The Rabbit and the Raven: Book Two in the Solas Beir Trilogy Read Online Free PDF Page B

scanning the room for any sign that something might be waiting to ambush them.
    Jon pointed at the moonlit circle of broken glass. “So, what happened here?”
    Cael was studying the shattered dome. Jon saw his knuckles turn white as his grip on his sword tightened. It wasn’t a reassuring response. “They’ve come through,” Cael said. “Tierney is already here.”
    Jon felt his face drain of blood. The reality of it, of facing something far worse than the shadow monsters they had already encountered, chilled him. Primal terror was close, the kind you feel when you are small and afraid of the dark, knowing something bad is there but feeling too afraid to find out what. It threatened to paralyze him, and he forcefully pushed it aside. He had to get home to his mom. David was right . Focus on one thing at a time, on getting home.
     
     
     
    Michal was annoyed. She stared at the trees, scowling, her hands on her hips. What’s the deal? Joe should have been back already. What is he, lost? Come on—those trees are thick, but not that thick. The grove was bushy, yes; covered with vines, yes; dark and creepy, oh yes. But the thicket was also small—you’d have to be an idiot to get lost in there.
    Maybe Joe was the one who was thick. She sighed, disgusted. Boys! She’d have to go in there. She thought about it. On second thought, maybe Joe isn’t an idiot . Maybe he had gone in there hoping to get away from the crowd, thinking she would catch on and join him. Well, if that was the case, he certainly didn’t communicate it very well. It wasn’t like she could read his mind. She stood up, brushing sand from her miniskirt, and began to walk toward the grove.
    “Michal?” Monroe called.
    Michal turned around. “What?”
    “Where are you going?” Monroe asked. She looked clueless, twirling one of her curls around her finger as she sat on the driftwood log. On the sand in front of her were sweeping cursive letters. She’d been writing her initials in the sand with her toes, killing time while they waited for Joe to come back.
    “I think Joe got lost. I’m going to see what’s taking him so long,” Michal responded, more irritated than before. She was annoyed at Joe for making her go after him into the dense, creepy grove, even if it was for some pathetic attempt at romance. And she was annoyed at Monroe for making her explain what should have been obvious. Not that she was surprised—with Monroe, that was par for the course.
    “I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Marisol warned.
    She looked scared, but that only irritated Michal more, as she remembered it was Marisol who had started this whole thing with her silly, superstitious, “I think we’re being watched,” bit. Her general feeling of annoyance was chiseled down to a fine, focused point of anger. It had actually been a fun night until Marisol wrecked it by being a psycho. Michal waved her hand dismissively, turned back toward the grove, and kept walking.
    She stepped into the trees, passing through a veil of vines, pushing them aside like a curtain. They fell back into place as she moved past them. Ahead, in the dark, was a large fallen tree. She climbed over it, lifting one leg and then the other, trying not to think about what kind of creepy-crawlies might be living on it. That would be the perfect end to the night , wouldn’t it? Something nasty with too many legs crawling over her bare skin. Her hand brushed into a spider web stretching from the log to an overhanging bush, and she squirmed, holding in a scream while flapping her hand around in a futile attempt to shake off the web. This was so not okay. Joe was probably close by, enjoying this little show. If he was, he was a dead man.
     
     
     
    The second worst thing Abby, David, Jon, and Cael encountered on the walk home was the Buchans’ SUV, upside down on the grounds of the ruined mansion, one wheel spinning as though something had been sitting on it and had just jumped off. There