’m sorry Can you say it louder, Noah?"

The hair on the back of his neck rose as well A cloud of his breath hung in the suddenly cold air in front of his mouth

Noah’s voice said: "Adam"

Gansey scrambled out of bed, but it was too late Adas were scattered about He’d packed, he’d gone But no -- his clothing stayed behind He hadn’t et up," Gansey said, shoving open Ronan’s door Without waiting for a response, heto look out the brokenthat overlooked the parking lot Outside, the rain misted down, a fine spray that just hts Somehow, he already knehat he’d find, but still, the reality was a jolt: The Ca from the lot It would’ve been easier for Adaine starting was probably what had woken Gansey in the first place, the ht merely a memory of the last time he’d been woken

"Man, Gansey, what?" Ronan asked He stood in the doorway to the stairwell, scrubbing his hand over the back of his head

Gansey didn’t want to say it If he said it out loud, it was real, it had really happened, Adam had really done it It wouldn’t have hurt if it was Ronan; this was the sort of thing he’d expect froht? I did say that ere to wait It’s not that he didn’t understand me

Gansey tried several different ways to think of the situation, but there wasn’t any way he could paint it thatinside hied

There was nothing left but to say it

"Adaone to wake the ley line"

Chapter 43

Just a mile away at 300 Fox Way, Blue looked up as a tap ca?" Maura asked

"Yes," Blue replied

Maura let herself in "Your light was on," she observed, and with a sigh, she sat on the end of Blue’s bed, looking as soft as a poe h Blue’s reading selections piled on the card table shoved against the end of theunfa as Blue could re and together they’d read books on separate ends of the bed Her old twin mattress had seemed roomier when Blue was small, but now that Blue was hu or elbows rubbing

After a few h Blue’s books, Maura rested her hands in her lap and looked around at Blue’s tiny roohtstand On the wall opposite the bed, Blue had pasted canvas trees decorated with collaged and found-paper leaves, and she’d glued dried flowers over the entirety of her closet door Most of theood, but so fan was hung with colored feathers and lace Blue had lived here the entire sixteen years of her life, and it looked like it

"I think I’d better say sorry," Maura said finally

Blue, who had been reading and re-reading an Anment withoutstraightforward, I guess Do you know, it’s really hard to be a parent I bla sure your kid doesn’t know he’s fake that you can’t tell when you’re supposed to stop"

"Mo my presents when I was, like, six"

"It was a metaphor, Blue"

Blue tapped her literature book "Aan example That didn’t clarify"

"Do you knohat I mean or not?"

"What you mean is that you’re sorry you didn’t tell lowered at the door as if Calla stood behind it "I wish you wouldn’t call him that"

"If you’d been the one to tellwhat Calla told h"

"So as his name?"

Her mother lay back on the bed She was crossways on it, so she had to draw her knees up to brace her feet on the edge of the s to keep the crushed

"Artemus"

"No wonder you preferred Butternut," Blue said But before her , she said, "Wait -- isn’t Artemus a Roman name? Latin?"

"Yeah And I don’t think it’s a bad namental"