Children did not always understand the world, yet there were moments when they understood it more clearly than any adult ever could. They knew, with a quiet certainty no grown-up could fake, who treated them well and who did not. Blanche was no exception.
Over the past three months, without anyone quite noticing when it had happened, she had come to trust Ethan Gray more than anyone else in her short life. In her four and a bit years, very few people had ever been kind to her the way he was. She had bitten him once, hard enough to leave a mark, and instead of scolding her he had only coaxed her gently and let it pass. She had called him Dark as a barrow to his face, and instead of bristling he had simply invited her over for another meal. Small things, all of them. Things she could not ex
