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Mi redhead who had spoken

Bliss Llewellyn, Texan transplant and forlared back Bliss's cheeks were as red as her hair "She saved your skin in Venice, and you don't even have the decency to be grateful!" Once upon a time Bliss had been Mimi's shadow, happy to follow her every directive, but a trust had broken between the two former friends since the last Silver Blood attack, when Mi, if ineffective, conspirator Mimi had been condemned to burn, until Schuyler had come to her aid at the blood trial

"She didn't save er," Mih her fine hair

"Ignore her," Bliss told Schuyler

Schuyler s braver now that she had backup "It's hard to do It's like pretending global war doesn't exist" She would pay for that comment later, she knew There would be pebbles in her breakfast cereal Black tar on her sheets Or the newest inconvenience - the disappearance of yet another of her swiftly dwindling possessions Already she was loves, and a beloved dog-eared copy of Kafka's The Trial, inscribed on the first page with the initials "J F"

Schuyler would be the first to aduest bedroom in the Forces' nitaries) was hardly the cupboard under the stairs Her room was beautifully decorated and suirl could want: a four-poster queen-size bed with a pillowy duvet, closets full of designer clothes, a high-end entertainment center, dozens of toys for Beauty, her bloodhound, and a new featherlight MacBook Air But if her new hoifts, it lacked the charm of the old one

She missed her old room, with its Mountain Dew-yelloalls and rickety desk Sheroom She missed Hattie and Julius, who had been with the farandfather, of course But most of all, she missed her freedom

"You okay?" Bliss asked, nudging her Schuyler had returned from Venice with a new address and an unexpected ally While she and Bliss had always been friendly, now they were almost inseparable

"Yeah I'ht" Schuyler s Bliss at school was one of the small reprieves of happiness that Duchesne afforded

She took the winding back stairs, following the strea in the same direction, when out of the corner of her eye she saw the barest flicker and knew It was hi the crowd of students walking the opposite way She could always sense him, as if her nerves were fine-tuned antennae receptors that picked up whenever he was near Maybe it was the va her the ability to tell when another was close by, orto do with her otherworldly powers at all

Jack

His eyes were focused straight ahead, as if he never even saw her, never registered her presence His sleek blond hair, the same translucent shade as his sister's, was slicked back from his proud forehead; and unlike the other boys around hial in a blazer and tie He was so handsome it was hard for Schuyler to breathe But just as at the town house - Schuyler refused to call it honored her

She snuck one lance his way and then hurried up the stairs Glass had already started when she arrived Schuyler tried to be as unobtrusive as possible as she walked, out of habit, toward the back seats by theOliver Hazard-Perry was seated there, bent over his notebook

But she caught herself just in ti radiator, without saying hello to her best friend