If she'd shown up at his house, this would have been the end of it. But no, he'd come here, where it was obvious that he was bothered. Stupid. He ought to have gone to Thom's instead, or hunted down Leon - they did not know nearly as much about Lyra, and would not have been able to be nearly as annoying.

"Anything but that," August admitted, though he would much rather have been pulling literal teeth.

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