Nor stood up and grabbed the tray with the empty dishes. “If anyone tries to duck out and come check on you, I’ll head them off—tell them you’re still sleeping and not to be disturbed. Maybe throw around a few more threats. I’m sure I can come up with something.”
Wil followed, a rueful smile in place as he said, “This ought to be interesting.”
I looked over at Fuzzy, who was sitting on the bed watching us intently. “I’m just going to duck outside. Are you going to stay put if I leave you?” I took a couple of steps toward the door. Fuzzy ran across the bed, leapt down to the floor, and was snaking around my ankles before I could put my hand on the doorknob. I looked down at him. “I take it you’re coming with me.” I picked him up, and he started purring. “Okay, pal. I’m just stepping out for a minute, so you can come too. But I’m carrying you.”
“What’s outside?” asked Wil.
“You’re just going to have to trust me,” I said, as I snagged my purse and slung the strap diagonally across my chest.
I could see the wheels spinning in Wil’s head, but he said, “No problem.”
Nor said, “Don’t worry, we’ve got this. Take whatever time you need.” She turned to Wil. “I’m ready for some fun, how about you?” and headed for the door.
Wearing a wry smile and shaking his head, Wil followed her.
Nor and Wil went down the back stairs, making a lot of noise as they went. While they telegraphed their positions, I scurried quietly toward the front stairs, Fuzzy clutched in my arms.
I tuned into the house as I went. I was startled to realize I could actually tell it was asleep. I could feel it. That stopped me, a bolt of alarm running through me. Was that a good thing or a bad thing, being able to tell the house was sleeping?
I sighed and kept going. Even if I hadn’t been able to feel it, I’d have been able to hear it. The floorboards were behaving like normal floorboards for once: neither oddly loud nor suddenly silent. They just creaked like old wood always creaks.
I crept down the front stairs, hugging the wall, hoping the shadows would hide me. I could hear Nor and Wil in the kitchen. I scooted down a few more stairs. If Tango and Cash were still by the dining room, they’d see me when I reached the next step. If they were by the kitchen, I’d be out of sight until I reached the door.
I tiptoed down another step and looked. The dining room doorway was empty. I ghosted down the remaining stairs. Yup, they were all by the kitchen. Nor and Wil must really be working it because both Tango and Cash were blocking the doorway, facing inside.
Heart thumping, I darted across the foyer, opened the front door, and slipped outside. I closed the door behind me as quickly and softly as I could. I didn’t hear any footsteps following, but I wasn’t going to wait around to make sure.
I dashed across the front porch, down the steps, and to the left. Babs was waiting for me where I’d left her. I unlocked the front door and collapsed into the driver seat, shutting and locking the door behind me.
I put Fuzzy on my lap and leaned my forehead against the steering wheel. “Oh Babs.” All the confusion and misery of the past two days poured out of me with those two words.
I sat like that for a few minutes. Just the short jaunt to the car had eaten all my energy. I considered climbing into the backseat and taking nap, but a knock on the passenger side window jerked me upright and sent my heart racing again.
I leaned over and unlocked the door.
The door swung open, and Zo peered in at me.
I waved her inside with a, “Thanks for coming.”
She climbed in and shut the door.
Fuzzy stood up, yawned, and climbed out of my lap and into the backseat, where he curled up and zonked out. Guess he thought I’d be fine on my own with Zo.
Zo surveyed the interior of the car. Her gaze caught on the assortment of beads and doodads hanging from the rearview mirror. She gave it a little nod and said, “Your mother’s work?”
I looked at the beads. “Yeah.”
Zo studied them with a look of approval. Then she turned to me. She looked me over, frowned, then said, “Tell me.”
So I did. Maybe I should have played coy like I did in the diner, but I was past playing games. Zo had helped me this morning, and of the people I’d met today, I felt oddly safe with her. Plus, she seemed to know what was going on. Once I finished filling her in, maybe she’d be willing to share more.
I told her everything. I got to the part where I learned that there’s magic, and she just nodded.
“You knew? About magic?” I asked.
“Of course.”
“And Lou’s sound thingy, that wasn’t his phone was it—it was some kind of magic?”
“He uses his phone as a sort of…quick activation trigger, but yes, it was magic.”
“And Gram’s weather machine is not a machine? It’s also magic?”
She nodded.
“Thanks for the heads up,” I muttered.
At Zo’s impassive look, I just sighed and continued with my story.
When I got to the part about Fuzzy hopscotching across the cacti, she gave him a long look. He lifted his head, blinked at her, and then went back to sleep.
When I told her about blacking out, her eyes snapped back to me. She nodded when I told her about the drink Wil had given me and sat quietly while I told her what Nor and Wil had said.
When I wound down, we sat for a moment in the dark.
Zo broke the silence. “Why did you call me here?”
In a small, hesitant voice I said, “Wil. He dropped the F-bomb. And Nor, she was physically guarding me…I…”
“Say it.”
I swallowed. “Could I have, you know, died?”
She didn’t hesitate. “Yes.”
Somehow knowing that for sure helped steady me. I blew out a breath. “Okay. This is so not what I signed up for.”
