Just to clarify!
Talking
Thinking
Speaker voice
Book Quotes
also I don't own this!!
Dan's POV
"I will!" Sinead volunteered.
"Excellent. Please sit-"
"Sit!? On the dirty floor! I will have you know that this outfit is Gucci! I will not-" Natalie began before the women on the speaker cut her off.
"OR stand, if there so inclined."
I shrugged and plopped on the floor, Amy and Nellie right behind me. Eventually, everyone sat (Natalie whining the entire time).
Clearing her voice, the female triplet began to read.
No one's POV
"The Maze of Bones"
"Five minutes before she died, Grace Cahill changed her will."
Amy inhaled sharply thought her nose. Did they really have to start at this part?
don't get her wrong, Amy would love to hear what, from the sound of it, was graces last moments on earth.
She didn't want to hear them in a room filled with strangers and her murderous family.
She turned to Dan, and by the look one his face, he agreed.
"Her lawyer brought out the alternate version, which had been her most guarded secret for seven years.
Whether or not she would actually be crazy enough to use it, William Mclntyre had never been certain."
"Hold on, Mclntyre? Wasn't he the dude who read her will at the funeral?" Exclaimed Jonah.
His father, looking slightly out of place without his blackberry, shushed his son.
"Yes Jonah, because he's her executor-" Ian began snootily when Hamilton interrupted him.
"executioner? HE KILLED HER!?"
"No, executor, he overlooks her will." Amy corrected gently.
Dan shot her a surprised look, as did Hamilton. Apparently, he hadn't expected her to speak.
Ian was look to, though Amy was trying very hard to ignore that, sitting up a bit in mock confidence.
fake it til ya make it!!
"Oh, thanks." The holt acknowledge awkwardly.
"No problem."
"So you can talk-" Dan added, earning him a shoulder shove and a glare.
"Madam," he asked, "are you sure?"
"Sure about what? I'm sorry but we're still really confused over here." Said Jake, subtly pulling his little brother behind him.
"Yea, us too!" Came Gualt Pierce, though his mother pulled him back by the shoulders.
"All will be explained in the book! I assure you, each and every one of of you has a role to play in this."
the voice seemed slightly annoyed now, so Sinead kept reading.
"Grace gazed out the window, across the sunlit meadows of her estate. Her cat, Saladin, snuggled beside her as he had throughout her illness, but his presence was not enough to comfort her today.
She was about to set in motion events that might cause the end of civilization."
"Cheery." Ian crooned
"Yes, William." Her every breath was painful. "I'm sure."
Both Cahills winced, Nellie wrapping an arm around each and squeezing tight.
"William broke the seal on the brown leather folder.
He was a tall craggy man. His nose was pointed like a sundial so it always cast ashadow over one side of his face.
He had been Grace's adviser, her closest confidant, for half her life. They'd shared many secrets over the years, but none as perilous as this."
The Ekat paused, looking around at all the grime faces I front of her before going on.
"They're so young," William lamented. "If only their parents—"
"But their parents didn't," Grace said bitterly. "And now the children must be old enough. They are our only chance."
"If they don't succeed—"
"Then five hundred years of work have been for nothing," Grace said.
"Everything collapses. The family, the world — all of it."
Amy's eyes started to water. Why hadn't she told us, why hadn't our parents told us!
Dan's thoughts were much the same.
why had she kept us in the dark?
"Sorry to interrupt you, but are these 'children' here? Is the whole book about them?" Atticus piped up, pushing his glasses up his thin nose.
"That's us acutely. And I don't know?" Dan answered.
"Do you know what she's talking about?" Jake asked.
"N-no-"
"Lier! The old witch probably gave you special treatment or clues!" Ian spat.
"NO SHE DIDN'T! SHE DIDN'T GIVE US-" Amy had shot off the ground, in raged, her stutter forgotten.
The redhead paused, emotions crowding her face.
"She didn't give us anything. Don't talk about Grace that way." Amy towered over Ian at this point, glare cold and hands drawn in fists.
the usually quiet and shy girl was shaking, the tension only dropping as Nellie guided her back to her seat.
William nodded grimly. He took the folder from her hands.
Grace sat back, stroking Saladin's silver fur. The scene outside the window made her sad.
It was too gorgeous a day to die. She wanted to have one last picnic with the children.
