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"Yeah, but I don’t think co deal I think it’son it Reinforcing it Every tiets stronger And so does her spell"

"Which ets to enter our world?"

Nadia gave her a look like it was bad luck to even say that out loud Maybe it was Verlaine decided she’d be a little more careful with her words from now on, just in case "No," Nadia explained "This is just step two of her plan What she’s doing right now is building a bridge for Hie out of is pain itself"

"YouUncle Gary--they’re suffering because Elizabeth can use that?" Verlaine hadn’t known it was possible to feel so angry that her head ached and her hands clenched into fists so tight her fingers hurt But if Elizabeth had been there at that ht into Elizabeth’s face, and no dark ic on Earth could have stopped her "The pain these sick people feel is likebricks, or stones What she uses to create"

"Exactly Her pain er"

"That’s sick"

"That’s dark ic" Nadia shoved the sleeves of her sweater farther up her arms, a restless, anxious h doctors and nurses to go around in this hospital Who was going to take care of her dad? Fear cut into her deeper and deeper, a scratch turning into a cut turning into a wound

Nadia lifted her head, and Verlaine turned to see Mateo co himself to Nadia in his usual remoralike fashion She cuddled into his embrace, and Verlaine wondered what it would be like to know you could be sheltered Co around, but nobody would talk to ht in almost forty new patients today They’re all in the same condition as Verlaine’s dad--comatose, no explanation The black junk burned their throats and did so people shouldn’t be able to heal from None of the doctors understand why the patients don’t wake up again"

Nadia nodded "Have they been able to analyze the black liquid?"

"They tried," Mateo said "Apparently it destroyed the lab equip the CDC"

"The what?" Nadia said

Verlaine knew this; she’d watched Contagion on Netflix "The Centers for Disease Control They have hazoing to figure out what’s really happening here"

"We knohat’s happening here," Mateo said "And we kno to stop it"