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When I was finished, Anya frowned "But Cindy Bell wasn’t killed in Breaker Chasm She was killed in Colorado So what exactly did you see?"

"I don’t know That’s why I have to go I have to find out So could be hidden there The last piece of the riddle, even" What I didn’t tell her was that it wasn’t just the prospect of finding the riddle that was pulling me to Breaker Chas

"So what do you think?" I said "Will you coo on Saturday We could take a train"

"The day after toave her a puzzled look "Why not?"

She stood up and went across the rooht a votive "I have to help my dad at the store"

"Can’t you take one day off?"

"No It’s really busy this time of year," she said, and blew out the match

"It’s the ’s busy You can barely walk outside without getting windburn"

"You haven’t been wearing the necklace I made you"

I shook my head in confusion "What?"

"You don’t like it?"

"The one with the beans?" I said "It’s…not reallyo? Because you can tell o"

"Because you’re scared?" I pressed

"Because I just don’t want to go," she repeated "And I don’t think you should go either"

"Why not? Since when are you the voice of reason?" I said, picking up a wishbone charm adorned with feathers

Anya’s face went taut, her lips parting as if she were about to snap at me, but instead she sank back into the couch "Why don’t you take that?" She gestured at the charht need it"

I stood up and tossed it on the couch "Thanks, but I think I’ll e on ht, I thought as I walked back to my room Only an obsessed person would want to follow a dreae far had already been set into h the , I could see the boys’ dormitory across the courtyard, its s lit up One of theo He wouldn’t even need an explanation And without thinking, I stood up and threw on ht, the trees white and motionless, as if the entire campus had been frozen over I was halfway across the courtyard when I noticed a tall, huddled figure walking toward me We crossed paths in front of the fountain, which was covered in a glossy layer of ice I tightened my hood aroundand spun around "Noah?" I pushed backwith static

Noah earing a heavy fleece coat and leather boots Snowflakes caught on his hair "I saw the light in yourand wanted to say hi"

"You knohichis ht uess?"

"No," I said, unable to stop the s to see you"

"Do you knohichis mine?" he said, flattered

I shookuess I didn’t really have a plan"

"Me neither," he said Unwrapping his scarf, he looped it aroundof his breath dissipating into the night just before it reached o somewhere?" I said

He hts in the gymnasium buzzed as he flipped the of water coht, trying to re to will ainst the wooden floor as we ran through the basketball court and down the stairs, until we reached the pool The water was blue and so still that I could see the ceiling’s reflection in it,me feel like I had entered some backward, alternate world