The Raven Queen Read Online Free PDF Page A

Maddy.
    Aunt Fionnula shook her head, her eyes never leaving Maddy’s. ‘No, after dinner.’
    â€˜What has that got to do with me?’
    â€˜He is insisting on coming over, for no good reason,’ said Aunt Fionnula. That would annoy Uncle Jack. He was always nervous around his father-in-law and he hated having him in the house.
    â€˜Why does that have anything do with me?’
    Aunt Fionnula thrust her face so close to Maddy’s that she could see a smear of lipstick on a yellowed front tooth as Aunt Fionnula bit her words out. ‘It
always
has something to do with you.’
    â€˜He wants to talk to you.’ Uncle Jack loomed over them both, his big belly straining the buttons on his shirt. He was holding the phone out to Maddy. She took it with trembling fingers.
    â€˜Hello?’
    â€˜Una told me what happened,’ said Granda. His voice sounded angry and scared at the same time. ‘She also told me you asked her to keep it secret from me.’
    â€˜Not forever,’ said Maddy. ‘Just until—’
    â€˜Just until you had time to do something stupid?’
    Maddy bit her lip as Aunt Fionnula flounced off to the kitchen and Uncle Jack ambled his way to the living room opposite her, a newspaper tucked under one arm.
    â€˜I’m not stupid,’ she said in a low voice, tears pricking at her eyes.
    Granda sighed. ‘I never said you were, Maddy. But you can’t sort everything out on your own. People get … hurt, if we are not careful.’
    Maddy closed her eyes. Bang Bang. She thought of his grave, high up on a hill, surrounded by lush green fields. She thought of Fionn and her silvery green fingers falling into the snow.
    â€˜Granda …’
    â€˜Pack your things. I am moving you tonight.’
    â€˜Where?’
    â€˜Somewhere you can be surrounded by iron,’ said Granda.
    â€˜What will Granny say if I am not living here?’
    â€˜Let me worry about that. Just get your things ready.’
    She heard a click and the hum of the dialling tone as Granda hung up on her. She sighed and put the phone down on the glass top of the hall table. The glazed door to the living room creaked open and her cousin Danny popped his head around the frame. He looked pale and tense.
    â€˜We’ve got a problem,’ he whispered, and he jerked his head toward the TV.
    Really?
thought Maddy.
Let’s just add it to the list
.
    But she said nothing and simply slipped into theroom, where she perched awkwardly on the arm of the sofa. It was a long and narrow room, lined with an overstuffed sofa and equally corpulent armchairs, all shoved tight against the walls in a vain attempt to create an illusion of space. It might have worked, had Aunt Fionnula not been so fond of patterns. They were everywhere, from the swirling carpet to the floral sofa to the stripes and borders and polka dots on the wall. The only plain things in the room were the burgundy-coloured velvet curtains that hung in dusty swags from the small window. A mahogany-veneer display cabinet groaned with china figurines and framed photos. When it was switched off, the television was the simplest thing in the room and ironically the most peaceful place for Maddy to rest her eyes. The flat screen was too narrow for Aunt Fionnula to balance ornaments or dried flower displays on.
    The local news programme was playing and Maddy came in just in time to see a familiar face flash up on-screen. She felt the blood drain from her cheeks and flicked a quick glance at Uncle Jack to see if he had noticed her reaction, but he had his newspaper held firmly in front of his face so he could ignore his son and inconvenient niece and read undisturbed. Dimly, Maddy became aware of what the newsreader was saying.
    â€˜Canine experts from Fota Wildlife Park have beencalled in to help the local Gardaí search for what some witnesses have claimed is a wolf running loose in the grounds of Blarney Castle,’