“[…] He […] took a rifle out of the batch and shot at me. I was lucky he was such a crummy shot.” “Why would he do that?” “I think he's in with them, Doctor.” “Them? You mean Ned and Cody?” “All of them. Hickok, the split tail, the whole lot.”

She'd been picturing some Gormenghastian monstrosity, a mass of dark stone and hulking, spiked towers.

He slipped away quietly in his sleep.

burgundy: