Page 29 (1/2)

"About Peadar, and about this preoccupation you have with E a seat at the table with the best view of the front door She motioned for me to join her, and I sat across froh He isn’t what he appears to be"

"And what if I told you that I already knew that?"

Her head tilted back slightly and her eyes widened as she took in my words "You know?"

I knew Emmet was not human, even if I wasn’t sure what she believed hi it up against the years Claire had been keeping secrets from Peter and me "But I don’t understand why you think I should be afraid of hirasping my hand in hers "Because he’ll try to take your son"

"Don’t be ridiculous"

"Mercy, hear me I knew the first time I saw Emmet that he spelled trouble I should have come to you then, but I had hoped to deal with the situation ht I’d found someone who could help me Someone who could convince Emmet to take off and leave our family alone When they found Peadar’s body, I knew I couldn’t keep it froer I had to share the truth with you, for the baby’s sake I don’t understand why his people need our children, but they find you when you are hopeless They come to you when you are too desperate to tell them no They come with their deals and their promises and their lies"

I pulled e for your son?" I, of course, had no idea who they even were, but now that Claire was finally sharing her secrets, I wasn’t going to say anything that ht stop her

She was taken aback by rew ashen, and she leaned forward suddenly, almost as if she were about to pass out "They proed whisper, "that he would live" She raised her eyes toBlood cancer The doctors could do nothing for him Only their kindness forced the hi here for us"

"She?"

"I have no name for her Never laid eyes on her before and never laid eyes on her or her kind since, until this Emmet She was such a beauty A beauty so perfect I found it iht we’d left her kind back in the old country, but it looks like they followed us here too She said it was our h Meall When she spoke, her words had such power over us" Claire paused "Or maybe it was only the hope they offered that affected Colin and me so She promised us that our boy would live He would know a life of love and luxury Her people would raise hiether over her sad sain before we died It never occurred to us that they would send him back to us a shriveled-up old an to shake, and I reached out to her "I don’t knohy they would have done that to hi h she couldn’t really think I had one to give But I did, and I could not let her go on thinking her son had been murdered in cold blood

"They didn’t," I said, the weight ofmy fear of confession

"But how could you know that? How could you knohat his lastas they ripped his heart from hiot up, and then knelt before her "You know that my family is different, that I am different"

Her expression turned wary as she looked down at me "If by that you mean you are a truckload of witches, yes, I’ve always known I’ve got a bit of the sight myself"

"Peadar, your son, he didn’t die alone," I said, reaching up to smooth her hair "And no one murdered him"