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He had not let himself think it once in the past seven years He had tried instead to convince himself of Czerny’s uselessness Tried to remind himself of the practicality of the death instead

But instead, he remembered the sound Czerny made the first time he hit him

Neeve didn’t have to tell Whelk to sit quietly while she arranged the ritual Instead, as she laid out the five points of a pentagram with an unlit candle, a lit candle, an eed in a triangle, he sat with his knees pulled up to his chin and his hands still tied behind hi to relieve this terrible weight inside hiined that he was upset over his approaching death "Oh," she said mildly, "don’t be like that It will not hurt very much" She reconsidered what she had said, and then corrected, "At least for very long"

"How are you going to kill me? How does this ritual work?"

Neeve frowned at hi a painter why he chooses the colors he does So"

"Fine, then," Whelk said "What are you feeling?"

Neeve pressed a perfectly shaped ernail to her lip as she surveyed her work "I haveshape for any sort of spell, and I ith it Others find it challenging or too constricting, but it satisfies y, andbowl to see the other world and I have my e bones of three ravens I killed to show the corpse road the nature of the spell I mean to do And then I think I will bleed you out in the center of the pentagra the line to wake"

She stared hard at Whelk at this, and then added, "I s need to be flexible People rarely show interest in the ton"

"I’m very interested," he said "So part"

When she turned her back to get her knives, he slipped his hands fro Then he selected a fallen branch and crashed it down on her head with as much force as he could h to kill her, because it was still green and flexible, but it certainly brought her to her knees

Neeve ave her another blow for good s he’d re learned froed her seram

Then he looked up and saw Adam Parrish

It was the first tierous for her to be in Cabeswater -- dangerous because she ot to the woods, the night already felt charged The rain had given way to an inter and the rain had ot out of the car, but his shoulders were barely dalionby unifor the raven sweater when she saw him at the church watch, and his shoulders had definitely been wetter Surely she hadn’t ht he died, had she? Surely she had beento meet him, since she was supposed to kill him or fall in love with hio if she’d sensed that tonight was the night Gansey died

Making a path with their flashlight bea parked near where they’d found Noah’s Mustang Several trampled paths led from the car to the woods, as if Adam had been unable to decide where he wanted to enter

At the sight of the Carim, became positively stony None of them spoke as they broached the boundary of the trees

At the edge of the woods, the feeling of charge, of possibility, immediately became more pronounced Shoulder to shoulder, they entered the trees, and between one blink and the next, they found the braced herself for ?" Gansey muttered, but not to anyone in particular "How can youhis own question

Before the even more surreal than the first tih the canopy,by the front of the car, Blue caught the boys’ attention They joined her, staring at the windshield Since they had last been in the clearing, solass In round, handwritten letters, it said: MURDERED

"Noah?" Blue asked the eh it didn’t feel so empty "Noah, are you here with us? Did you write this?"

Gansey said, "Oh"

It was a very flat little sound, and instead of asking hiaze to the driver’s sideAn invisible finger was in the process of tracing another letter on the glass Though Blue had felt that Noah lass, in her head she had pictured hi a body while he did it Farletters appear spontaneously It made her think of the Noah with the dark hollows for eyes, the smashed-in cheek, the barely human form Even in the warht Drawing energy frolass, the word took shape

MURDERED

It began another word There was not enough space left between the D and the neord, and so the second word partially obliterated the first

MURDERED

And again, again, again, across each other:

MURDERED

MURDERED

MURDERED

The writing continued until the driver’s side glass was clear, entirely swept clean by an invisible finger, until there were so many words that none of them could be read Until it was only ainto an eer seat