Blue Lily, Lily Blue (The Raven Cycle, #3)

by Maggie Stiefvater

on. What? I missed something in here.” “Her aura is like yours — it’s blue,” he said. “The clairvoyant aura!”

When he wasn’t trying to look like an asshole, his face looked very different, and for a tilting moment, Adam felt the startling inequality of their relationship: Ronan knew Adam, but Adam wasn’t sure he knew Ronan, after all.

“You should know, then, that you’re going to look like a fool in that courtroom, Adam,” Robert Parrish said. “People know me and they know what kind of man I am. You and I both know this is just a pathetic cry for attention, and everyone else will, too. It’s too easy to look at you and see what kind of shit you’ve become. Don’t think I don’t know where this comes from. You prancing around with those entitled bitch-boys.”

told you she would start singing.”

Gwenllian dragged the vacuum cleaner back into the hall without any sort of good-bye. “Gwenllian and vacuum, exit stage right,” Blue said.

“I’m not, really, but I was used to it, I guess. It’s boring, but at least it’s not scary. Do you ever get scared? Or are you too badass for that?”

“the badasses are the most scared. I just avoid being inappropriately frightened.”

Then Jesse leaned and Blue stood on tiptoes and they hugged, because that seemed right.

just want my mother back. And please stop calling me that. My name’s Blue.” “Lily,” Gwenllian added. “Please —” “Lily.” “— stop.” “Blue,” Gwenllian finished with some triumph. She finished whatever was left on the spoon.

“Mirrors,” Gwenllian cooed. “That is what we are. When you hold a candle in front of a glass, doesn’t it make the room twice as bright? So do we, blue lily, lily blue.”

“Witches, my little floral cushion. That’s what we are.”

The woman started down the attic stairs. “Wait!” called Blue. “Will you tell me about my father?” “No,” Gwenllian replied. “I will get mayonnaise.”

“You’re a prince among men, Dick Gansey.” “More like a man among princes,” muttered Adam. “You’ve got seven minutes, Gansey.”

saw Henry first, then Ronan, unharmed, but powdered like Pompeii corpses. He made eye contact with Ronan — Is it all

There was something more frightening about him than there was about the circle. Like the bare ground, there was nothing inherently unusual about his appearance. But in context, surrounded by these brick buildings, he didn’t … belong.

Right into Gansey’s ear, he whispered, voice tinged in disbelief, “I didn’t — I just asked — I just thought —” “Thought what?” Gansey asked. Adam released him. His eyes were on the circle around him. “I thought that. And it happened.”

Now Gansey recognized the expression on Ronan’s face: arrogance. He had not been afraid for Adam. He had known Cabeswater would save him. Been certain of it.

“I told you,” Ronan said. “Magician.”

He wondered if he was going to go through each year of his life thinking about how stupid he’d been the year before.

Adam didn’t want to look, but he did anyway. In the hall stood Richard Campbell Gansey III in his school uniform and overcoat and scarf and gloves, looking like someone from another world. Behind him was Ronan Lynch, his damn tie knotted right for once and his shirt tucked in.

Adam held out his right hand, and Gansey clasped it in a handshake, like they were men, because they were men.

“How would you feel if I reduced you to your legs?” Adam and Noah craned to look out the back window. Blue’s voice came again. “No. No. How about you see it my way? How about you don’t reduce me to a commodity and then, when I ask you not to, tell me it’s a compliment and I should be glad for it?”

Blue stood a few feet away. She wore a big boxy T-shirt, teal shorts, combat boots, and socks that came up over her knees. Only four inches of bare skin were visible, but they were a really nice four inches.

It was amazing that she and Ronan didn’t get along better, because they were different brands of the same impossible stuff.

“I think maybe your mama didn’t teach you how to talk to women.” The old man shook his head at Adam, like in pity. Adam added, “And she’s not my girlfriend.”

Blue flashed him a brilliant look of approval, and then she got into the car with a dramatic door slam...

