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"Yeah, well, you get fed poison, cut off from a bunch of spikes, and left for dead, see how you feel" The self-disgust on his tongue was so thick a bottle ofto like you so ot Alex killed? That you decided it was easier to pretend there was nothing the slightest bit weird going on with the Zone?" He wouldn’t be surprised if Ellie wanted dibs on the firing squad, and no, he was not overreacting These kids put down people
What bothered hiht he was past all that, the Night of the Hae, meaty thunks and Deidre’s screa that detective’s questions: No, sir, I didn’t hear anything No, I was asleep Hammer? No, sir, I haven’t seen a hammer anywhere I don’t think we even have one
"No, Detective, I love lass Just below the sill were stark coils of soh iron trellis "I’ht, and I’ve just listened to my dad kill soht sun of early afternoon, the double-panedfogged with his breath Through the patchy haze, he watched Ellie boost herself onto the saddle of a dingy browna vast bowl of glittering snow that, froarden plot Chris saw the old s disappeared and then gather the reins of a dun-colored saddlebred, which he led toward a weathered, dark gray stable just off the long frozen oval of a duck pond south of the house Switching to the south-facing , Chris tracked Isaac’s progress as the shadows of theand spider-thin, dashed away toward distant, wooded countryside Nestled a short distance to the right of the stable, a clutch of cows had gathered in a white corral around a feed station outside a red, high-pitched gable barn with a stone foundation Like the stable, the barn was decorated with several hex signs: half-stars in fake arches over the s that Hannah had called "Devil’s doors," as well as white rosettes With its east-to-west orientation, Chris could just old Wheel of Fortune beneath the peak at the gable end As he neared the barn, Isaac waved to another boy--not tall enough to be Jayden, soa barrow of soiled hay
Man, I would , Chris closed his eyes He wasn’t stupid, so as he acting that way? Forget how this would hurt Ellie in the long run What about the fact that he was only digging hiot out--and it would--they’d find it thateveryone’s been lying to me
The story was so incredible, he doubted anyone could make it up As much as he didn’t want to believe it, what Isaac said answered a lot of questions It even explained Peter’s reaction when Chris showed up in Rule One look at Chris, and Peter probably stalked into the Council to deer have admitted?
"Betcha not much," Chris said "You really think an old asshole like that is going to fess up to getting his business partner’s wife pregnant?"
Or that Chris’s grander and Jess’s daughter--Chris’s reed to take only one, who turned out to be Sie stink or got some money out of it Not that his father spent a dime more on Chris than he had to This was a ether; who always kept thejobs For safe keeping; hat his dad always said For college Right When you boozed as e you could scrape together
But how had Yeager decided so like that? Put him and Simon side by side and done eeny-meeny-miny-mo? Drawn straws?
Chris could count the number of tier on one hand But he now understood why all his er only happened once a year, and always in restaurants in other towns outside of Merton and nowhere close to Rule No way Yeager would risk anyone seeing hi, kid? Or risk hi eyes on each other
No wonder Dad always got roaring drunk afterward Every tier was just one more reminder of how he’d ended up stuck with--
The knock was perfunctory, a warning le of keys, the rattle of the knob, and then Hannah was hip-butting in on an aroun rode just below her right hip
"Lunch Better late than never," she said, by way of greeting "Got tied up with the la to deliver"
"What, no Jayden to make sure I don’t ju and checking traplines They won’t be back until they have soets to do so I could help out around here, you know"
"No, that won’t be necessary" Butting the door closed, she walked to the table where he’d laid his books "Do youhiot a sudden hankering for a chicken wing instead of beef stew?"
"No, you’re still talking; it’s venison; and I don’t insult easily" Her gray gaze was unflinching "I’er, and quite possibly a better shot than Isaac Now, are you going to help, or would you like me to leave this on the floor?"
Wordlessly, he swept the books into an untidy heap and duainst a brass bedpost, he crossed his arms and watched her lay out his food with efficient, economical movements It bothered him that he noticed how neatly that buckwheat mane wove into a smooth braid Or that she still smelled like honey and oat him her back, "there are some peaches put up last year, and I brewed you a cup of nettle tea It’s high in iron, and good for correcting any anemia"
"Yeah? Maybe I should have a taster first"