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I was fevered with anxiety,over one another What happened next would be up to hts needed me, after all What if I refused to handle the souls for them? What if I found a way to trick therine Then he’d start killing the other yave him what he wanted And if I didn’t, he’d kill E to stop the her--even hand Caul the keys to untold power

Then I had a thought that scared the bejesus out ofand I couldn’t see the soul jars, or I could see them but not handle the He’d startmy friends And even if I soet so livid that he’d kill everyone anyway

I said a silent prayer to randfather--can you pray to dead people? Well, I did--and I asked, if he atchingand as powerful as he once was Grandpa Portman, I prayed, I know this sounds crazy, but Emma and my friends ladly give every bit of it to Caul in exchange for their lives Does that ht understand So please

Looking up, I was surprised to see Miss Peregrine watching me from over the bear’s shoulder As soon as shethrough the grime on her pale cheeks As if soh an ancientpaths and stairways cut into the hills, their steps worn into crescent moons In some places the path all but disappeared, sed by weeds I heard Perplexus complain that it had taken him years to puzzle out the way to the Library of Souls, and to have this ungrateful thief troard--a terrible insult!

And then I heard Olive say, "Why did no one ever tell us the library was real?"

"Because, my dear," replied an ymbryne, "it wasn’t allowed It was safer to say …"

The ymbryne paused to catch her breath

"… that it was just a story"

Just a story It had beco truths of my life that, no matter how I tried to keep them flattened, two-dimensional, jailed in paper and ink, there would always be stories that refused to stay bound inside books It was never just a story I would know: a story had seda plain-looking wall, the wind’s eerie , when Caul raised a hand and shouted for everyone to stop

"Have we gone too far?" he said "I could’ve sworn the grotto was along here sorapher?"

Perplexus was hauled forth frolad you didn’t shoot hirotto?" he de in Perplexus’s face

"Ahh, perhaps it’s hidden itself from you," Perplexus teased