Gram waited for us at the bottom of the stairs, outside the cavern entrance. She'd bundled herself up in a rainbow wool coat, a pair of white tennis shoes with florescent pink laces tapping impatiently as she waited, white hair floating around her like a living halo.

"About time," she grunted before she hugged me, lips pressing a wet smack against my cheek before fixing Venner with a baleful stare. One of her very sharp nails pointed at him, scrawny index finger jabbing the ...