Page 65 of Something Handsome This Way Comes

Esmerelda watched intently. Then she crouched. Her front legs bent beneath her, feathered wings flaring outward as her lips peeled back, showing tiny white teeth.

“HISSSSS!”

“Good! Good!” Pip bounced excitedly. “If someone attack Nestmaker, you do that.”

Esmerelda’s tail wagged.

“Then…” Pip lowered himself. “ATTACK!”

Pip launched himself across the rug. Straight onto Milo’s teddy bear. All eight legs wrapped around its head as Pip viciously bit into its face.

“Pip!” Milo said, wiping his hands on his apron. “Lucia gave me that!”

“Kill! Kill! Kill!”

“No, wait⁠—”

Pip released the bear. “Now you try,” he said to the excited Glaceryn.

“No, wait!” Milo cried.

Too late. Esmerelda pounced. There was a terrible ripping sound. Then⁠—

POOF.

The sitting room vanished beneath a cloud of white. Grievance coughed as stuffing drifted past his face. A scrap of teddy-bear ear landed in the soup. Esmerelda sat proudly amid the carnage with the bear’s severed arm hanging from her mouth.

Pip bounced. “She is good student.”

Milo stared at what remained of his teddy bear as white stuffing drifted through the room like snow.

Grievance couldn’t help it. A laugh burst out of him.

Milo slowly turned. “Oh, you think this is funny?”

“Maybe a little.”

“That was my bear. He was my welcome-to-the-neighborhood present from Lucia.”

“I’m sorry for your loss.”

Grievance tried schooling his face into a serious expression. But then the bear’s head chose that moment to roll off the cushion and land upside down on the rug, and Grievance lost it.

“Grievance!”

“I am sorry.” He was not. “He d-died bravely,” he gasped, wiping tears from his eyes.

“He was ambushed by a baby dragon.”

“A warrior’s death.”

“He was holding a little embroidered heart.”

Grievance snorted. “Then he died for love.”

Milo pressed his lips together, but Grievance saw his stubborn resolve crack as a tiny snort escaped him.

“See! You think it’s funny too.”