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15
Lady Errant
Mae woke from uneasy, demon-haunted sleep to the sound of a crash She rolled out of bed and ran out onto the landing, and then stopped dead at the sight of Jaainst the stair rail
Nick was sitting on the top step He was breathing hard too, chest rising and falling fast under a thin gray T-shirt He leaned his wrists against his knees and looked over at Mae
That made Jaht unless Jarin back
“Mae, he o out for a run,” Jamie called out “Tell him I don’t run!”
“Jamie and I are lilies of the field We toil not, neither do we jog,” Mae informed Nick
She came over and slipped her arm around Jaainst hers, andnoise
“Turns out he does run,” Nick drawled “Given an incentive And he wouldn’t be so out of breath if he hadn’t kept shrieking”
“That was not a shriek,” Janity “It was a husky masculine cry of terror”
“Maybe you should start with so Jamie’s back
“Yes, soothing,” Jailates!”
The doorbell rang Mae went to change into jeans, as Jamie was apparently noreck of a man and couldn’t answer the door She peeked out theand saho it was before she came down the stairs and let Seb in
“I thought maybe you could use a lift to school,” Seb said, car keys in hand He alht of Nick and Ja on?”
“Nick is spottingSeb the evil eye “I wish to be more toned And attractive To men”
Seb went a slow, horrified red
Nick laughed, and Mae bit back a s up on him
She was glad to see him When she’d looked out the , she’d known it was him and not Nick this time, and not just because Nick was already on her stairs The memory of both of thehts Seb looked totally different from Nick He looked normal and lovely and like he couldn’t break her heart, and besides that, she hated walking to school
“C’o,” she told him
She opened the door to a beautiful suht
Behind her, Nick said, “Might see you later”
Today Nick said his first word: “chair”
I have not written in this journal for so Alan this record of misery
Today is different from all other days Nick said his first word today, his voice harsh, croaking like a raven rather than a child
But he understood what he was saying He said more than one word Alan pointed to me and he said, “Dad”
That stunned me more than the miracle, more than the demon ords in its mouth
If I thought of hiht of him as Arthur’s But of course Nick has not seen Arthur for four years, of course Alan has been by his side all this ti him how the world is
Alan has been sure that Nick is his brother, and that makes me his father
The demon’s father
I don’t feel like his father, but I cannot call hiet the rush of happiness that ca and felt for the first time that there could be hope
If he talks, if he can be that close to huht have a real purpose at last
I picked Nick up for the first ti far too heavy for Alan to carry And Alan looked so happy when I did it
I had to put him down after a few moments Not because he was heavy, but because I could not bear to have those eyes and that still mask of a child’s face so close to mine I do not kno Alan can bear it
Alan’s so young He didn’t know enough about babies to knohat one should look like, and he’s used to Nick by now Perhaps Nick looks human to him
This evening before bedti by Alan as he usually does, an upside-down book held in his lap
“Shall I read to you, Nick?” I asked, and I took the creature up again and put hile away as he always does with Alan, but I held hiainst my chest, he felt small and warm, like a real child I concentrated on the story, keptof all wild things said … ,” Nick’s head dropped into the crook of my elbow and he was asleep
I was not quite sure what to do next, and then I sawat me and his brother The look of hope and fear on his face made me want to throw the demon away, reach out and hold him close
Instead I drew h Nick’s thick black hair It wasn’t much, and it wasn’t so bad Nick stirred but did not wake, and Alan smiled, tremulous but so happy
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15
Lady Errant
Mae woke from uneasy, demon-haunted sleep to the sound of a crash She rolled out of bed and ran out onto the landing, and then stopped dead at the sight of Jaainst the stair rail
Nick was sitting on the top step He was breathing hard too, chest rising and falling fast under a thin gray T-shirt He leaned his wrists against his knees and looked over at Mae
That made Jaht unless Jarin back
“Mae, he o out for a run,” Jamie called out “Tell him I don’t run!”
“Jamie and I are lilies of the field We toil not, neither do we jog,” Mae informed Nick
She came over and slipped her arm around Jaainst hers, andnoise
“Turns out he does run,” Nick drawled “Given an incentive And he wouldn’t be so out of breath if he hadn’t kept shrieking”
“That was not a shriek,” Janity “It was a husky masculine cry of terror”
“Maybe you should start with so Jamie’s back
“Yes, soothing,” Jailates!”
The doorbell rang Mae went to change into jeans, as Jamie was apparently noreck of a man and couldn’t answer the door She peeked out theand saho it was before she came down the stairs and let Seb in
“I thought maybe you could use a lift to school,” Seb said, car keys in hand He alht of Nick and Ja on?”
“Nick is spottingSeb the evil eye “I wish to be more toned And attractive To men”
Seb went a slow, horrified red
Nick laughed, and Mae bit back a s up on him
She was glad to see him When she’d looked out the , she’d known it was him and not Nick this time, and not just because Nick was already on her stairs The memory of both of thehts Seb looked totally different from Nick He looked normal and lovely and like he couldn’t break her heart, and besides that, she hated walking to school
“C’o,” she told him
She opened the door to a beautiful suht