Shadowfever
Page 127
I shaped my mouth around words but nothing came out.
Says the whole gigs got bout twenty percent chance o working, and, if it dont, the second prophecy has about two percent odds.
Who writes prophecies with such sucky odds? I said irritably.
She cracked up. DudeI said the same thing!
Why didnt they tell me? They made it sound like I was virtually insignificant. Id liked it that way. I had enough problems to deal with.
Dani shrugged. Whole thing about Ro never telling us we might be an Unseelie castesaid if you knew, it might be like a self-fulfilling prophecy. I say you gotta know whatcha are, know? Look in the mirror, eyes gotta meet eyes or quit looking.
What else? I demanded. Was there more?
Theres like this whole other sub-prophecy. Says if the two from the ancient bloodlines are killed, thingsll play out different and the odds of successll be higher. Younger theyre killed, the better.
A chill slid up my spine. That was brutal and to the point. Who would go how far to skew the odds more strongly in favor of the human race? I was surprised we hadnt been killed at birth. Assuming Id had one.
So I was thinking thats prolly why you and Alina got gave up. Somebody didnt wanna kill you guys as little kids, so they sent you away.
Of course. And wed been forbidden to return. But Alina had wanted to go to Dublin to study abroad, and Daddy had never been able to deny us anything.
One decision, one tiny decision, and the world as we knew it began to fall apart.
What else? I pressed.
Jo said they been talking to Nana O behind Ros back. Said the old woman was at the abbey the night the Book got out. Saw things. Sidhe-seers ripped to pieces, hacked apart. Said they only found little pieces of some. Others, they never found.
Nana was there when the Book got out? She hadnt mentioned a word of it the night Kat and I had talked to her at her cottage by the sea. Short of calling me Alina, telling us that her granddaughter, Kayleigh, had been Islas best friend and fellow Haven member, and that shed felt dark stirrings in the soil, shed told us little else.
Dani shook her head. Showed up after. Said her bones told her her daughters immortal soul was in peril.
You mean her granddaughter, Kayleigh.
I mean her daughter. Danis eyes sparkled. Ro.
My mouth shaped a silent O. Rowena is Nanas daughter? I finally managed. Rowena was Kayleighs mother? How much more had Nana OReilly neglected to tell me?
Old woman despises her. Wont claim her. Kat and Jo searched Nanas cottage while she slept and found thingspictures and baby books and stuff. Nana thinks Ros part of howthe Book got out. Said Kayleigh told her theyd created a backup mini-Haven that Ro knew nothing about, with a leader that didnt even live at the abbey. Name was Tessie or Tellie or something funny like that. Case something happened to the Haven members that lived at the abbey.
My head was spinning. Theyd been keeping me completely out of the loop. If Id postponed celebrating Danis birthday, I never would have learned any of this. Here was the mysterious Tellie that Barrons and my father had both mentioned! Shed been leader of a secret Haven. Shed helped my mother escape. I needed to find her. Have you located Tellie yet? Id overheard Barrons saying. No? Get more people on it. It seemed Barrons had once again beat me to the punch and had his men out hunting for her already. Why? How did he know about the woman? What had he learned that he hadnt told me? And?
Said your mwell, supposedly you aint human, so I guess she aint your momIsla got out alive. Nana O saw her leaving that night. Aint never gonna guess with who!
I didnt even trust myself to speak. Rowena. And the old bitch had probably killed her. Whether she was my mom or not, I still felt tied to her, protective of her.
Aw, cmon, you gotta guess! She was getting blurry around the edges with excitement.
Rowena, I said flatly.
Guess again, she said. This ones gonna fry your mind. Nana never woulda known, cept you stopped by with him. Well, she dont call him a him, she calls him an it.
I stared at her. Who? I demanded.
Saw Isla getting in a car with something she calls the Damned. Dude that drove off twenty-some years ago with the only survivor of the abbeys Haven was Barrons.
I was so wound up after everything Dani told me that there was no way I was going to be able to do something as lethargic as curl on a sofa and watch a movie. Plus, I had so much sugar running through my system I was nearly vibrating like Dani.
After she dropped the Barrons bomb, she hit play and began cracking up again. The kid is resilient.
I sat and stared at the screen, not seeing a thing.
Why would Barrons keep from me that hed been at the abbey when the Book escaped twenty-odd years ago? Why hide from me that hed known Isla OConnor, my sisters mother? I could relinquish a mother Id never had, but I couldnt give up my sister. Whether she was mine or not, that was how I was thinking of her, period. The end.
I remembered coming down the back stairs, catching him talking to Ryodan on the phone, hearing him say, After what I learned about her the other night. Had he been referring to the night wed gone to the cottage? Had he been as surprised as I was to hear Nana tell me the woman hed left the abbey with two decades ago had supposedly been my mother?
