The next few days passed by in a blur to me. Xian was often quiet, as were the rest of the clan, and I began to wonder if they weren’t telling me something. Nonetheless, I went back to my house and eventually packed up all of my mum’s old things, and Xian tucked them neatly up in the loft. We were yet to decide where I was going to live, but Xian said that until the Others were off their backs he wanted me to live with them. Any other girl would surely be flattered, and a part of me was, but it didn’t come as news to me.
But in the days I sat on the window sill in the spare bedroom, staring out at the pouring rain, they were the days I thought about upcoming events. Well – my mother’s funeral. Before I could register what day of the week it was, I was flicking through my wardrobe back at
