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Jack put his arm around me and kissed my forehead "Shh It’s done, Becks It’s in the past There’s nothing you can do about it now"
"I know," I said softly I leaned ht about the rest of the drea the Feed made me different in a way that would help ood look at how that would have to happen But Adonia was conjuring up blizzards When I first got to the Everneath, I conjured up the entire Fiery Furnace at Arches National Park, but once I got rid of it, I had enough of a proble it into a stick Cole said it was a problerimaced as I reer in the Ring of Fire, and the only way I could get them to move was to poke them with a hot stick I’d made out of the tether "I doubt I could kill the queen with a twig"
"Maybe Cole was planning on teaching you how to do o"
I thought back to the , Adonia touched the necklace I think it was her heart Maybe she got even th from it"
Cole stirred next to me and promptly rolled off the bench
"Ouch!" he said He sprang up, looking from Jack to me with a confused expression on his face
I wondered if the recollection rabbed Jack’s hand in preparation to face a Cole who knew the truth
"What happened?" he said
"Cole, you have amnesia," I said slowly
He tilted his head "I know that What happened just now?"
I glanced at Jack "You fell off the bench?" he said
Cole sighed "Oh Okay Are we going to destroy the Everneath now?"
With a screech of brakes, the bus pulled up to our stop "We’re going back to Park City first," I said
Cole nodded "Park City Where’s that?"
Cole fed ain at the airport, and after sotier I think than even before I’d lostabout how Adonia touched her necklace--her Surface heart--to get et strength without my heart?
Once we landed at the Salt Lake City airport, we took a taxi to the Shop-n-Go to retrieve Jack’s car
"My credit cards are almost maxed out," Jack said as he started his car He had used his eency ones to buy our airplane tickets as well "Hopefully there’s enough left to get us a hotel"
I shrugged, a little lost in thought as I stared out the
"Becks? You okay?"
I turned to Jack "I think I need my heart"
"What?" Jack said
Cole leaned forward from the backseat
I shifted in my seat so I could see both of them "It’s the memory of the queens If we try to take down the Everneath and we run into Adonia, I don’t think I’ll stand a chance fighting against her unless I have my heart"
"Well, hopefully on’t run into her," Jack said
"But even if we get that far, to the point where we destroy all our hearts, I’ to need to knohere my heart is"
"Where do you think it is?" Cole said
I pressedto keepyou hid it somewhere"
"Why would I--" Cole stopped and tilted his head "Oh, yeah I stole it"
I closed my eyes and put my face in my hands for a moment
Cole tapped my shoulder "You know, if I shared aback Can’t we go to my condo and see if I can--I don’t know--see if I can feel where I hid it?"
Jack groaned "Cole, your place was ransacked"
"But they obviously didn’t find it, because they’re still looking for lanced out the"We should follow up on the Cronus lead fro and destroyed the Shade network," I said "We’d still need oose chase," Jack said
Cole put his hand on my arm "What’s on your wrist?"
"What?" I said Jack and I both looked down at my left arm, the one that hadn’t had the shackle; only now, at my wrist line, the faintest black mark encircled my wrist Not nearly as dark as the other shackle, but definitely visible
Jack couldn’t stop staring at it "Let’s go find your heart," he said
I nodded "We’ll talk to Will and have hi he can about Cronus By the ti Cole’s condo, hopefully he’ll have so for us"
I stared at the new shackle Was it growing darker even as I watched? I waited a few long minutes No, I couldn’t tell a difference
But even though I couldn’t see it growing darker, I kneas
Jack turned the car in the direction of his own house, and I called Will to give him a heads-up; but no one answered
"He’s probably passed out," Jack said, referring to his older brother’s love of drinking
When we got to Jack’s house, we found Will asleep on the Caputos’ couch Jack shook his older brother awake
"Wha--" Will startled up to a sitting position
He looked from Jack, to me, then to Cole The second he saw Cole’s face, his eyelids narrowed into tiny slits "You," he said accusingly "You" He ju, because he staggered to the side a few steps and then fell
Jack ran to hi us"
Will looked at him as if he were crazy "Are you nuts? He’s ‘helped’ us before, and we barely survived He helped Nikki all the way into the Everneath!"
"We need hi?"
I gri And we’d like to destroy the Underworld"
Will was silent for a moment And then"So, the usual"