Says the whole gigs got bout twenty percent chance o working, and, if it dont, the second prophecy has about two percent odds.
Who writes prophecies with such sucky odds? I said irritably.
She cracked up. DudeI said the same thing!
Why didnt they tell me? They made it sound like I was virtually insignificant. Id liked it that way. I had enough problems to deal with.
Dani shrugged. Whole thing about Ro never telling us we might be an Unseelie castesaid if you knew, it might be like a self-fulfilling prophecy. I say you gotta know whatcha are, know? Look in the mirror, eyes gotta meet eyes or quit looking.
What else? I demanded. Was there more?
Theres like this whole other sub-prophecy. Says if the two from the ancient bloodlines are killed, thingsll play out different and the odds of successll be higher. Younger theyre killed, the better.
A chill slid up my spine. That was brutal and to the point. Who would go how far to skew the odds more strongly in favor of the human race? I was surprised we hadnt been killed at birth. Assuming Id had one.
So I was thinking thats prolly why you and Alina got gave up. Somebody didnt wanna kill you guys as little kids, so they sent you away.
Of course. And wed been forbidden to return. But Alina had wanted to go to Dublin to study abroad, and Daddy had never been able to deny us anything.
One decision, one tiny decision, and the world as we knew it began to fall apart.
What else? I pressed.
Jo said they been talking to Nana O behind Ros back. Said the old woman was at the abbey the night the Book got out. Saw things. Sidhe-seers ripped to pieces, hacked apart. Said they only found little pieces of some. Others, they never found.
Nana was there when the Book got out? She hadnt mentioned a word of it the night Kat and I had talked to her at her cottage by the sea. Short of calling me Alina, telling us that her granddaughter, Kayleigh, had been Islas best friend and fellow Haven member, and that shed felt dark stirrings in the soil, shed told us little else.
Dani shook her head. Showed up after. Said her bones told her her daughters immortal soul was in peril.
You mean her granddaughter, Kayleigh.
I mean her daughter. Danis eyes sparkled. Ro.
My mouth shaped a silent O. Rowena is Nanas daughter? I finally managed. Rowena was Kayleighs mother? How much more had Nana OReilly neglected to tell me?
Old woman despises her. Wont claim her. Kat and Jo searched Nanas cottage while she slept and found thingspictures and baby books and stuff. Nana thinks Ros part of howthe Book got out. Said Kayleigh told her theyd created a backup mini-Haven that Ro knew nothing about, with a leader that didnt even live at the abbey. Name was Tessie or Tellie or something funny like that. Case something happened to the Haven members that lived at the abbey.
My head was spinning. Theyd been keeping me completely out of the loop. If Id postponed celebrating Danis birthday, I never would have learned any of this. Here was the mysterious Tellie that Barrons and my father had both mentioned! Shed been leader of a secret Haven. Shed helped my mother escape. I needed to find her. Have you located Tellie yet? Id overheard Barrons saying. No? Get more people on it. It seemed Barrons had once again beat me to the punch and had his men out hunting for her already. Why? How did he know about the woman? What had he learned that he hadnt told me? And?
Said your mwell, supposedly you aint human, so I guess she aint your momIsla got out alive. Nana O saw her leaving that night. Aint never gonna guess with who!
I didnt even trust myself to speak. Rowena. And the old bitch had probably killed her. Whether she was my mom or not, I still felt tied to her, protective of her.
Aw, cmon, you gotta guess! She was getting blurry around the edges with excitement.
Rowena, I said flatly.
Guess again, she said. This ones gonna fry your mind. Nana never woulda known, cept you stopped by with him. Well, she dont call him a him, she calls him an it.
I stared at her. Who? I demanded.
Saw Isla getting in a car with something she calls the Damned. Dude that drove off twenty-some years ago with the only survivor of the abbeys Haven was Barrons.
I was so wound up after everything Dani told me that there was no way I was going to be able to do something as lethargic as curl on a sofa and watch a movie. Plus, I had so much sugar running through my system I was nearly vibrating like Dani.
After she dropped the Barrons bomb, she hit play and began cracking up again. The kid is resilient.
I sat and stared at the screen, not seeing a thing.
Why would Barrons keep from me that hed been at the abbey when the Book escaped twenty-odd years ago? Why hide from me that hed known Isla OConnor, my sisters mother? I could relinquish a mother Id never had, but I couldnt give up my sister. Whether she was mine or not, that was how I was thinking of her, period. The end.
I remembered coming down the back stairs, catching him talking to Ryodan on the phone, hearing him say, After what I learned about her the other night. Had he been referring to the night wed gone to the cottage? Had he been as surprised as I was to hear Nana tell me the woman hed left the abbey with two decades ago had supposedly been my mother?
