Rosemary and Rue

Table of Contents

Title Page

Copyright Page

Dedication

Acknowledgements

ONE - December 23, 2009: fourteen years, six months later

TWO

THREE

FOUR

FIVE

SIX

SEVEN

EIGHT

NINE

TEN

ELEVEN

TWELVE

THIRTEEN

FOURTEEN

FIFTEEN

SIXTEEN

SEVENTEEN

EIGHTEEN

NINETEEN

TWENTY

TWENTY-ONE

TWENTY-TWO

TWENTY-THREE

TWENTY-FOUR

TWENTY-FIVE

TWENTY-SIX

TWENTY-SEVEN

Teaser chapter

“Make sure they don’t win.”

‘‘October? October, are you there? October, this is Evening.” There was a long pause. I heard her take a wavering, unsteady breath. “Oh, root and branch . . . October, please pick up your phone. I need you to answer your phone right now.” It was like she thought she could order me to be home. There was no telling how much time had passed between messages, but it had been enough for the worry to stop hiding and come out to the surface of her voice, obvious and raw. The only other time I’d heard that much emotion in her voice was when her sister died. This wasn’t sorrow. This was sheer and simple terror.

“Please, please, October, pick up the phone, please, I’m running out of time . . .” The message cut off abruptly, but not abruptly enough to hide the sound of her crying.

“Oak and yarrow, Eve,” I whispered. “What did you get yourself into?”

I thought I wanted an answer. And I was wrong, because the last message answered me more completely than I could have dreamed.

The speakers crackled, once, before her voice began to speak for the final time.

“October Daye, I wish to hire you.” The fear was still there, but the command and power that was her nature shone clearly through it, brilliant and terrible. She was looking at the end of everything, and it was enough to remind her of who she really was. “By my word and at my command, you will investigate a murder, and you will force justice back into this kingdom. You will do this thing.” There was a long pause. I was starting to think the message had ended when she continued, softly, “Find out who did it, Toby, please. Make sure they don’t win. If you were ever my friend, Toby, please. . . ”

DAW Books Presents Seanan McGuire’s October Daye Novels:

ROSEMARY AND RUE A LOCAL HABITATION (Available March 2010) AN ARTIFICIAL NIGHT (Available September 2010)

Copyright © 2009 by Seanan McGuire.

DAW Book Collectors No. 1487.

DAW Books are distributed by Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

All characters and events in this book are fictitious.

Any resemblance to persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.

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