. . .

When he is seventeen Edmund Gulley runs away. He spends three months on an island before the knowing of the wolf calls him back. He comes back and his servants have left him and there is blood on the basement window and the wolf has eaten through his stores —

“I have to kill you,” he says.

“That is not an uncommon reaction,” says the wolf. “Though really, Edmund.”

“I know,” he says miserably, because the wolf is immortal, invincible, and has raised him from a foundation of twisted love. “But you’re evil.”

The wolf lolls its tongue. It grins.

“Then that’s the right thing to do, I guess.”

“You’re teasing me.”

“I only have one Edmund Gulley,” says the wolf. “Let me appreciate him.”

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