Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children - BOOCarz

nowhere. “Alma? Is that you?”
Miss Peregrine kneaded the old woman’s bony
hands. “Esmerelda, you’ve come a long way to see us
in the dead of night. I’m afraid you’ve got us all terribly
worked up.”
“Have I?” Miss Avocet squinted and furrowed her
brow, and her eyes seemed to fix on the opposite
wall, alive with flickering shadows. Then a haunted
expression stole across her face. “Yes,” she said,
“I’ve come to warn you, Alma. You must be on your
guard. You mustn’t allow yourselves to be taken by
surprise, as I was.”
Miss Peregrine stopped kneading. “By what?”
“They could only have been wights. A pair of them
came in the night, disguised as council members.
There are no male council members, of course, but it
fooled my sleep-dazed wards just long enough for the
wights to bind them and drag them away.”
Miss Peregrine gasped. “Oh, Esmerelda …”
“Miss Bunting and I were awoken by their
anguished cries,” she explained, “but we found
ourselves barricaded inside the house. It took some
time to force the doors, but when we did and followed
the wights’ stink out of the loop, there was a gang of
shadow-beasts lying in wait on the other side. They
fell upon us, howling.” She stopped, choking back
tears.
“And the children?”
Miss Avocet shook her head. All the light seemed
to have gone out of her eyes. “The children were
merely bait,” she said.
Emma slid her hand into mine and squeezed, and I
saw Miss Peregrine’s cheeks glisten in the firelight.
“It was Miss Bunting and myself whom they wanted.
I was able to escape, but Miss Bunting was not so
fortunate.”
“She was killed?”