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Chapter 38
The shadows are lengthening and the sunlight has softened into afternoon's honey gold by the time I'm finished telling Kitty all about that day.
She's sitting still as a statue in the armchair opposite me, bathed in patches of multicolored light streaming in through the huge stained glass window behind us. It's like she's in an impressionist painting, streaked with red and green and blue light, and I imagine I'm spilling out my story to a brightly jewel-encrusted portrait of some noblewoman from a bygone era.
It makes it easier to talk.
The words rush out of me, a flood of grief that I didn't even realize I'd been damming up.
Kitty doesn't interrupt me, not even once – only nodding her head from time to time, listening in absolute silence. Even as I tell her about how I watched everyone die, how Mia lay at the bottom of the bus with her head cracked open in a pool of blood, or how Evan sacrifice
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"I guess you won't be staying the night then?"Felix is in the tree above me, stretched out languidly on his back along a wide branch. There's a book in his hand.He jumps down and lands right in front of me in one swift graceful movement, and I stumble backwards, until my back is pressed up against the huge tree trunk. He leans forward, placing the palm of his hand against the wood right next to me, leaning down until his hazel eyes are just inches away from my own."How much do they know?" He says.He must be talking about the phone call. Does he know it was Jamie?"Nothing," I say.He leans closer in, as if to lock me down, maybe trying to intimidate me. Scare the truth out of me. But the thing is, I'm already telling the truth. I haven't told anyone where Fable is or what they're doing.If there's one thing I'm good at, it's k
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FABLE Chapter 42
I watch from my bedroom window until I see the taillights of my dad's car disappear into the darkness. It took ages for my parents to leave.They asked Jamie and Zee to go home as soon as Felix left, and then they interrogated me for almost an hour. They probably would have carried on longer if they didn't need to get to Biblio for the late night Sunday supper service.That's one perk of having chefs for parents – it's always just a matter of time before they have to rush back to the kitchen.With my phone on silent and a giant mug of chai tea on my bedside table, I sprawl out on my bed with my laptop in front of me.It's time to clear some things up.First I check the official Fable fansites, then the most popular Tumblrs and Fable Twitter accounts. As expected, everyone thinks the boys are spread out across the globe on vacation during the hiatus between albums.
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Unfortunately, it's not Felix on the other side of the door.There's a rake-thin woman in a long black dress standing in the doorway. Even though her face is concealed by a red scarf wrapped around her head like a shawl, I can tell immediately that she's really old.She's holding a basket filled to the brim with gleaming red apples. A gnarled hand reaches into the basket and strokes one of the apples, the fingers lazily tracing the plump crimson fruit. The old woman appears to be muttering something over and over again. It sounds like the word fated, or maybe hated.Nope, not happening. It's too early for Halloween.I start closing the door, ready to lock it and run upstairs, possibly even call 911.Just before the door shuts, I hear a voice say my name."Ashling?"She pushes the scarf back, revealing a familiar face.
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I wake up crying.The image of Mia with a bloody rose blooming from her lips makes my stomach turn, and I realize I'm about to hurl.I make it to the bathroom in the nick of time, and I throw-up up until I taste bile.Afterwards, I take a hot shower, scrubbing away the night's memories and terrors.If only I could forget it all.Forget the nightmare. Forget the accident. Forget Evan and Mia.Once I'm done in the shower, I change into skinny jeans, a white cami, and my red hoodie.The same hoodie that the Alastaire's Angels tore to shreds the night of the concert. I never did ask Felix how he mended it so quickly. Although it's not like he would have mended it personally. Maybe someone at the hotel did it.I run my fingers over the seams, looking for some stitch out of place, a clue, but it's as perfect a
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