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I cough and shakeepiphany “Do you always toy with your guests?”

“Sometimes” She smirks “You do look a little like a toy All that hair and those dandy little limbs”

“Dandy?”

“Dandy And your nose has only been broken recently Are your eyes real?” She leans in “You didn’t have thenify the question with an answer

“You’re not going to leave, are you?”

“Why would I? Everyone is busy preparing for supper I a”

“Very well then” I dropto embarrass her She doesn’t look away She scrutinizes

“You have more scars than most Pixies,” she says after a moment

“Because I am not a Pixie”

She surprises h and counts , thin scar, like a necklace around ainst the scar, and i of the wind outside myAnd in the darkness there and in my mind, he lurks, the Reaper’s beast, the demon of my childhood Instinctively, I put round She looks suddenly apologetic

“Acontrol of the memory Some demons never leave Grandmother wanted to laser the scar off I convinced her to let me keep it

She joins me on the floor “A lover?”

“No”

“Did you kill hi you?”

I shake my head