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forbidden to own it. If there are copies, I do not know where. But we should set ourselves to find out,<br />

tomorrow.”<br />

“Yeah,” Livvy said, her voice blurry with sleep. “Tomorrow.”<br />

“Do you need to go to bed, Livvy?” Julian asked. It was a rhetorical question: Livvy was drooping<br />

like a wilted dandelion. At his words, though, she forced herself bolt upright.<br />

“No, I’m fine, I could stay up—”<br />

Ty’s face changed subtly as he looked at his twin sister. “I’m exhausted,” he said. “I think we<br />

should all go to sleep. In the morning we’ll be able to concentrate better.”<br />

Julian doubted Ty was actually tired at all: When he was engaged in a puzzle, he could stay up for<br />

days at a time. But Livvy nodded gratefully at the words.<br />

“You’re right,” she said. She slid off the chair she was sitting on and picked up Tavvy, handing him<br />

back his book. “Come on,” she said. “You should definitely be in bed.”<br />

“I helped, though, didn’t I?” Tavvy asked as his sister carried him toward the door. He was looking<br />

over at Julian as he said it, and Julian remembered himself as a child, looking toward Andrew<br />

Blackthorn that way. A boy looking to his father, seeking approval. “You didn’t just help,” said<br />

Julian. “I think you may have solved it, Tavs.”<br />

“Yay,” said Tavvy sleepily, and put his head down on Livvy’s shoulder.<br />

The others soon followed Ty and Livvy to bed, but Emma found she couldn’t sleep. She found herself,<br />

instead, sitting on the front steps of the Institute before the sun rose.<br />

She was in flip-flops, a tank top, and pajama bottoms. The air coming off the ocean was chilly, but<br />

she didn’t feel it. She was staring at the water.<br />

From every angle of the steps you could see the ocean: blue-black in the rising morning now, like<br />

ink, raked with swells of white foam where the waves broke far out to sea. The moon had shrunk and<br />

cast an angular shadow across the water. A blue-and-silver dawn.<br />

She remembered the spilling cold of that blue ocean all around her. The taste of salt water and<br />

demon blood. The feeling that the water was pressing her down, crushing her bones.<br />

And the worst part, the fear that once her parents had felt the same pain, the same panic.<br />

She thought of Julian then. The way he had looked in the dining room. The strain in his voice as<br />

he’d stood there telling her and Mark everything he’d done for the past five years.<br />

“Emma?”<br />

Emma half-turned and saw Perfect Diego coming down the steps. He looked immaculate, despite<br />

the night they’d had, even his boots polished. His dark brown hair was thick and fell charmingly over<br />

one of his eyes. He looked a bit like a prince in a fairy-tale book.<br />

She thought of Julian again. His untidy hair, his bitten nails, his dusty boots, the paint on his hands.<br />

“Hey, Perfect Diego,” she said.<br />

“I wish you wouldn’t call me that.”<br />

“You wish in vain,” Emma said. “Where are you going? Is Cristina all right?”<br />

“She’s asleep.” Perfect Diego looked out at the ocean. “It’s very beautiful here. You must find it<br />

peaceful.”<br />

“And you must be kidding.”<br />

He flashed a fairly perfect smile. “You know, when there aren’t murders happening and small<br />

armies surrounding the place.”<br />

“Where are you going?” Emma asked again. “It’s practically dawn.”<br />

“I know the cave will not be open, but I am going to the convergence site to see it for myself. The

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