Just a reminder…as I mentioned in the beginning of the month, there will be no excerpts posted on Thanksgiving or the Friday after. Last excerpt goes up on Monday…

___________________

“It’s for the best, Brad,” Ana said, sighing as she settled down on the bed beside Brad, draping an arm around his shoulders.  She’d known the time was coming, but after the debacle with Neal a few weeks earlier, she’d finally admitted it to herself.

It was time to leave.  “Look…I don’t really belong here, anyway.  You know it as well as I do.”

“If you weren’t supposed to be here, they’d make you leave.  Just like they made Neal leave.”  He shrugged away from her embrace and climbed off the bed to pace the small room that had been her home for the past four years.  “I don’t want you to go.”

For once, he sounded more like a kid than the miniature adult that he’d been all of his life.

“I know you don’t,” she said softly.  “But…” her words trailed off and she looked away, licking her lips and trying to figure out how to explain.

She didn’t need to.  Even with her shields up, even with his own, her younger brother could read her.  His eyes narrowed on her face and reached out, grabbing her shoulder when she would have evaded.

That simple touch was all it took to deepen the connection and she winced as she saw the knowledge flare in his eyes.  It was followed quickly by hurt.  “You…you want to leave,” he whispered.  “You want to?”

Sometimes, being gifted just plain sucked.  “Brad…”

She reached out to touch him but he jerked away, staring at her.  Confused, unhappy, and hurt, he shook his head.  “Why?  Why don’t you want to be around me?”

“Oh, Brad.  Honey, it’s not you.  You are the only person that’s made it tolerable being here.”  This time, when he would have pulled back, she didn’t let him.  She linked their hands, taken aback by how much bigger his hands looked next to hers now.  Too quick—he was growing up too quick, most of his childhood lost to pain, misery and cruelty.  “I love you, you know that.  I’ve done the best I could to take care of you after Mom died.  If you needed me, you know nothing would get me away from you.  But you don’t need me, not any more.  I can’t teach you anything—as far as our gifts go, you left me in the dust ages ago.  I’m not putting a roof over your head, I’m not putting food in your belly—they are.”  She waved her hand towards the school and forced herself to smile.  “I’m not jealous, although I wish I could have done half as much for you as Excelsior has done.  But I’m useless here.  I’m nothing but dead weight and I can’t keep being like that.  I need to find something—”

___________________

Just a quick reminder on the contest:

• Runs through 12/1.
• Read the complete rules here.
• Comment @ my blog (Not via facebook, amazon, myspace, etc) to enter. Each comment gets you one entry. You can enter via blog comments once each day.
• If you post a link to the contest and then email me @ contest4shiloh(at)gmail.com, that will get you an additional ten entries. Put link in the subject line.
• If you preorder and forward the receipt to contest4shiloh(at)gmail.com, that will get you an additional twenty entries. Put receipt in subject line. Please remove all sensitive personal data.
• You can enter each way-if you post a link, comment and preorder, that is 30 entries, as well as one entry for each day you visit the blog to comment. You could get up to fifty entries for the grand prize.
• Names will not be shared/sold/traded/spraypainted on a billboard.
• Please note, to enter for the small daily giveaways done during the week, you must comment @ my blog.
• Daily giveaways will be Monday-Friday. Winners will either be posted here or notified via email so please make sure you check back often.
• Please do not cheat-trying to comment more than once a day, using different names/emails, is cheating and you’ll likely end up disqualified and barred from entering future contests.
• Do not post to sweepstakes sites. These contests are for current and potential readers and I do not want to them to be posted at sweepstakes sites. Should this contest end up at sweepstakes sites, I reserve the right to end the contest without warning and without giving away the rest of the prizes in the contest.
• Each (daily) contest thread will be closed within a day or two of its original posting.  So enter while it’s open!