Whatever the mechanism is that revealed the basement to us magically, Posey wants to figure out exactly how to replicate it, and if I know Posey — and I do — she’ll have it figured out by dinner tonight.
The problem is going to be keeping her focused on fixing the ward and not taking apart the magical basement compartment.
“No locking us in there,” I say, wagging a finger at her. “You can figure out how it works another day. We have to fix the town first. We have to get the ward back up.”
She glares at me for a moment then sighs and sticks her tiny toolkit back in her pocket.
“Fine,” she says, scowling.
“I’ll go down first,” Caleb says.
Gunner barks, wagging his tail.
“The dog always goes first,” Gunner says. “I have the best nose of anyone here, and if there’s a problem I’m gonna sniff it out first.”
Caleb laughs and holds up his hand in mock surrender.
“Gunner, far be it from me to take your job away from you. You go on ahead and I’ll come right down after you with the flashlight, OK?”
Gunner wags his whole body.
Caleb gives him a pat on the head as he races past him to where the wood floor yawns open, revealing absolutely nothing but black underneath.
“I’m not sure I like this,” Rose says.
“I’m not sure that we have a choice of whether to like it or not,” I say.
“Wish I could come with you guys,” Hazel says.
“You stay put and keep looking through your book,” I tell her. “We’ll tell you all about it when we come back up.”
“I’ll take pictures for you,” Rose says.
“Besides,” I say, “we might need someone to stay up here in case we get stuck down there.”
“Don’t say that,” Posey says admonishingly. “God, you always go straight to worst-case scenario.”
“I’ll work with her on that,” Caleb says cheerfully.
I sigh.
Gunner barks, and the sound echoes far up from below the house.
When I glance back at the opening, it’s no longer dark down there. A warm golden light spills up the stairs.
Posey and Rose glance at each other before heading down, following Caleb and Gunner.
“It looks safe enough,” Caleb yells up.
“Hazel,” I tell her.
“Don’t,” she says. “Don’t start in on me right now, okay? I’ll do the best I can to help you guys.”
“Hazel, you are helping us. You can’t be so hard on yourself.”
“I’m different than the three of you. The three of you can pretend that I’m not as much as you like, but that doesn’t change the truth. You’re all witches and I’m not. I’m just a normal weirdo with no skills, no talents, and nothing special about me at all.”
“Down here, Ivy. We need you,” Rose yells up.