Zo shrugged. “Life is like that.”
I barked out a laugh. I wasn’t going to get a bunch of warm feelies from Zo, but I could sure count on her to cut the crap and give it to me straight. Which was what I’d been betting on when I texted her.
I gave her a lopsided grin. “You guys said this selection had gone pear-shaped. And to send up a flare if things got interesting. Trying to whack the candidates…does that qualify as ‘interesting’ enough?”
“It’s certainly unusual. Unheard of, actually. A certain amount of competitive gamesmanship is expected. But this is…different.”
That just confirmed what Wil had told me. Wil, who prided himself on knowing more about the Fosters than even the council. Yet here was Zo, a non-council member—hell, a non-Foster—with the same knowledge. Curiouser and curiouser. I looked at her, considering. This was not the time for it, but I really wanted to ponder the mystery of Zo at some point.
She said, “So what is it you think I can do for you?”
“Well, I’d prefer not to die. Or have my brain ooze out my ears. Or be horribly maimed—you get the picture. If you could help me avoid that, then that’d be good.”
“I thought you had Nor and Wil for that.”
“I think…” I searched for the right words, “…I think that they’re doing the best they know how. Obviously they have their own agendas, but they are trying to help me, and I think they’ll continue to do so as long as it’s in their best interests.” I thought for a moment and then added, “They’re both cutthroat, but not in an actually-going-to-murder-someone way. I don’t think either of them would be party to a murder or even be able to keep quiet about it. But that said, they seem to be very limited in what they can do. I need to think outside the box here. You are, literally, outside. I’m hoping you can give me some options. And fast.”
“Hmm. And what makes you think I’m willing to help you?”
“I don’t know. I just do.”
Zo stared out the window. She seemed to be having some kind of an internal debate so, for once, I kept my mouth shut. After a while, she shook her hea
d, sighed, and turned to face me, “Do you still want to leave?”
It was my turn to look out the window. After a long moment I said, “I don’t know.” Zo waited while I sorted through my thoughts. “I’ve barely had time to process this,” I said, “so if this doesn’t make any sense, just bear with me.” I shook my head and said, “As much as it pains me, and it does seriously pain me to say this, but Sarah was,” I made a gagging noise, “right. In one respect. This is too much of an amazing opportunity to just blithely dismiss it out of hand. I at least need to consider taking the position.”
“So things have changed.”
“Not necessarily. I need time to think! And yeah, yeah, yeah, I know—there’s no time. But I mean, come on. Give me a minute here. I just found out there’s magic in the world. Freaking magic! And then there’s the house…I really like the house. Not just what it can do. But it’s, well, it’s…nice. And funny. And creative—you should have seen that crazy balcony. And it’s got some snark, which is a whole other level of awesome. Forget Sarah and the Fosters, I at the very least owe it to the house to consider this seriously.”
“Ah. Then there’s something you should know.”
A cold pit lodged in my stomach at her tone. “What do you mean?”
“Didn’t you wonder if there was a catch to all this?”
“Well, actually, yes. The position sounds too good to be true. The amount of money they’re throwing at it alone is enough to make me wonder what they’re hiding. Why?”
She didn’t say anything.
“Zo…?”
“I’m thinking.”
Zo sighed and stared out the window. I could see the wheels turning. The longer she was quiet, the tighter the knot in my stomach got.
“You said Sarah took you on a tour of the house and property?”
“Yes.”
“I take it she left out the graveyard.”
I twisted to face her. “I’m sorry, the what?”
“I’ll take that as a yes.”
“Do I want to know why there’s a graveyard on the property?”
Zo gave me a smile. It wasn’t a nice smile. “Probably not. But I’m going to tell you anyway.”
When she spoke next, it was in a soft, emotionless voice that nonetheless seemed to take up all the space in the car. “The job with the house is a lifetime appointment.”
“A lifetime appointment…that’s a big commitment.”
“Once you are housekeeper, you can never leave.”
“What do you mean? People leave lifetime appointments all the time—things come up—family issues, health issues, etc. I mean, look at the Supreme Court…or the Pope, even.”
Zo caught my gaze and held it. The way she was looking at me made me go very still. “It’s not just that you can’t leave the job. If only it were that easy. No, you can’t leave the property. Ever.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
“I don’t understand.”
Zo turned away from me to look out the window again. She had the look people get when they’re peering into the past. “It’s the bargain your ancestor made to keep the house away from the others. One Foster housekeeper, blood-bonded to the house, keeps the house in Foster possession. For the spell to remain intact, the housekeeper must always be on the property.”
“That’s…that’s…” I didn’t know what to say. My brain had locked up again. Every time I thought I’d gotten over the last hurdle in this wacky weekend, something else came up.
“So you see, you have a much bigger decision to make than you thought.”
“Were they going to tell me?” I shrieked it loud enough that I made myself flinch.
Zo just gave me another look. “I feel fairly certain that Nor and Wil were going to tell you, but they got waylaid by your test—”
“—and then I was unconscious, so they haven’t had the chance.”
Zo nodded. “Whether they told you or not, the Fosters are required to disclose the terms of the bargain before the final bond. It’s part of the process.”
