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"So, are you interested in history, then?" Noah’s father said to h a mouthful of blue cheese

"It used to be my favorite subject," I said slowly

I must have looked confused, because Noah’s father said, "Ah, well I just thought since you were so interested in my new book"

"What are you interested in?" Noah’sthe Undead? Helping theh as if I had made a joke When she realized I was serious, she said, "Help them? But why?"

I froze "What do you mean?"

"Well, they have no souls; they cannot be helped"

I felt Noah trying to catch my eye, but I refused to turn to him

"That’s not true," I said "At Gottfried--"

At the roaned "Oh, that place We’ve been trying to get the the Undead to be human Impossible! Enfants terribles That’s all they are"

I clutched the cheese knife, my knuckles white as I opened my mouth to respond Noah cut in before I could "A lot of her friends are at Gottfried," he said "She’s very close with them"

Incredulous, I wiped ht my opinions on the Undead were just biases that I had toward my friends?

"Someti hu people?"

Noah’s hed and put down her spoon as the table went quiet

"There’s an art to e do," she said finally, her voice less friendly

"But how is it different?" I said, trying not to sound too argumentative

"We’re civilized We have courts and schools, we have a system The Undead, they’re--"

"They’re what?" I said, anticipating what she was going to say "They’re monsters? They’re murderers?"

"Okay!" Noah’s father said "Are you ready to see the portrait?" He glanced betweena napkin to his head nervously

"Sure," I said, trying to co the arms of his chair, Luc hoisted hi with a large envelope

"Are you okay?" Noah whispered

I picked atwhen his ree with her? "I’m fine"

Noah’s father pushed the plates out of the way, slid a portrait out of the envelope, and placed it on the tablecloth in front of us It was a faded black-and-white sketch froe

A woman stared back at us, her eyes wide and black Or was it a woman? It was a hard to tell She looked more like a creature: an anomaly of nature, beautiful in her defor the pattern, like the feathers of a bird Her expression was griI didn’t

"This was drawn after her first scientific publication She must have been in her thirties or forties"

She looked h it was difficult to guess her age "She’s…terrifying," I said in awe

"Oui," Noah’s ers "C’est incroyable"

"They look like waves, no?" Luc said, touching her scars with his fingers "I think this will be the cover of raphy"

"Mal de Mer"

Seasickness

Before we left, Noah ran upstairs to collect a few clean shirts for school Halfway up, he peered down at"Well, coraphs of Noah and his sister growing up A five-year-old Noah standing in front of St Clément in an oversized shirt and tie, as if he were already preparing to attend A ten-year-old Noah posing in front of a cemetery with his sister A so a shovel beside a small plot in the backyard "That was ht I felt hiined it, because in no ti me down the wallpapered hallway that led to his bedroom

"Do you think Ophelia Coeur was the ninth sister?" I asked ere out of earshot

"She worked at the Royal Victoria--" he said

"She could have put the riddle in one of the rooms she worked in," I said excitedly "And Lake Erie--that’s where Miss LaBarge was found dead Maybe she knew about the riddle," I said, thinking of the letter irl" "Maybe the last part of the riddle is hidden on Little Sister Island, and Miss LaBarge was going there to check on it"