Autumn Rose by Abigail Gibbs

Author:Abigail Gibbs [Gibbs, Abigail]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Literature & Fiction, Romance, Paranormal, Fantasy
ISBN: 978006224863
Amazon: B009A8RHV8
Publisher: Harper Voyager
Published: 2014-01-29T16:00:00+00:00

UNCORRECTED E-PROOF—NOT FOR SALE

HarperCollins Publishers

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CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Autumn

Things changed after that day.

I remained at Burrator until my parents returned on Thursday. By that time the security around my house had been set up, and it was Edmund who braved the sit-down with my parents to explain why there was a shield around our plot of land that would detect any “unauthorized” person, and why several members of the Athan Cu’die—who usually only concerned themselves with the Athenea and their nearest and dearest—were a matter of minutes away if we needed them. My mother had put up quite a fuss, and I admired Edmund for daring to say that had he had his way, the security would have been more intrusive. If my father had recognized this hulking giant of a man, or his family name, he never mentioned it.

I quickly fell into a comfortable pattern. During the week, I would stay with Fallon. Thursday I would return home for “family” time. By the time the weekend came around, I was back at Burrator again. It meant I missed work, but it was becoming unbearable, and in any case, my father had started slipping me money when my mother was out. I didn’t need it for the bus, because I was getting regular lifts with Fallon and Edmund, and so one Thursday I flew straight into town and bought a new pair of school shoes. They weren’t what I would usually buy: they were lace-up and had a kitten heel, and in them I felt less short. I paraded up and down the length of my room, practicing walking in them, adjusting the laces, trying them on with different outfits because they were almost too nice for school. I was torn up by nerves the first time I wore them at Kable, though I had worn plenty of heels with court dresses when I was younger. Fallon liked them.

Kable even got used to the presence of Edmund and Richard. The initial interest Gwen and others had shown in them had been transformed into hallowed awe, and Valerie was on her best behavior and never so much as whispered a single word against me or Fallon. Not in front of us, anyway.

Violet Lee, for the first time since the beginning of August, disappeared off the six-o’clock news. She didn’t make the front cover of the papers. Even the early October edition of Quaintrelle was thin on vamperic gossip. With her absence came a lull in my visions, which I was grateful for.

It took me two weeks to realize what was happening. Quite suddenly, I noticed I was able to stomach two meals a day rather than one. Eight hours of sleep a night was more than enough, and I found I didn’t need seven nights’ worth each week; one night I even managed to stay up with Fallon and Alfie in a movie marathon. I was as energetic the next day as I was on any other. It was like I was catching up with the world, which previously had been stuck on fast-forward.

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