Addressing it, Calisa asked, “Do you know where Auntie Zee is?”
The firebird flew up the chimney, and the room dipped into shadow.
She didn’t know what kind of answer that was. Maybe none at all.
Calisa couldn’t tell when her great-aunt had last been here. The sheets on the bed were rumpled, but when had they last been slept on? She studied it, as if the creases would hold the answer. Stray white hairs lay on the pillow, or perhaps tufts of fur…All that meant, though, was that Auntie Zee let the cat sleep with her. It didn’t tell her anything useful either.
Calisa took a breath and then checked the one place she hadn’t yet dared: the closet.
Girding herself, she opened the door.
Inside were only clothes on hangers and a pile of shoes at the bottom. She stared at the mess and wondered what it meant.
Had this once been a portal that closed? If so, how long ago had the portal failed? Years ago? If not, why no X on the exterior door? So, did that mean it failed recently? Was Auntie Zee, like Jack’s father, stuck on the other side? Lost?
No, it couldn’t have been recent. The closet wouldn’t be filled with shoes if it were an active portal. All the other portal closets had been empty.
Except the broom closet, on the first day I was here.
Okay, never mind. She had no way of knowing if this was a recently failed portal or not. It was equally possible that it had never been a portal at all. Auntie Zee might not have wanted a portal in the same room where she slept.
Ugh, there’s so much I don’t know!It was infuriating. If Auntie Zee had just explained everything on day one, even ashort this-is-how-the-magic-works primer, she wouldn’t be feeling so helpless now.
Calisa took a deep breath.
Calm down. Think.
In her admittedly limited experience with the inn, in most cases, a door was either a portal or not a portal. Except for that first broom closet. After that day, the broom closet had behaved like an ordinary broom closet, filled with mops and dustbins and so forth. Calisa had used it often, but the very first time she encountered it…She tried to re-create the memory of that moment in her mind. Auntie Zee had shut the door on the howling void and then reopened it on brooms. How? Had she done anything special? Said anything? Cast a spell? Calisa was fairly certain the answer was no. All Auntie Zee had done was shut it and reopen it.
Calisa closed the closet door, waited three seconds, and then opened it.
Still shoes and clothes.
She chewed on her lower lip as she thought. Not panicked. Not yet. As far as she could tell, they now had two problems: Auntie Zee was missing, and the portals were malfunctioning.
The best option was to solve problem two and hope that fixed problem one.
How, though, did she fix a portal to another realm?
Chapter Twenty-One
After knocking loudly to no answer, Calisa let herself into kendra’s guest room with the master skeleton key. She splashed through the film of water that had soaked the floor, and she opened the closet door. It was, as expected, empty. She stared at it, closed the door, and reopened it. Unlike Auntie Zee’s closet, she knew this had been an active portal recently.
She closed and reopened it again.
On the fifth try, she heard a noise behind her and turned.
“Is it doing anything?” Jack asked plaintively.
“Where’s Kendra?” Calisa asked. “Is she okay?”
“I convinced her to go outside,” Jack said. “The salt water won’t be good for the plants, but she agreed to pace on the gravel driveway. It can’t hurt the rocks.”
“Good idea. And no, it’s still not working.” Calisa crossed her arms. “Tell me everything you know about how the portalswork.”
“Well, um, they’re magic.”
Calisa glared at him.
