Claude was standing in the kitchen doorway in his pyjamas, one hand gripping the frame. Nicole was behind him, a stuffed dragon named Ember crushed against her chest, her eyes enormous in the hallway's dim light. Duncan did not know how long they had been there. He suspected from the set of Claude's shoulders that they had heard enough.
He crouched down so that his eyes were level with theirs.
"I need to ask ye something," he said. "And ye can say no, and it'll be all right."
Claude's jaw worked. "Are we going to Riley's?"
"Aye."
"Is Fall there?"
"He is."
"And Colin?"
"He's been fighting the thing that came for the lads. He's no' hurt bad."
Nicole's dragon went slack in her arms. "Is the bad man going to be there?"
Duncan was not going to lie to them. He had lied to Julie once, a long time ago, about something that did not matter, and he had regretted it every day since.
