Chapter 9
ALLARA
I had been seven years old when Reid came to our town.
My dad had leaned down and scooped me up to sit on his shoulders. My mom walked alongside him, explaining something to him in low, urgent tones.
They’d found Reid on the steps of the meeting house, early in the morning.
He was a scruffy, skinny foundling, roughly eight or nine years of age. His hair was a dark, chestnut brown color, and his eyes were a clear gray.
Even though I’d been young, I remembered his eyes the best of all. They had been wide, and full of fear.
At first, he had glared daggers at everyone who dared to come near him. He seemed half-feral; a little cub dropped into the den by who-knew-who.
He wouldn’t talk at all for the first few days, although he’d eaten everything put before him with a ra
