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"I’m not sure you should be trusted with a knife"

"Co but knives So if I were looking for weapons, this is the last place I’d coht, Mateo wasn’t sure that was the ideal argu it

She didn’t know the whole truth about Captive’s Sound Mateo was pretty sure she had no clue that witchcraft even existed Still, she believed in the fah for her to know that the supernatural was very, very real Slowly she shook her head no, then called for the butler to find the knife

He noticed that she was leaning ers trembled on the handle Tentatively Mateo took hold of her elbow "Hey Do you want to sit down?"

"Don’t touch me," she snapped

"Okay, then" He stuffed his hands back into the pockets of his letter jacket, took a couple of steps back

When Grandain, however, her words were soft for once "You meant to help I realize that But you’re cursed, Mateo I swore after what your grandfather did to ain be touched by that curse if I could possibly avoid it"

Which hy she’d frozen out his ed Mateo’s existence once a year for his whole life

But now that Mateo stood this close, he could see the other side of his grandmother’s face despite her attempt to keep it turned toward the shadows The welts had never healed, not after decades It looked as though claws had raked across her skin, twisting cheek and eyebrow and jaw into mockeries of themselves

Elizabeth had made her suffer, too

Quietly he said, "None of us chose this, you know"

For one ht at hie--and he saw just how lonely she was They both suffered the same isolation because of the curse; they bothset apart from the world Was that only pity in her eyes, or did she maybe, finally understand him a little?

But Grandh to randfather and bear hiain"

When she pulled farther back, Mateo let her go

The butler reappeared with soe and flat wrapped in a sueded cloth; the heft of it surprised Mateo as he took it When he flipped back one corner of the fabric, he saw a long, silver knife--h the pattern was almost hidden in the blackness, he could tell it was the sa it to me"

"There is no need to return it in person," Grandma said "If you must come here, try to send advance word"

She still feared hi for the door "Right Got it By the way, uy polish the silver sometime What else does he do all day?"