The Raven Queen Read Online Free PDF Page B

half-open door and they managed to slam it shut as the three boys collided with it. Danny kept the door handle up as one of them tried to force it down from the other side, while the other two, probably Sean and Paul, beat on the wood with their fists and feet, howling to be let in. The metal of the handle began to bite into Danny’shand as it slowly moved down – Ronan must have been hanging off it on the other side, using all his body weight to try to force it down. Maddy put her palms flat against the door and leaned against it to give Danny a hand when she heard Uncle Jack shout, ‘If you break another door in this house, you won’t see daylight for a month!’
    The three monsters gave a shriek and ran back to the big bedroom. Maddy heard their door slam and their muffled giggles and snorts. She turned and leaned her back against the door and gave a sigh of relief. Roisin was sitting on her bed, a book on her lap. She sighed and shook her head.
    â€˜I can’t wait until I can move out and get a bit of peace.’
    The box room would have been small with just Roisin’s single bed and her chest of drawers squeezed into it, the wardrobe hulking by the window and blocking some of the light, but with a mattress laid on the floor for Maddy to sleep on and her stuff spilling out of three rucksacks, there literally wasn’t room to stand. To get to their clothes, the girls had to walk on Maddy’s bed. Maddy and Roisin were good friends, even now, but Maddy missed her own room at Granny and Granda’s, even if it did have wedding-paper wallpaper.
    Danny flung himself on the mattress while Maddy sank down next to Roisin.
    â€˜So you’ve seen the news then?’ asked Roisin.
    Maddy nodded. ‘Is it definitely Nero?’
    â€˜If it’s not, it’s doing a very good impression of him,’ said Danny.
    â€˜There have been a few pictures taken, not just the one shown on the TV,’ said Roisin. ‘They’re all over the Internet. People are posting comments on Facebook and Twitter from experts saying it’s a wolf.’
    Maddy snorted. ‘Everyone’s an expert online.’
    â€˜Yes,’ said Roisin. ‘But it’s Nero. Things must be bad if he’s here.’
    The wolves of Tír na nÓg were frightened of the mortal world, having been hunted almost to extinction when they last lived in it. Only pure desperation would drive one of them across the border between Tír na nÓg and the mortal world.
    â€˜Well, things are about to get worse,’ said Maddy. She took a deep breath. ‘The dullahan breached the border and appeared to me outside Great-Aunt Kitty’s home. He said my name.’
    Danny and Roisin looked at each other, puzzled. ‘So?’ said Danny.
    â€˜So Una told me that the dullahan is the soul collector. He only speaks your name when yours is the next soul he’s coming for.’
    Danny’s jaw dropped and Roisin went white, makingher ginger freckles stand out. ‘You’re dying?’ she asked.
    â€˜No, I’m perfectly healthy,’ said Maddy. ‘It means that someone wants me dead.’
    â€˜Liadan,’ said Danny and Roisin at the same time. Maddy nodded miserably.
    â€˜But she can’t do that!’ said Roisin. ‘You’re a subject of the Autumn Court. She can’t attack someone else’s subject without … without …’
    â€˜â€¦ Declaring war on the court.’ Danny said the words his sister could not.
    They all looked at each other in silence. War. They had faced the abyss once before, had clung to its edge and peered into its darkness, but both worlds had been pulled back from the brink just in time. But Liadan’s move had sent Maddy tumbling into its maw, and as she fell she dragged the Winter and Autumn Courts with her. No doubt the Spring and Summer Courts would rush to join the bloodshed, their monarchs eager for a fight. She