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"I don’t understand how that could be," Oliver said, surprised and uncoht hand smoothed down the thick blond hair of his left arm As he considered my words, his mouth pulled down into a deep frown, and he looked down at the floor

"I don’t know for sure Maybe it’s like an alternating current I doubt if the other anchors will ever share the details of how the witches created the line with me now, so I don’t know if I’ll ever be sure But I do believe that the ins as ours and is fed into the line Froets parsed back out, in a more even distribution No witch does without, but no witch can rise to his or her true potential either"

"No witch who isn’t an anchor," Oliver said, nodding "I don’t like it Your theory makes me uncomfortable, but that tells ht track"

"I don’t like it either I wish there was a clear and easy way to look at the line and the decisions that the families who built it have made I mean, yeah, the three rebel families are evil Their evil is Technicolor, in-your-face evil I worry, though, that the side we have chosen has its own for, but what if the other is just a longer, more scenic route to the same hell?"

"Then you will blaze us a new path toward sanity," Oliver said "Frankly I think that’s why the line chose you Most people want easy answers to life They will agree hatever the echo cha as it means they don’t have to think for theuity and carry on"

A soft knock on the door interrupted us The door opened a crack, revealing the dark giant on the other side "I apologize for the intrusion," Eto see if the experience I’d been through had led to a change of heart I smiled, as I felt happy to see hi had changed between us He turned from me to look at Maisie "She will awaken soon I am sure of it" I sensed that he had not intended his words as an actual prognostication He had meant them more as a comfort

"Thank you," I said, and he nodded

"I meant to honor your request," he said, "that I stay away from your home, but circumstances--"

"I know The families sent you"

"Yes They hope that you will accept a request to s that may have arisen" Oliver harrumphed, and we rolled our eyes at each other "Please understand," Ereed to act as ee, I am in no way neutral, not after the criainst you I have chosen a side, and you, Mercy, have iance The families are aware of this, and that is why they askedof any schism between you and the other anchors They ask that you meet with them to see if you can work out your differences in a way that will not har, they will make an oath not to interfere with your sister"

As I considered his words, I listened to Maisie’s steady breathing and turned to look at her beautiful face, blessed in sleep with a serenity I hoped she s fro with this oath to leave h her issues For once, though, I found myself in a place of power, and I had every intention to take full advantage of that "Tell theree," I said "But I will pick the time and the means"

FORTY

I learned that the line’s anchors rarely met face-to-face Of course, due to their duty as anchors, they could not physically venture too far from the places they had been chosen to anchor Because of this, when they gathered together, they did so virtually, leaving their bodies at ho space I knew the perfect place for the gathering they had requested, one that would allow all of us to meet, perhaps for the first time in the history of the line, in the flesh I opened new entrances to Jilo’s haint-blue chaether without anyone leaving their territory

I bent these entryways, though, so that each entrant would have to pass through the world of the endless living shadows, the s before reaching the chamber These creatures held no fear for me now I could almost pity their lust for a skin that would allow thehed at the thought of the other anchors seeing this place, a place that had once terrified ain and again I foundcomfort in the sooseflesh as I wondered if there e point of even greater terrors, feeling nostalgic for today That kind of thinking would get me nowhere

The cha and twisting in on itself The endless cyan was now punctured by bruised pluic of Tillandsia I had to hts of Emily and Josef were a threat to both, so I pushed away any remembrance of Tillandsia and took my place at the portion of the rooht not lend e, but it would help a lot psychologically I claimed Jilo’s abandoned cerulean throne and sat in it This would count as the final time I’d come to the haint-blue room At Jilo’s request, I’d close the cha it until it became merely a dense, dark point in space In the quiet before the others ca last look

Just as I finished taking the rooan to shimmer A fluctuation in the air here, a quiver there, vibrations announcing the arrival ofwas ht as they resolved into their full physical foriants, and not one of the bolts No, the pantheon of anchors looked like plain old regular folk African, European, Asian, Middle Eastern, and combinations of all the above True, all of them itches, and if they were not truly the most powerful witches in the world, they were at least the witches with the greatest access to power All the sa her kids off at soccer practice, and another like he had been working in his garden Cal None of theer I suspected this was by design, but this calculated atteht Hannah Arendt’s phrase "banality of evil" to mind

Smiles from some, heads lowered in deference from others Each person’s pose screamed, "We are all friends here!" In spite of that,paranoid or jaded Maybe the way my own mother had turned on me had colored my perception of the world I considered the possibility that perhaps these witches weren’t my enemies, but then I remembered how they’d tried to sacrifice the innocent individuals of uided atteood "All right Y’all wanted to talk Well, I’"