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"Everything happens for a reason," I said

I couldn’t believe those words had come out of my mouth, but as soon as they were spoken I felt the truth of the in me loud as a bell

I was here for a reason There was so I was meant not siive up the ht you didn’t believe in destiny," said E me skeptically

I didn’t--not exactly--but I wasn’t quite sure how to explain what I did believe, either I thought back to the stories randfather used to telldeeper ran through theratitude As a kid I’d focused on Grandpa Port island and peculiar children with fantastic powers, but at heart his stories were about Miss Peregrine, and how, in a tireat need, she had helped hi, frightened boy who didn’t speak the language, a boy hunted by two kinds of monsters: one that would eventually kill rotesque and invisible to all but hihtrine had hidden hiiven him a home, and helped him discover who he really was--she had saved his life, and in doing so had enabled my father’s life, and by extension, my own My parents had birthed and raised and loved me, and for that I owed them a debt But I would never have been born in the first place if not for the great and selfless kindness Miss Peregrine had shownto believe I had been sent here to repay that debt--randfather’s, too

I tried my best to explain "It’s not about destiny," I said, "but I do think there’s balance in the world, and sometimes forces we don’t understand intervene to tip the scales the right way Miss Peregrine saved randfather--and now I’m here to help save her"

Emma narrowed her eyes and nodded slowly I couldn’t tell if she was agreeing withof a polite way to tell ed me

I didn’t need to explain any further She understood

She owed Miss Peregrine her life, too

"We’ve got three days," I said "We’ll go to London, free one of the yrine It’s not hopeless We’ll save her, E" The words sounded so brave and resolute that for a moment I wondered if it was really , as if this struck her as funny somehow, and then she looked away for a ain her jaas set and her eyes shone; her old confidence was returning "Sometimes I can’t decide whether you’re coh I’ to think it’s the latter"

She put her ar moment, her head on my shoulder, breath war aps that existed between our bodies, to collapse into one being But then she pulled away and kissed my forehead and started back toward the others I was too dazed to follow right away, because there was so, a wheel insideso fast it ot, the faster it spun, like there was an invisible cord unreeling from it that stretched between us, and if she went too far it would snap--and kill e, sweet pain was love

The others were clustered together beneath the shade tree, children and aniether Emma and I strode toward them I had an i caught ht better of it I was suddenly aware--as Enoch turned to look at us with that certain suspicion he always reserved for ly, for both of us--that E a unit apart from the others, a private alliance with its own secrets and proht, Miss Eht in o to London at once, and see about ree," Enoch said with an eye roll "We cao, while you tere over there whispering"

Emma flushed, but she declined to take Enoch’s bait There were s to attend to now than petty conflicts--naers of the journey ere about to undertake "As I’m sure you’re all aware," Emma said, "this is by most standards a very poor plan with little hope of success" She laid out some of the reasons why London was far away--not by the standards of the present-day world, ht’ve GPSed our way to the nearest train station and caught an express that would’ve whisked us to the city center in a few hours In 1940, though, in a Britain convulsed by war, London was a world away: the roads and rails ees, or ruined by bombs, or monopolized by rine didn’t have to spare Worse, ould be hunted--and even more intensely than we had already been, now that nearly all the other yet the journey!" said Addison "That’s the least of your worries! Perhaps I was not sufficiently dissuasive e discussed this earlier Perhaps you do not fully understand the circumstances of the ymbrynes’ incarceration" He enunciated each syllable as if ere hard of hearing "Haven’t any of you read about the punishment loops in your peculiar history books?"

"Of course we have," said E to breach them is tantamount to suicide They’re death traps, every one of the the very bloodiest episodes froly lethal Viking Siege of 842; the pestilent height of the terrible Plague! They don’t publish temporal maps of these places, for obvious reasons So unless one of you has a working knowledge of the secretest parts of peculiardom …"