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I purselike a fool--Mother would be appalled at my near display of emotion I knew she would be fine I knew it

Gretchen cli

Grace rushes forward "Are you okay?"

She wraps Gretchen in a tight hug I look away, trying to keep the tears of fear and relief and e out

My attention drifts to ly dents on my otherwise perfect hood They’re a reht--a six-ar ago now

Soemotional reaction

"Yeah--" Gretchen is seized by a spashs "I’ll be fine"

"You sound fine," I say sarcastically, earning a glare from both sisters

Gretchen walks around to her trunk, pops it open, and starts digging around inside She pulls out a duffel bag, sla on top

Feeling more in control of myself, I walk up to my car and run a hand over the dents--thankfully there don’t appear to be any scratches in thecould have ended badly Even if my car is a little the worse for wear, I’ht could have easily wound up a tragedy--if I hadn’t iant, if Grace hadn’t autoported away frootten to Gretchen’s loft at just the right ht the ed us out an instant before the explosion

"Wait aorder So must have co more concrete thanto remember exactly what happened Mysound "You got a phone call," I say, turning to Gretchen "Someone warned you about the explosion, didn’t they?"

I watch as her shoulders stiffen She pauses in digging through the duffel bag just long enough for me to know she heard s out

"Yes?" I echo As if that’s an adequate answer

A pair of combat boots hits the trunk with a thu harder now