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“Yes,” Shen answered “Where do we have to go?”

“I’ll show you Come on”

I led them down the stairs, then went to the stairwell to the next floor and ran right into a powerful ward

“Damn it, it’s down there! Who sealed this?”

“I did,” Toland rayer than the last time I’d seen hi to avoid—anyway, excuse me”

I stepped out of his way and chewed my lip until it bled while he wasted precious seconds unlocking the ward He had to do it again on the level below, then ere finally free to run as fast as we could I’d walked this path so htoing The whole crowd shoved into the tiny ward room where Owen had committed his ultimate betrayal

“Show me,” Shen said

I opened est We es of the different colored stones and stepped away to let the witches andherbs on fire and sprinkling so attention until Hannah took a dagger and slit her palm She passed it to the left, and every other student in the roo Shen went last, then they bound hands, their voices rising together into the air

It was all going too damn slowly The school would collapse, and Xero would be dead before they were finished

“We have to do this in order,” Shen said firmly

I thought she was talking to me and was about ready to launch into a tirade about how rude it was to read solared at her, I realized that she’d been talking to the ic students about the stones They worked efficiently, but it was still too slow Every second they wasted on this was a second that Xero could be dying

“You remember what to say e place the last one?” Shen asked

The students all muttered their assent They all put their hands on the final stone—one of the big ones—and recited a chant in soain Hurry up, damn it

“Hey” Jayce put his hand over oing to tear up your fingers”

I jerked at his touch and the softness of his voice Neither one had any place in the chaos of my mind—a chaos that see was terrible,clearly wasn’t working The school was still shaking with every beat of the giants’ club So the line