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PART I Observe Assimilate blend in

Ember

“Ember, when did your parents die, and as the cause of death?”

I stifled a groan and tore ht, sunny town of Crescent Beach shilass The air in the black sedan was cold and stale, and, annoyingly, the driver had engaged the child safety locks so I couldn’t roll down theWe’d been stuck in the car for hours, and I was itching to get out of this lass, pal villas shared the sideeathered gray shacks advertising food, T-shirts, surfboard wax, andwhite sand, the Pacific Ocean shifreely in the glittering water

“Ember? Did you hear me? Answer the question, please”

I sighed and settled back against the cold leather “Joseph and Kate Hill were killed in a car accident ere seven years old,” I recited, seeing the driver’s i me from the rearview mirror Beside hi back

“Go on”

I squirone to see a Broad-way musical, West Side Story,” I continued, “and were struck by a drunk driver on the way horandparents, until Grandpa Bill developed lung cancer and could no longer take care of us So we caaze out theagain, seeing a pair of hu down the waves My curiosity perked

I’d never gone surfing before, not in my dusty little corner of desert

It looked nearly ascould co the wind in your face and beneath your wings I didn’t knoas going to survive the suht, as the car sped on and the surfers were lost fro

“Good,” ined hih our files and background “Dante, what is your real objective while in Crescent Beach?”