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Chapter 56
Eliza was crying, apologizing, making excuses. “I’m sorry,” she said, wiping at her nose with the back of her hand. They were sitting at a table in a small storage room just outside the conference room. He had told the rest of the team they could debrief without them, and Elliott was going over things with them now. Aaron was doing his best to stay calm while she tried to catch her breath. As angry as he was that she’d almost caused a disaster during the hunt at the zoo, the important thing was that she learned a lesson from all of this.
Her breath catching in her throat so that she could hardly get the words out, Eliza stuttered, “I just… you said we were team one.” She plucked a tissue out of a box near her elbow and blew her nose.
After giving her a moment to attempt to settle down, he took a deep breath. “No, I did not say you were team one,” Aaron insisted. “I said you were team two.”
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Killarney, Ireland, 1837Voices from beneath the loft, off in the corner by the hearth, awoke him, and Aaron stilled himself to see if he could tell exactly what his mother and granddad were talking about. They were whispering, but in his eight years, he’d become an excellent eavesdropper. Though his older sisters and brother snored next to him on the mat they shared, he was closest to the ladder, and so he could easily lean just a bit over the edge, and with some concentration, make out what the hushed voices were saying.“That makes half a dozen this week,” his mother, Bree, was saying as she leaned in next to the elderly man who sat in a rickety chair next to her. Her hair was a dark auburn, curly, and unkempt. Though she was only in her late thirties, she looked tired. Her face was gaunt, and her shoulders stooped, even when she wasn’t leaning forward as she was now. Birthing six children and taking care of the four that survived pa
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Killarney, Ireland, 1840Kian O'Braonain was the best friend anyone in the world could ever have. He could run as fast as lightening, climb like a cat, and hit a bird with a stone from twenty yards. While Aaron seldom had a chance to play with his friend now that he was older and had more responsibility, his Ma usually didn’t mind if he walked home with Kian after mass, and the boys would spend several hours running around the base of Torc Mountain, tossing stones in the lake, or running through the village scaring the chickens and the cows.Today was a bit different. Last night, there had been several taken from various homes around Killarney, and though the village was rather large as such towns went, the numbers were starting to dwindle. Not only were people being taken in the night by the Dark Ones, rumor had it that some of those who had been claimed were members of the Order, ones that were supposed to be left alone according to the agreement. Aaro
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Over the next several days, the Dark Ones went on a spree that left many homes missing loved ones, a few of whom would return in nights to come to other homes nearby to make their own claims. And as each day went by, Aaron became more and more concerned, not just about the welfare of his own family and Kian’s but of Aislyn’s as well.One afternoon, while working next to his granddad to clean the potatoes they’d just gathered, he decided to broach the one topic he was forbidden to discuss. At this point, it seemed like it just might be a matter of life or death.“Granddad, can I ask you a question?” he asked as he brushed the sod from the brown vegetable.“I think you just did,” his granddad replied, smiling at him through several missing teeth.Aaron laughed only slightly at his grandfather’s attempt at humor. His heart was heavy. “I mean, I’d like to ask you a question, though I’m afraid y
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