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Skye thought, Why didn’t I feel your death, too?

The reply was an iirl in an old-fashioned hospital, sick fro the doctors didn’t understand Her tiny hands above the blanket, clutching and pulling at it in her pain, until finally she let go That here she had died, not at ho

You were poisoned, Skye realized By who? And why?

The child had never known Her parents? The strict nanny? Soes were iainst Skye’s skin

Skye grabbed at the branches of the trees around her as she took the steep slope down to the riverbank The wind had never seees of the water were thickly overlaid with a crust of ice Still, she knehat she had to do

Quickly she stripped off her sweater, boots, and skirt, until she wore only her underwear and camisole The cold was al to swis after she got out of the water would freeze her faster than anything else

And she had to swim To cross the river It was the one way to hold the vah for her to reach Balthazar On the other side of the river was the high school, Café Keats, lots of places--and her running nad and wet into Café Keats would be the gossip of the year, for sure, but that was fine by her

Noto live

She took a deep breath and ju water felt like a thousand razor blades slicing into her at once Skye surfaced and screa as hard as she could, fighting the current to take herself to the far shore

The cold had its oill, it seemed, and within seconds her lih, reaching out with each aran to chatter Water splashed her face, stung her eyes She could feel the droplets beginning to freeze on her skin and hair within ain, but it felt different this ti Another way

A door

Gasping, Skye’s hand broke through the ice on the far shore of the river She ed to stu to the ground Shaking so hard she could barely rove near her school