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"I’ve been looking for soht it was a box"

"I know"

"It’s not, is it?"

Maura shook her head She stepped back to let him in

"Drink?"

The Gray Man didn’t immediately step inside "Is it a person?"

She held his gaze She repeated, "Drink?"

With a sigh, he followed her in She led him down the main hallway to the kitchen, where she (badly) made him a drink and then let him onto the back patio Calla and Persephone were already positioned in chairs arranged where the shaggy lawn gave way to new puddles and old bricks They looked ethereal and pleased in the long golden afternoon sunshine that had eed after the storm Persephone’s hair was a white cloud Calla’s was three different colors of purple

"Mr Gray," Calla said, expansive and scathing She assassinated a lass in Maura’s hand "I can tell already that drink’s shit"

Maura looked at it sadly "How can you tell?"

"Because youthe daisy chain on her head, Maura patted the re chair and sat on the bricks beside it The Gray Man sagged into it

"Oh, dear," Persephone said, observing this bonelessness of the Gray Man "So you found out, did you?"

By way of response, he drained his glass The readings had taken hi with one hundred white Mitsubishi Evolutions and two drunk boystheir dreams He had watched them for hours Each minute, each impossible dream, each overheard snatch of conversation had hammered in the truth

"What happens now?" Maura asked

The Gray Man said, "I’m a hit man, not a kidnapper"

Maura frowned "But you think your eht be"

The Gray Man was not sure what he thought Greenht be He knew that Greenmantle didn’t like to lose, and he knew that he had been obsessed with the Greywaren for at least five years He also knew he hieoned the last Greywaren to death with a tire iron Although the Gray Man had killed quite a few people, he had never destroyed any of the artifacts he’d been sent to collect

This was all more complicated than he’d expected

"It’s definitely those two boys, isn’t it" It wasn’t a question, though The Gray Man tried to i one of the live victims for any distance It struck hiht killing

"Two?" Calla echoed She and Persephone looked at each other

"Well," Persephone said in her snat in her drink "That ," Maura said "That’s what’s i any "

Rubbing her eye, Persephone ely unpleasantyou can take back," Maura clarified She added pointedly, "And we know at least one of the boys We’d be very angry if you took hiry with you"

"He’s not a very kind otten in the way of their relationship before; kindness had, until then, been largely lost on the Gray Man

"So you couldn’t explain what nice boys they are?" Persephone asked

Calla growled, "They are not nice boys Well, at least one of them isn’t"

The Gray Man said, "I don’t expect it would h, he leaned his head far back and closed his eyes, as defenseless as he’d ever been The afternoon sun lit his face and neck andat them

They all took a drink, except for the Gray Man, who had already finished his He didn’t want to kidnap a boy, he didn’t want to anger Maura, he wantedhe just wanted Cicadas sang madly from the trees It was so impossibly summer

He wanted to stay

"Well," Calla said, checking her watch and standing "I don’t envy you I’ve got et murdered"

Maura waved the switchblade

Persephone, standing as well, said, "I’d give that to Blue, if I were you I’ My stuff My PhD You know"

The Gray Man opened his eyes and now Persephone stopped in front of hilass She looked very small and delicate and not-really-there in comparison to his knotted presence She reently pat his knee "I know you’ll do the right thing, Mr Gray"

She and Calla slid the door shut behind themselves Maura scooted her butt a few inches closer and leaned against his leg It struck the Gray Man as a very trusting gesture, putting her back to a hit man His previously lifeless heart flopped hopefully He carefully rearranged the daisy chain in her hair, and then he took out his phone

Greenood news"