In the living room, six of the senior Fallen were seated. Drinks sat on side tables, assorted snacks sat on a platter on the coffee table. The domestic scene was made eerie by the masks they wore. Demonic faces, many homemade. Several had been farm animals, the flesh altered with the power of a man Rain didn’t see present, so the pigs and sheep would have half-human, distorted faces before they were killed and skinned. Women in nice dresses with nice hair had heavy tattoos that reached up their necks and beneath their masks. A man wore the hide of an animal around his waist, wearing no shirt so the letters carved out and left to scar on his belly and chest would be visible.

Rain could trace his family connection to most of those present.

He could trace his connection to the meek young women who stood by, ready to serve anything requested. The one with her back to Rain had old lines of red dots soaked through the back of her blouse, criss-crossing.

The assembly was silent, wordless, watching from behind masks as Rain was urged to the stairs.

Even Seir didn’t go upstairs if he could help it.

Rain felt every ache and pain, every human doubt he’d experienced over the past two days, as he ascended those ten stairs. The second floor was spartan, with a long rug, a small table with a vase of wilted flowers on it, and a light overhead. The hallway extended to rooms to the left and the right.

He knew the door was to the left, but he looked the other way, as if there could somehow be an out.

He saw Lachlan, standing in the hallway, toothbrush sticking out of his mouth. He reached up to pull the toothbrush free.

“Rain,” Lachlan said, smiling. His voice was a hush. “Hey, good to see you.”

Rain didn’t have the words to respond. It was surreal, seeing Lachlan here.

“Did you talk to Allie?” Lachlan asked.

Rain stared at Lachlan. “Not the time, Lachlan.”

“Leave the boy be, Lachlan,” Seir said.

A faint thump from the left end of the hallway made all of their heads turn.

One of the meek servant-girls from the living room stepped into the hallway to stand next to Seir, even though she looked like she didn’t want to. She looked up, checking.

“Go,” Seir said.

Rain didn’t need to be told. He walked to the end of the hallway. The doorknob squeaked.

The inside of the room wasn’t all that decorated. Dresser, bedside table, and a four-poster bed with sheer drapes winding up the posts.

“Mama,” he said.

She wasn’t his mother, but it was how she was addressed.

Rain averted his eyes, but he could see the white drape of the nightgown, the feet on the floor. She was sitting so the post and the sheer drape kept him from seeing a lot of her.