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Nick snorted “Okay”
“See, Exeter’s working out well already,” Alan said, sounding a little a the note of tension in his voice before “Jamie? Do you think you could make an appointment to see Gerald?”
Mae wondered if Jaet in touch with the Obsidian Circle, or if possibly Gerald had carrier pigeons
“Well, sure,” Jamie said “I have his phone number” He hesitated for ato do to him?”
Gerald didn’t think that noricians He killed noric, and still Jamie could seem worried about him, as if Gerald really was a friend
Of course, Nick and Alan were her friends, and she knehat they were
She’d thought of Nick as ined that perhaps he felt the same way about her
She had been wrong about that All he’d been interested in was using her to spite his brother
It didn’t matter that Nick had never cared Mae had been interested when she’d thought he was a gorgeous guy whose strangeness she’d put down to the effects of living on the run froicians She wasn’t still interested now that she kneas a deicians and raised hu otherworldly that preyed on her kind It would be impossible
She tore her gaze away from Nick, dark and silent at the , to the friendly face of the guy who’d raised a demon and set him loose on the world
“I just want to talk to hily, eyes on Jamie’s face “For now”
3
Messenger at the Gates
Mae decided to skip the end of her last class so she could get her breakup over with She told the ently,” and Mr Churchill told her to go with a look on his face that said he wished he was teaching in an all-boys’ school
She alow tucked in between the bike sheds and the playground where the GCSE class took art The bell rang as she approached, and the other kids poured out, Ja in the classroom like a deadly airborne virus
Seb didn’t ee He was really keen on art, she knew, and probably finishing up a project in there She would have to go in after him
Mae really was not looking forward to this
She didn’t want to be with anyone who hurt her brother, but wanting to be with Seb had been an escape frohts of the Goblin Market, for all the bright and dangerous colors ofnormal
Mae hadn’t been doing well, the first few days back at ho in class and suddenly she would feel panicked, as if there were eyes on her,She’d been sitting in English and found her hand going for a knife that she didn’t have, the knife she was keeping in her sock drawer and trying to forget about
She’d gone out and sat on the loose gravel, back against the peeling wood of the bike sheds, and then she’d seen him
He had his back to her but was turning, and Mae saw his dark fall of hair, the broad shoulders and long legs, even the knife-straight nose in profile, and she felt her heart start to beat in a dangerous rhythht, He came back
Then he’d turned properly and she’d seen Seb’s clear green eyes, the color of leaves with sunlight streaht smile
Nick could never smile like that
“Hey,” he’d said, a little aard, coravel, as if he wanted to give her the impression he was reluctant about it “It’s Mae, isn’t it? Crawford’s sister?”
“Yeah”
“You okay?” he asked, and then lookedI can do about you obviously not being okay?”
“Not really,” Mae told him honestly
“Would it help if I stood around uselessly, not knohat to say?”
“Yeah, actually,” Mae said after a second’s thought “Would you mind?”
“Not at all,” Seb said, and the sain “You want useless, you have couy I can be useless for hours at a ti totally useless, which is by way of being a personal best”
“Congratulations”
They didn’t say lanced up at him a few times, and he sainst the bike shed until the bell for their next class rang
The next day she and Erica had run into Erica’s Tiiven him her best smile and asked, “How are you? Still useless?”
Seb had flushed slightly “Pretty much”
“Keep it up,” said Mae, and left with Erica starting to grin beside her Since then Seb had been hanging around a little, and everyone, Mae included, had assumed it was just a matter of when Annabel would let Mae out of the house
She’d been happy about it, but she didn’t need anyone as going to hassle her little brother
Mae squared her shoulders, pushed open the door to the arts building, and heard Seb’s voice begging
“Please Please don’t send me away”
p>
Nick snorted “Okay”
“See, Exeter’s working out well already,” Alan said, sounding a little a the note of tension in his voice before “Jamie? Do you think you could make an appointment to see Gerald?”
Mae wondered if Jaet in touch with the Obsidian Circle, or if possibly Gerald had carrier pigeons
“Well, sure,” Jamie said “I have his phone number” He hesitated for ato do to him?”
Gerald didn’t think that noricians He killed noric, and still Jamie could seem worried about him, as if Gerald really was a friend
Of course, Nick and Alan were her friends, and she knehat they were
She’d thought of Nick as ined that perhaps he felt the same way about her
She had been wrong about that All he’d been interested in was using her to spite his brother
It didn’t matter that Nick had never cared Mae had been interested when she’d thought he was a gorgeous guy whose strangeness she’d put down to the effects of living on the run froicians She wasn’t still interested now that she kneas a deicians and raised hu otherworldly that preyed on her kind It would be impossible
She tore her gaze away from Nick, dark and silent at the , to the friendly face of the guy who’d raised a demon and set him loose on the world
“I just want to talk to hily, eyes on Jamie’s face “For now”
3
Messenger at the Gates
Mae decided to skip the end of her last class so she could get her breakup over with She told the ently,” and Mr Churchill told her to go with a look on his face that said he wished he was teaching in an all-boys’ school
She alow tucked in between the bike sheds and the playground where the GCSE class took art The bell rang as she approached, and the other kids poured out, Ja in the classroom like a deadly airborne virus
Seb didn’t ee He was really keen on art, she knew, and probably finishing up a project in there She would have to go in after him
Mae really was not looking forward to this
She didn’t want to be with anyone who hurt her brother, but wanting to be with Seb had been an escape frohts of the Goblin Market, for all the bright and dangerous colors ofnormal
Mae hadn’t been doing well, the first few days back at ho in class and suddenly she would feel panicked, as if there were eyes on her,She’d been sitting in English and found her hand going for a knife that she didn’t have, the knife she was keeping in her sock drawer and trying to forget about
She’d gone out and sat on the loose gravel, back against the peeling wood of the bike sheds, and then she’d seen him