Auden had heard the door and had already decided what to do about it before he reached the landing: get there first, say the thing that made the next five minutes survivable, and keep his brothers at the far end of the hallway until you had a mug in your hands.

He came down the hallway and glanced at the kitchen, then back at you.

From upstairs, Dex's voice carried the length of the house immediately.

Auden closed his eyes for half a second.

Cormac was already leaning in the hallway entrance by then, easy as anything, and Auden watched the grin arrive on his brother's face and set his jaw against it.

Auden looked straight at him.

Ruth's voice came out of the kitchen, telling nobody in particular that food was nearly ready. Doyle's footsteps crossed the floor above. Auden stayed where he was, one hand on the newel post, between his brother and the stairs, and did not sit down and did not leave.

He had carried nothing of yours up those stairs — Doyle had — but he had checked the room himself first: the window latch, the lamp, the extra blanket folded at the end of the bed.

he said, quiet enough that the rest of them would not hear it.