The Raven Boys

Blue meets Adam and gives him Gansey’s journal and a map showing where the ley line is. She wants to be part of what the boys are looking for, and when Adam asks why, she explains that she isn’t psychic like the rest of her family and “if magic exists, I just want to see it. Just once” (199). The two meet Gansey, Ronan, and Gansey’s sister at the apartment, where they board a helicopter to search for the ley line.

Blue gives the map to Gansey, who directs his sister to pilot them to the churchyard where the ley line is. As they talk about the location, Gansey recognizes something in Blue’s voice and realizes she’s the other voice on his recording. Blue confesses she saw Gansey, telling the group that’s why she wanted to come along today, though doesn’t say it was his spirit. Gansey explains how ley lines in other countries have images built into the landscape around them that can only be seen from the air, and as they draw closer to the nearby line, the group sees a raven outlined over the ground. Gansey is overcome with an urge “to touch the lines of the bird and make it real in his head” (216), and his sister lands the helicopter.

As they explore the area with the raven, Gansey fills Blue and Adam in on Welsh myth. Glendower was a long-ago king who was supposed to be reborn and rise as a hero, but after the rebellion he led, he wouldn’t have been welcomed, and Gansey believes his body was moved along the ley lines to the United States. Gansey also tells them about the ritual to raise the ley line, and Adam asks if Blue could amplify the ritual to make it more powerful. Though Blue is sure she can, she remembers how tired she was after seeing Gansey’s spirit and wonders if it would be safe to do so.

Using an EMF reader, the group follows an energy line to a place where Adam’s watch and the clock on Gansey’s phone stop working. Nervous, Blue and Adam hold hands, which sends a zing through Blue. She needs to tell him not to kiss her, but she can’t yet because she wants “to feel his skin pressed against hers, both of their pulses rapid and uncertain” (227). They find a shallow creek full of fish that shouldn’t be able to survive there, and Gansey’s expression fills with a joyful wonder that Blue can’t bear to look at because she knows he’s going to die.

The group finds a strange rotted tree that shows images of the future. Blue sees herself with Gansey, wanting to kiss him but knowing she can’t. Adam hints that the tree shows him something about Gansey, and Gansey claims he sees Glendower, but his posture makes Blue wonder if that’s the truth.

Back at the apartment, the group goes for gelato. Gansey wants to talk about what they found and the possible dangers it holds, but instead, they end up partying “because they’d found the ley line and because it was starting, it was starting” (240).

The group spends the next few days together just hanging out and occasionally doing research. Adam thinks about the vision he had of Gansey dying because of him. They finally return to the raven on a cloudy day, but they can’t find the stream or the rotted tree. After two hours of walking, the trees have shifted from new spring growth to autumn foliage, and they find a stone with Ronan’s handwriting on it. Ronan is freaked because he’s never been here before, and Gansey offers that he may have come in the future. While there’s no proof for this, it makes them feel better because “they were explorers, scientists, anthropologists of historical magic” (251), and despite their search for the unexplained, they want answers that make sense.

The message says the trees speak Latin. Ronan greets them, but only Gansey and Noah can hear the rustling voices that respond. The trees are glad to meet Blue and to see Ronan again, and they don’t know where Glendower is. They offer directions back to the group’s proper time, which takes them through fall and back to summer, and they find a car that’s overgrown by plants and outfitted with a dosing rod and other psychic tools of the trade. It seems like the car’s driver had also searched for the ley line, and Gansey ends the chapter with the solemn proclamation, “I think we need more information” (260).

A few days later, Blue’s mother confesses she knows Blue’s been sneaking around with the boys, and while she’s annoyed, she sees no point in punishing Blue for disobeying. Calla subtly reminds Blue about going through Neeve’s things, disguising it as a movie night. Blue’s mother and Neeve will be out that night, and when Blue asks what they’re doing, her mother says, “Not hanging out with Gansey” (267).

Blue and Gansey go to explore the church, just the two of them. Gansey is giddy with how much he’s found, thanks to Blue’s boosting ability. He casually mentions he could kiss her, and Blue flinches. She tells him about the prophecy that her true love will die if she kisses him and asks him not to tell Adam. Blue asks why Gansey’s searching for Glendower. When Gansey was a child, he stepped on a hornet’s nest and sustained hundreds of stings that killed him. As he died, a voice said he would live because “someone else on the ley line is dying when they should not, and so you will live when you should not” (277). Suddenly, the EMF reader’s lights go out, only to flare red when Blue takes the machine. She leads them to a place where the machine goes dark again, and they find the long-bleached bones of Noah.

A frantic Gansey picks Adam up from work and returns to the apartment, where he finds Ronan but no Noah. Gansey starts to tell Adam and Ronan about the skeleton, but the apartment door slams, and Noah suddenly appears out of nowhere. Noah has been dead as long as the boys have known him. Gansey asks who killed him, and Noah vanishes. The boys don’t know what’s happening, except for one thing: “We’re being haunted” (287).