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"What does it mean?" Call wondered aloud

"It means ‘the time is closer than you think,’ " said the leader "Master"

"I think itabout the last hour," Tareat"

Call looked at her, puzzled "It means ‘the time is closer than you think’ "

Jasper looked surprised "That’s right It does"

"Call, why’d you ask if you already knew?" Aaron said

"Because I didn’t know until he told me!" Call said, exasperated He pointed at the leader of the Chaos-ridden "Didn’t you hear him?"

There was another horrible silence "Call," Ta to you? We knew you were talking to the back"

"Mostly hier toward the leader, who looked i and -- didn’t you hear hi? When he called me ‘master’?"

Ta words," she said quietly "Justweird sounds like muffled screa perfect English to me," said Call

"That’s because you’re like them," Jasper spat "Their souls are all hollowed out and they’re nothing inside and neither are you You’re nothing but the Ene his hands in his pockets "He would have had to understand them because they served him And you understand them because …"

"Because I a they didn’t know, just another horrible piece of proof "I’ myself out," he muttered

"Master," said the leader "Your toeto have to This was their destination This here Master Joseph was going to meet Alastair

Call squared his shoulders and started toward the door Havoc bounced along beside him, clearly in his element Behind Havoc came Aaron, Tamara, and Jasper

"Oh, my God," he heard Tamara say in a horrified voice It took hi to What he had taken for a door knocker in the shape of a head was actually a real, severed human head, ed to a girl, a girl who didn’t look irl who must have been killed recently; she would barely look dead at all if it wasn’t for the fact that the skin around the base of her neck was cut raggedly across Her any hair, blown by the wind, whipped around her oddly fa over her cheeks She wiped them with the back of her hand but otherwise didn’t even see "It can’t be," she said, walking closer to the door

Call felt like he’d seen the girl’s face before -- but where? Maybe at the party at the Rajavi estate? Maybe she was one of Tamara’s friends? But ould her head be displayed here, like a grisly trophy?

"Verity Torres," Jasper said quietly, the words co out almost like a whisper "They never found her body"

Call was struck by how lost Aaron looked, shivering in his thin shirt Staring at the last Makar who’d defended the Magisteriueneration earlier, this would’ve been hi