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But I couldn’t leave Clementine had sensed hie of the trees, as if she were searching for hiht follow and find hiot wider, deeper, I took a surreptitious survey of the ceh of relief I couldn’t feel Dante anywhere

Chapter 8

WINTER CAME TO MONTREAL TWO MONTHS early Or I should say, two otten ready to take outa bundle of wood outside each of our doors in thefor the potbellied stove But no et rid of the cold vacancy within me

So instead I embraced it, and ventured out into the chilly Canadian air until I foundthe waterfront, where I could al me fros there, pacing around the peri for hirain silos lined the opposite shore; lonely brown cylinders that rose behind the water If you stood on a particular spot on the wharf and spoke over the river, your voice would bounce off the silos and echo back At nightfall, when everyone had left, I approached the edge of the water and leaned on the railing

It was scratched with graffiti: initials of lovers, etched in hearts When the wind died down, I spoke

"Did you lie?" I said, the words wobbly

When they bounced back,itself over and over: lie lie lie lie

"No," I said into it again, and iined it was Dante when it ca back to the waterfront, speaking toDante that I barely thought about the riddle on the headstone And to h I knew she’d been just as disappointed as I’d been after our run-in at the ce, but there’d been nothing in the anony as alked back to the dormitory, our face and hands streaked with dirt She was quieter after that; she never stopped me in the halls or tried to eht we had reached so, watching ure out what I knew and who I had been with that night

At first I didn’t tell Anya what happened, partly because that night confused me, too That hy I went to the silos--with the hope that I would find Dante But after a week of nothing, I gave up and told her everything

"You went to the ce in Latin class, waiting for everyone else to show up

"I was in a rush," I said "Everything happened quickly"

She rotated the cuff in her ear "What do you think it means?"

"What?"

"The riddle, obviously," she said in disbelief

"Oh, I don’t know"

She sat back, staring atatfor days," she said "You’re not interested in the riddle even though just a feeeks ago you were draggingon?"

The door opened and Clementine and her friends walked in, followed by Monsieur Orneaux I lowered my voice "I’m sorry," I said, "but I can’t talk about it"

Anya bit her fingernail "It’s about a boy," she said, studying me "I’ve felt like this too That’s why I pierce s I don’t want to think about"

"I don’t think I want to do that"

"Of course you don’t," she teased, pinching in earlobe as the professor sat at the head of the table and took out his lecture notes "Butout the riddle will distract you fro buried beneath the headstone," I whispered as Monsieur Orneaux cleared his throat "And I already checked the cemetery map--there’s no body of salt water anywhere near there, and if there is a bear on one of the headstones, it could take years to find it The cee"

"Okay," Anya whispered "You don’t have to get testy about it"

That’s when Clenore it while he recited Homeric phrases But after a few minutes had passed, she decided to just speak up

"Who killed the Nine Sisters?"

That woke everyone up

Monsieur Orneaux narrowed his eyes,about that I teach Latin"