Julian's face was ashen.

Annie stepped forward, her expression carved from icy disdain, her voice cutting through the silence like a blade.

"Let me tell you what happened."

"When you hurried back to Kingsward City to console that porcelain doll of yours, Ms. Ward's hearing was stolen by sudden barometric trauma. The blizzard in Harborvale that night… the snow was endless, the roads buried under a suffocating white. We couldn’t find a single car. ...