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“Rubbish,” she snorts “I’ve made out plenty and it hasn’t done me any harm”

“It’s true,” I insist “Things were different Magic was in the air, all around us It wasn’t like when aopens now We were es, but we had to live a certain way to tap into thedistraction”

“Hht I’ up memories each ti tooat all, to block her memories, but I can’t

“You sound like Billy sometimes,” Meera says casually “You said ‘coolio’ earlier, and ‘weakening distraction’ was the sort of thing he’d say too”

“There’s a lot of him in me,” I admit “Bill-E spoke much faster than I did, and he used odd words so him It isn’t intentional

“I have his handwriting too,” I confess, lowering my voice to a whisper “I never wrote before I wouldn’t have been able to without Bill-E’s memories to show me how When I write, I do it the way he did, exactly the same style”

“I wonder if you have the saerprints?” Meera says

“No,” I frown, studying the tips ofthe whorls from before “This is my flesh Iof Bill-E left But in here…” I tap the side of my head

“That o very quiet She applies new lipstick in silence, then says, “Dervish never talks about you I haven’t been able to phone often, but whenever I call, I ask how you’re doing He’s always vague Says you’re fine, no problems”

I grunt sarcastically

“I don’t know about your tiirls love to share Boys don’t so s up inside, hide their pain even froirls know that a problem shared is a problem halved”

“Bill-E hated that cliché,” I tell her “He thought if that was true, all you had to do was tell your problem to dozens of people Each time you told it, the problem would be halved, until eventually it would be of no real importance”

“That definitely sounds like Billy,” Meera laughs, then looks at me seriously “If I can help, I will, but first I need to knohat’s troubling you”

I chew —I should tell her She’s Dervish’s friend, loyal and once in love with hiainst me if I…

No She’s not like that Meera’s criticised Dervish before when she thought he was in the wrong She believes in being honest with everyone I’ve no guarantee that she’ll side with ive