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After twenty long minutes behind a cranky row of tour buses, Ian threw his hands up "How about I park, and you guys get out and do your thing?"

"Don’t you want to see the castle?" I asked, craning ive off the i both imperious and decrepit, a spindly old lady in a crown

Ian stuck his head out the"Seen it"

Rowan laughed "All right, Ian Take the wheel" Rowan and I both jumped out, and Ian slid into the driver’s seat

"Watch out for roundabouts," I said

"Ha ha, very funny I’ll probably have et back" He lowered his voice, addressing ether, following signs that explained the Blarney Stone’s location at the tip-top of the castle We crastaircases

I started up first, and I ot to the top, I had to wait several e When he finally popped out of the staircase, he was breathing heavily, a light sheen of sweat on his forehead

"It wasn’t a race, Maeve," he said, throwing his arthis suuish the pride in my voice I’d missed only torkout days the entire sue scouts

"Just to be clear, you know you just ran up a hundred flights of stairs to wait in line to kiss a hts of stairs to kiss athe chance to try out so At the front of the line, a Blarney employee carefully lowered a wo into the hole "Look howupside down"

"A bit of a thrill seeker, eh?" Rowan said, his gray eyes shining

"One hundred percent" My brothers called ative But it was the truth Heights, roller coasters, the bigger the better

Rowan gri less fro to say is that there is no ‘we’ in this enterprise Myanywhere near the Blarney Stone"

"Why? Is it a height thing?" I stood on my tiptoes to see over the wall Besides the Cliffs of Moher, the top of Blarney offered the best panoramic view I’d had so far Down beloas an ocean of subtly shifting green, people scattered like colorful confetti It even gave me the same sensation as the cliffs--I felt free, disconnected fro for h he could see over the ledge just fine "Heights aren’t the problelasses up "Look, I’m sorry to be the one to tell you this, but locals really mess with Blarney Stone They pee on it, spit on it, all kinds of stuff Trust er at hi over the top of the castle "Do you need errew up sharing a bathroo afraid of pee is not an option"

Rowan’s eyebrows shot up a him And besides, it was cootten so fed up with the situation that I’d drawn a bunch of arrows plus the words IN HERE on the toilet seat in perhed for a solid hour