Rat paused then, caught off guard by such a childish request. Then his own heart hurt a little with the memory of so many nights curled up with Grey. They'd paged through Dante, through Tolkien, all of it. He had been the voice of the story, of every character.

The Christmas storybooks were still hidden on the back of his shelf, some of the last books he'd read with Grey.

But he couldn't deny a child, even when he knew that in his mind, Marius was a grown man and a complication in his life.

"Go pick a book," he said at last.