“You do have nice legs, though.” Blue swung at him. A helpless laugh escaped Adam, and she hit his shoulder, too.

dead boy retreated farther into the backseat; the air warmed marginally as he did. “He already called me creepy today.”

“Just put me out here. I’ll walk back.” He slammed on the brakes. “Don’t think I won’t.” “Do it, then!” She already had her hand on the door handle.

Adam hadn’t even realized the ancient tape deck worked, but after a hissing few seconds, a tape inside jangled a tune. Noah began to sing along at once. “Squash one, squash two —”

handwriting: PARRISH’S HONDAYOTA ALONE TIME. The other side was A SHITBOX SING-ALONG.

“It’s like, if someone said to you, ‘Nice sweater, dude!’ when you were in your Aglionby uniform.” “What?” “I wanted you to know why I got so angry at that old guy. I’ve been trying to think of a way to explain it. I know you don’t get it. But that’s why.”

“I might zone out.” Noah whimpered.

How arrogant we are, Adam thought, to deliver babies who can’t walk or talk or feed themselves. How sure we are that nothing will destroy them before they can take care of themselves.

Maybe it was good that the world forgot every lesson, every good and bad memory, every triumph and failure, all of it dying with each generation. Perhaps this cultural

amnesia spared them all. Perhaps if they remembered everything, hope would die instead.

Even though he was certain it had been her voice, she didn’t look at him. She was crouched in the cavern beside him, eyebrows knitted in concentration, a fist pressed to her lips. A man knelt adjacent to her, but everything about his folded-over, lanky body suggested that he wasn’t in communication with the woman. They were both motionless as they faced a door set into the stone.

Adam, go I can’t, he thought. I’m lost. “Adam! Adam. Adam Parrish.” He came to in a fury of pain. His face felt wet; his hand felt wet; his veins felt too full of blood. Noah’s voice rose. “Why did you cut him so deep!”

His eyes focused on the pink switchblade knife in Blue’s hand. “You cut me?” he said.

“And then you stopped breathing,” Noah said. He slunk to his feet. “I told you. I told you it was a bad idea, and nobody ever listens to me. ‘Oh, we’ll be fine, Noah, you’re such a worrywart’ and next thing you know you’re in some kind of death thrall. Nobody ever says, ‘Noah, you know what you were right thanks for saving my life because being dead would suck.’ They just always —”

“Next time I’ll let you die,” Blue said. “You forget, Adam, when you’re pulling your special snowflake act, where I grew up. Do you know what the phrase is for when someone helps you during a ritual or a reading? It’s thank you. You shouldn’t have brought us if you wanted to do it alone.”

been dead now. “Sorry,” he said. “I was being sort of a dick.” Noah replied, “We weren’t going to say it.” “I was,” Blue said.

Suddenly, with Noah to his side and Blue next to him, three strong, Adam remembered the woman he had seen in the pool. He knew all at once who she was. “Blue,” he said. “I saw your mother.”

“It’s a stable number, three. Fives and sevens are good, too, but three is the best. Things are always growing to three or shrinking to three. Best to start there. Two is a terrible number. Two is for rivalry and fighting and murder.”

“Me?” “You’re a very good listener.” “But I’m — I’m —” He couldn’t think of how to finish the sentence. He finally said, “Leaving.”

“But I see now that it could never be. You’re like me. We’re not really like the others.” Other what? Humans? You are unknowable.

He thought he must be, because he cared deeply about Maura’s disappearance, and he cared even more deeply about Gansey’s death, and now that he knew about these things, he wanted to do something about them. He needed to. He was Cabeswater, stretching out to others.

want to know how long you’ve known about Gansey. From the beginning? From the beginning. You knew it when he walked in the door for the reading! Were you ever going to tell us?” “I don’t know why I would do such a ridiculous thing. Get your cola.”

“No,” he said again. The clerk was at the door, locking it for the night. “Wait,” Adam said. “Did you see my friend? Or did I come here alone?” She raised one eyebrow. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I know how it sounds. Please. Was it just me?”

“I need to use your phone. Please, ma’am. Just for a second.” “Why?” “Something terrible has happened.”