My brain kicked back into gear. “But I wouldn’t have had time to process and make an informed decision if they sprung it on me in the last minute. It might have been enough to make me back down. Who am I kidding, I’d totally have said no. In fact, now that I’m thinking about it, ‘no’ seems like the obvious answer.”
I fidgeted, touching things inside Babs, jingling the rearview mirror doodads for comfort.
“Perhaps. But if the answer were obvious, I doubt you’d be this uncomfortable.”
Mostly my brain was hollering, “Oh hell no!” and was ready to put Babs in gear and drive to the edge of the driveway and stay there until they let us out.
But a very quiet voice underneath was wondering what a life here, as the housekeeper, might be like.
I’d have to give up everything. School, travel, the ocean. And I’d be trapped. Isolated in the middle of nowhere with no way out. It was like the desert all over again. Just with rain and more trees.
I felt sick. Then I felt sicker when with a dawning horror, my brain circled back to earlier in the conversation. “And the graveyard?” I asked.
Zo said, “The housekeeper lives here until they die. Then they are buried here.”
“Ewwwwwww! Even when you’re married, it’s only supposed to be till death do you part. Not ‘and then we keep your corpse here for all eternity so we can keep taking advantage of you and sucking any last nutrients out of your carcass.’”
Zo shrugged. “It’s good for the soil. Possibly good for the house, too.”
“Wow. I mean, wow. That’s really special. I mean, they should put that on a brochure. The Fosters: We take giving it your all to a whole new level.” I leaned forward and thumped my head against the steering wheel a few times before resting my face on the wheel. “Hi, welcome to your new job. Here’s where you’ll live. Oh and here’s where we’ll bury you. Have fun!”
“Are you done?”
“I doubt it.” I sat up again. “This is god awful. I mean this whole thing. I keep saying it can’t get worse—”
“That’s part of your problem. You need to stop saying that.”
“—and then it does.” I twisted in my seat to look at her again. “Speaking of which, okay what else?”
“What do you mean?”
“What else is going to come along and catch me off guard? Are there zombies rattling around here? I’ve got a graveyard to contend with now, so are we talking undead, too?”
“Don’t be ridiculous, Finn.”
“Ridiculous? Seriously? I’m the one who’s ridiculous? This whole situation is ridiculous! Magic houses, magic people, magic trees…oh for Pete’s sake.” I was shrieking again so I clamped my mouth shut and thunked my head back down on the steering wheel.
“Now are you done?”
“I think so.”
“Good because I need you to listen.”
I sat back in my seat and leaned my head against the window, looking out at the dark forest as she talked. Looming over us, the trees could’ve felt creepy or threatening, but after today, I thought of them as my friends and was comforted by their presences.
Except now I was wondering where the damn graveyard was.
Zo said, “You have some big decisions to make.”
“No duh.”
She raised an eyebrow at me.
“Sorry. I don’t mean to be disrespectful. I’m really very grateful for any help you can give me. Please continue.”
“Decisions.”
I sighed. “Can’t you just get me out of here?”
“Let’s say I could. Is that what you want?”
I leaned my head against the window. After a moment I said, “I don’t know.”
“As I see it, that’s your biggest problem.”
“Really.”
“Yes.”
“Not Sarah and Meg and whoever else is possibly trying to kill me?”
“No.”
“Huh.” I slum
ped into my seat and closed my eyes. The weariness in my voice surprised me when I said, “I just don’t know. I used to know. Up until this afternoon I was absolutely sure of what I was doing. Then that whole thing happened with the cacti and the trees, not to mention Fuzzy and the house. And now I have doubts. Stupid saguaros.
“And now, I can add that whole ‘you can’t leave’ bombshell. To stay here, commit my whole life to this place…that’s…well, it’s asking a lot. Maybe too much. I need time to really think this through. And I can’t think straight here!”
“Well, you’re going to have to.”
There wasn’t anything I could say to that. She was right.
We sat in silence a moment, then she asked, “Why did you ask to meet me here?”
I wrinkled my forehead. “I told you, I can’t leave the property, and I’m hoping you can give me some help getting through the last day.”
“Yes, yes. But why did you ask me to meet you here?” She gestured at the car around us.
“You mean in Babs?” I thought about it for a moment then decided to tell her the truth. Blushing a little, I said, “I know it sounds stupid, but I feel safe here.”
Zo gave me a gentle smile. “Not stupid at all. You see these?” She pointed to the plethora of thingamabobs dangling from the rearview mirror. “They’re charms. Your mother charmed Babs.”
She pulled a vial out of her purse, dumped some powder in her hand, whispered something, and then blew the powder into the air. It sparkled as it flew around the car. The powder seemed to dissolve. A moment later, the inside of the car started lighting up. Symbols appeared, glowing like they were under a black light. They were everywhere. On the dashboard, the ceiling, the steering wheel. On the windshield and every window. It was like having my own little starry night sky twinkling at me inside of Babs.
I was whipping my head around, mouth gaping open, trying to take them all in. But they faded from sight almost instantly.
“Don’t look so dismayed. They’re still there. You just can’t see them.”
I closed my mouth and stared at Zo. “What are they?”
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