Regret Has Fangs

reau learned about grie

e way her mother had taught her. Grown-ups moved around her in dark clothes, speaking in low voices. Someone had given her a cup of warm milk. She hadn't touched it. Ev

ather had tucked the blanket under her chin, his cold fingers gentle against her cheek, and promised that when she woke the sun would be up and

angers. Then there had been this, the bottom stair and the col

yr

rain on her coat and her dark hair pinned back, as though she had come in a hurry. Her eyes were red, but she was

ember me, l

ame to the house on Sunday afternoons with a tin of shortbread and loud, lau

me ago. If anything ever happened, I would look after you. Would you like to come home with me? There are fou

e understood this: someone had come for her. She took the

wide stone porch, and every window was lit, even though it was still afternoon. Eleanor carried her in out of the rain, an

that

she

she so

five, J

t one hand on her shoulder. "This is Lyra. She is going to live with us now. I want each o

es and the posture of someone who had decided to be responsible. "I'm Adrian," he s

she was scared until he said it. Her li

year younger with untidy hair and a scab on his chin.

was six, with big thoughtful eyes and a st

of us," Damien sa

, looked at her for a long moment, and then he

ou're sad. His na

, which had been tight and frozen since the morning of the sirens, cracked a little. She took the rabbit in

ating, put his arm around her shoulders. Kieran sat down right on the hallway floor next to her and did not say a wo

d a night-light shaped like a moon, which Julian had gone and found in the attic without being

going to pretend I can take her place. But I'm going to love

Papa coming back?" she whispere

as steady, though it cost her. "No, sweetheart. He isn't. But th

was honest, and some part of her, small

hape curled on the floor beside her bed. It was Kieran, wrapped in a blanket with a pillow u

down and pulled the corner of the blanket over his

lowed were not easy

ing behind her with one hand on the seat and shouting that he had let go, even when he hadn't. When she fell and scraped her knee, he glared at the nearest boy who laughed until the boy remembered somewhere else he neede

ar, no one in the house re

n deep plum velvet, with dark hair twisted low at the nape of her neck and skin so pale it seemed to hold its own light. Lyra, who was sitting on the porch steps wi

r eyes were level. "Lyra. I am Seraphine Draven. I knew your fa

her feel safe, in the same way Eleanor did, but

ike your mother and something else, like him. One day you will have to choose which part of yourself to follow. But not for a very lo

y brothers. Adrian and Damien and Julian a

tall and slim, with dark hair and dark, steady eyes. He looked at Ly

n," said Seraphine. "H

h greeting her was an important duty. "I'm sorry about

head. "Are you

a real, surprised laugh that startled all of them. It was the

rway with her hand against t

n both of hers. "Thank you," she said. "For taking her in. F

eanor said.

once over his shoulder. Lyra waved. After a moment, he raised his

noisily about who got the last biscuit. But a promise had just been made that night, quietly, in the shadows at the edge of h

een loved. Loved so thoroughly and so completely that

ould