I freeze. “I... I don’t know. I just did.”
“Did you remember something?”
I shake my head. “Not a memory. I just knew where they were.”
He grins as he opens the oven door and straightens with a pan of oven-roasted hash browns. “That’s something, at least. Your body remembers this place even if your mind doesn’t.”
“Great. My subconscious is more helpful than my actual consciousness.”
“Story of my life.” He sets the pan on top of the cork hotplate and grabs a flipper to shovel hash browns onto my plate.
“Since when does your breakfast include freshly made anything? I already feel like I’m in the Twilight Zone. What’s with the Gordon Ramsay impression?”
Asher feigns insult but laughs. “Hey, I’m just a vessel of the house. Everything just sort of puts itself together. All I have to do is help.”
I don’t even know what to do with that. Is the house haunted or is the house alive? Neither of those answers makes any sense in reality, so my mind just shorts out and moves on. “So what’s our plan?”
“We’ve got a house to explore and a life to rediscover.”
I glance toward the window, where the standing stones cast long shadows across the yard. “We need to figure out who we’re dealing with. Blue Eyes said he had a gift for me, but what if he’s involved in us not being able to get outside?”
“You think we’re his prisoners?”
“I think we don’t know enough to make that call yet.” I take another sip of tea. “But we’ve got bigger problems than mysterious benefactors.”
“Such as?”
“It’s Sunday morning. We both have shifts tomorrow. You’re supposed to walk Mrs. Patterson’s poodle at seven-thirty, and I’ve got a split shift at the restaurant.”
His face goes slack. “Shit. I didn’t even think about that.”
“No cell service. No way to call in. No way to explain to anyone why we’ve vanished.” I spear a forkful of potato perfection and dig into the comfort of a home-cooked meal. “What happens to our lives when we’re a no-show?”
We sit in silence for a moment, the weight of our situation settling between us.
“So we find answers fast,” Asher says finally. “We figure out what Blue Eyes wants, we learn what we can, and we figure out how to mitigate the damage to our lives back home.”
“And if we can’t?”
“Then fuck it.” He reaches across the island and squeezes my hand. “We’re not going to worry about the Kansas stuff, Poppy. Our friends will understand. and there are always other jobs. You discovering your truth is way more important.”
I agree, but I also don’t want to torch our lives back home. But is it home? Or isthismy home?
I finish the last of my hash browns and Asher takes my plate to rinse and set into the dishwasher. “What if we don’t like what we find? What if my past is dangerous and the reason my family didn’t come find me is because they’re all dead? What if I don’t want to know what happened?”
Asher leans on the island and sighs. “Whatever it is, good or bad, you want to know. Ignorance won’t protect us if we’re already in the crosshairs. Blue Eyes found you, and now you’re here. Figuring out what happened is the only way to know if he or someone else will come for you.”
I set my mug onto the marble countertop and swallow. “You are remarkably calm about us potentially being in mortal peril.”
“Are you kidding? This is the most interesting thing that’s happened to me since I woke up in that biker cuddle puddle a couple of years ago engaged to a guy named Coyote.”
“You what?”
“Nothing. Never mind that.” He grins and tosses the dish towel over his shoulder. “Come on, Nancy Drew. Let’s go find some clues.”
I slide off the stool, my anxiety replaced by determination. Whatever happened to my family, whatever brought me here,I want to know it. I want to know all of it. I glance toward the hallway, considering our options. Something tugs at my attention… It’s not quite a memory… more like instinct.
“Okay, I think I know exactly where we should start.”
