“Okay, good point,” she said. Then, after a beat: “So I guess if there isn’t going to be a problem, we should just do this.”
“Yup. Nothing to do now but get out of the car and go in there.”
“Right. Cool. After you, then.”
She got another look. But this one was lessbeautiful wolfand morelittle shit.
“Scared to go first, huh?” he said, with just a hint of laughter in his voice. Because of course he knew what all the stalling was about. Of course he did.
“Well, if I do, I might bang into a mailbox from another dimension.”
“You won’t. You’ll feel the presence of the house before that happens.”
“That’s not reassuring, Seth.”
“It doesn’t need to be if I’m leading,” he said.
Then he just got out of the car and strode across the frost-tipped grass, fast enough that she started to fear he would get too far ahead. That she wouldn’t be able to see how he’d dissolved through some magic wall, and she’d end up trapped out here in the dark.He’ll notice I’m not with him just as an interdimensional beast grabs his face, and all I’ll be able to do is hear his screams for help across the void, she thought, as she told Pod to stay, and scrambled after Seth.
She stumbled over the grass, calling his name. Then felt very silly when she got to where he stood, and he lifted a hand and knocked on the air, and a door swung open. Just like that. One second there was nothing but the slope downward and the forest beyond; the next there was a rectangle of a very particular sort of light.
A golden, glowing, slightly flickering light, that made her think of gas lamps.
And that was exactly what lay beyond the now-visible threshold of the door. A row of them, mounted on the walls of a cozy-looking but mind-bendingly long hall.The door at the end of that hall should lead off the edge of the hill, she thought, half marveling, half terrified.
While Seth just strolled right in.
She watched him wipe his high-top sneakers on the mat, inside the door. The one that saidWELCOME, and looked worn—like something an old lady might put down. And the rest of the decor had a similar vibe. The carpet was patterned with curling roses; the wallpaper had stripes below the chair rail, and a floral motif above.
Then further down she could see pictures, between each door.
Portraits, of what looked like the ancestors of a person she hoped didn’t exist.
“Are you sure no one owns this place?” she asked, as she tiptoed far enough in to examine one of them. A painting of a womanin Edwardian clothes, expression stern, one hand on the shoulder of a small, wan-looking child.
But Seth didn’t seem concerned.
He made his way down the hall, answering her over his shoulder.
“Some think it belonged to a person once. A witch who got lost, or who lost her own home. But even if that’s the case, she’s gone now. She has to be, because there’d be at least some wards left here if she were alive.”
“But there’s nothing?”
“Not a thing.”
Still, Cassie couldn’t help wondering. About who that witch was, and if she had died a good death or a bad one.This is serious business, she thought, as she turned to see where Seth had gotten to. And found him very unseriously trying to spring the lock of the tenth door down the hall.
He was using a frigging Blockbuster card.
She didn’t even know how he still had one.
“So I guess now I know that goblin poop isn’t your only source of income,” she said as she strolled up to him. And he didn’t even have the decency to look shamefaced. He look positively gleeful. He actually had his tongue in his cheek.
“Cassie, I hope you’re not implying I regularly steal from rich pricks. Because I will have you know, I am a moral and upstanding citizen, and would never. In fact, I barely even know how to do such things,” he said, and on that last word he shoved the card upward.
Then there was a snap, and the door popped open. Just like that.
Much to her absolute delight. Too much delight, really. It made her want to blurt outgod that was sexy. And she only caught herself by keeping up the disapproving charade.