She wanted to be young and strong and travel the world again.
"Didn't know you had that in you." Dan whispered to his sister.
"Honestly, neither did I. I just got so mad!" The bookworm murmured back, squeezing her fists once again.
"Well, do that more often, put the 'British Git' in his place!"
But her eyesight was failing. Her lungs labored. She clutched her jade necklace —
Amy clutched that same necklace sadly, thumb rubbing over the carved dragon.
a good-luck talisman she'd found in China years ago.
It had seen her through many close calls with death, many lucky misses. But the talisman couldn't help her anymore.
She'd worked hard to prepare for this day.
Still, there was so much she'd left undone … so much she had never told the children.
"Yea, we noticed." Dan grumbled.
It will have to be enough," she whispered. And with that, Grace Cahill closed her eyes for the last time.
"Jesus Christ, how are you okay with this?" Jake asked incredulously.
"What do you mean?" Dan and Amy asked at the same time.
"We're literally ease dropping on your grandma's last moments, seems like something you wouldn't be okay with."
"Well w-what else are we g-going to do? They could k-kill us if we d-don't read!" Amy argued.
"Yea! That's like kidnapping 101." Dan agreed.
When he was sure Grace had passed away, William Mclntyre went to the window and closed the curtains. William preferred darkness. It seemed more proper for the business at hand.
The door opened behind him. Grace's cat hissed and disappeared under the bed.
William didn't look back.
He was staring at Grace Cahill's signature on her new will, which had just become the most important document in the Cahill family's history.
"In the history of the family, that shit sound serious, yo." Came Jonah's 'gangster' voice.
"Well?" a brusque voice said. William turned.
A man stood in the doorway, his face obscured by shadows, his suit as black as oil.
Amy looked sick, Dan's eyes narrowed and Nellie looked grim.
"The m-man in black w-was there?!"
"Do you think," Dan leaned into his sister slightly, voice barely above a whisper. "That he might have had something to do with her death?"
Amy stared at him sharply. "She died of cancer Dan-"
"And she could have died at any time, what if he poisoned her or something?!"
" In front of mister McIntyre?" His sister shot back.
"Maybe he did it before McIntyre got there? Or maybe He's in on it!" Dan rambled.
"He wouldn't! The book just said, he was her most trusted confidant for half her life! That's got to mean something!"
"In this family? I don't think so Ames. Something's fishy about the whole thing." Dan finished with a shake of his head.
Amy brought her voice to an even softer whisper.
"We can talk about it later, after this chapter." Then nodded to Sinead to continue.
"It's time," William said. "Make sure they suspect nothing."
William couldn't tell for sure, but he thought the man in black smiled .
"Don't worry," the man promised. "They'll never have a clue."
"That's the end of the chapter! Who's next?" Sinead asked, dog earring the page (much to Alastair's horror) and holding out the book.
"Hold on, shouldn't we like take a minute? Discuss what just happened?" Cara interrupted from across the way.
We all stared at her. "What do you mean?" Natalie questioned.
"Well,-" Cara sat up a bit straighter. "There are a couple of us who have no idea why we're here are or who the hell you people are."
She indicated the Rosenblooms and herself.
"And I think I speak for all of us when say that it would be nice to have a little more information!
that way we can figure out why we're here."
"A trade of information?" Ian asked, sly grin sliding into place.
Cara met his eyes with a glare, "Exactly."
"Splendid, you go first!" Prompted what looked to be Ian's mother.
"That doesn't make any sense. How am I supposed to remember information about you all or this book if I don'tknow what's going on!" Cara argued.
"And you promised to share any and all information you have should we talk first?" The women asked, perfectly trimmed eyebrow raised.
"Yes, of course." The blonde agreed.
"We are the Cahills, a family that had impacted the history of mankind more in the last five hundred years then any other throughout all of time."
Both groups of strangers burst with questions.
"Bullshit!-"
"What do you mean 'all of mankind'?!
"What's that have to do with us?"
"ENOUGH CHITCHAT! There will be a break at the end of the next two chapters. I'm sure most of your questions will be answered by then."
the voice paused for a moment.
"There will be no need for information barging with Isabel Kabra until then-"
said Kabra glared, fists balled.
" Please continue reading."
Done, sorry it took forever.
no bet reader, we die like Irina!
Bye!!