15/02/2026 07:17

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I don't think you'll ever teach him to put things back, I said. He helped us, and now you feel obligated. I was standing beside the door at the top of the steps, hands loose at my sides, trying to look bodyguardish, and probably failing. He smoothed the sleeves of his robe down around his long-fingered hands, and stood looking at me.

I let Nathaniel's blood rest on my tongue, licked it against the roof of my mouth, played with the taste, the texture, the warmth of it. Why are you mad? You didn't go, I said, and started peeling off the hose. Let's move over there by the kitchen, okay? I'm alright, she said, and was angry suddenly. The fear receded a little, like a wave of the ocean pulling back, but there was another wave just off shore, and you knew it was coming.