"It's just a state," Adam said, picking at his food a little slower as he talked and keeping his eyes on his plate. "There's West Virginia, too, but that's different. I live where it's deep rural, woods and hills." His accent thickened as he spoke, both from the emotional knots building in his chest and the unconscious association when he thought about where he'd come from. "Most folks that way are poor, but there's a rich school built. My friends and I go there, except Blue. Gansey's all determination and nobility, and Ronan's all ferocity and imagination. There's Noah, too, but he's been dead for as long as I've known him." Adam, more than the others, found Noah to be unnerving and inhuman, and they both knew that the feeling was mutual, which made for a strange sort of truce.