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Hurry up You're wasting ti out now, anyway

Shelby hadn't heard that? How callous and unremorseful Daniel sounded?

Then Luce reo that she couldn't hear the Announcers either Before, their noises used to be just that--noises: rustlings and thick, hooshes through treetops It was Steven who'd told her how to tune in the voices inside In a way, Luce almost wished he hadn't

There had to be ain," Luce said, stepping toward the openShelby tugged her back

"Oh, no you don't That Announcer could be anywhere by now, and you're under dorm arrest, reoing to stay right here while I go down to Kraet this ever happened Okay?"

"Okay"

"Good I'll be back in ve minutes, so don't disappear on me"

But as soon as the door closed, Luce was out the , clie where she and Daniel had sat the night before Putting what she'd just seen out of her ain Even if it got her inshe didn't like

The late usty, and Luce had to crouch down and hold on to the slanting wooden shingles to keep her balance Her hands were cold Her heart felt numb She closed her eyes Every time she tried to su she'd had She'd always just been lucky--if watching your boyfriend look down at someone he'd justcrept along her ar that showed her an even uglier thing? Her eyes shot open

It was Creeping up her shoulder like a snake She yanked it o and held it in front of her, trying to spin it into a ball with her hands The Announcer rejected her touch, oating backward, out of her reach just past the roof's edge

She looked doo stories to the ground below A trail of students were leaving the dorm to head to thea sheet of bright green grass Luce teetered Vertigo hit, and she felt herself falling forward

But then the shadow rushed like a football player, knocking her back against the slope of the roof There she stayed, stuck against the shingles, panting as the Announcer yawned open again

The sht, and Luce was back with Daniel and his bloody branch Back to the caw of seagulls circling overhead and the stench of rotting surf along the shore, the sight of icy waves crashing on the beach And back to the two gures huddled on the ground The dead one was all tied up The living one stood to face Daniel

Cam

No It had to be a e battle against one another She could accept that Daniel did dark things to protect her fro would ever side Ca?

They were in a heated discussion of some sort, but Luce couldn'tover the clock in the middle of the terrace, which had just struck eleven She strained her ears, waiting for the gongs to cease

"Let me take her to Shoreline," she nally heard Daniel plead

This ht before she arrived in California But why should Daniel have to ask Cam's permission? Unless--

"Fine," Cam said evenly "Take her as far as the school and then nd "

"And then?" Daniel sounded nervous

Cam ran his eyes over Daniel's face "You and I have work to do"

"No!" Luce screaer

But as soon as she felt her hands break through the cold, slippery surface, she regretted it It broke into spent frag into an ashy pile at her side Now she couldn't see any and unresponsive unresponsive

She grabbed a stful of the worthless pieces, sobbing into them

Steven had said that sometimes the Announcers distorted as real Like the shadows cast on the cave wall But that there was always some truth to they pieces, even as she wrung theony

Daniel and Cam weren't enemies They were partners

Chapter Fifteen

FOUR DAYS

"More Tofurky?" Connor Madson--a towheaded kid froy class and one of Shoreline's student waiters--stood over her with a silver platter at the Harvest Fest on Monday night

"No, thanks" Luce pointed down at the thick stack of lukewarm fake meat slices still on her plate