Kneeling next to her, Jack pressed a wet paper towel to her cuts. She winced.
“You’re young, full of untapped strength, but you still have limits,” Thomas said. “Looks like you hit yours. That realm is very far, so it’s not a surprise. You said that Auntie Zee has been missing more and more? I believe she must have been trying to reopen that very portal, exactly as I feared, but lacked the strength to succeed. Each time, she exhausted herself more, until at last she didn’t have the strength to turn back.”
She tried to focus, but it was so hard to string his words together. She felt as if they were swimming in her head. Whatever medicine he’d given her hadn’t cured her perfectly. She did remember that the last time they saw Auntie Zee, Jack had been upset about his father.
He stood up. “She usually likes the sitting room.”
“The sitting room has been damp lately,” Jack said. “And we haven’t seen Auntie Zee in days. I told you, we’ve looked everywhere. Even through the portals.” To Calisa, he said, “I don’t know that you should stand up yet.”
Using Jack like a ladder, Calisa was struggling to rise. He helped her balance. Once she was back on two feet, she felt steadier. “I’m fine.”
Above her Steve warbled.
She looked up at him again and repeated, “I’m fine.”
Thomas was already marching out of the kitchen.
Jack kept his arm around Calisa as they hobbled after him. She wondered if the statue, Evela, was trailing behind them, and she intentionally didn’t turn around, so that Evela could follow. She also had about a thousand questions about the statue and her relationship with Jack’s dad, as well as a thousand questions about Auntie Zee, the portals, the magic, and the whatever juice.And me. I never faint.She had never felt this weak before. It was like someone had sucked all the energy out of every one of her muscles and left them floppy.
Ahead of them, Thomas checked the dining room, then the sitting room, and last the library. Calisa paused to sag against the wall in the lobby. Jack stayed with her. Beside them, the shadowy mirror swirled.
“Hey,” Calisa said to the mirror, “do you know where Auntie Zee is?”
Always.
Wait.What?Really? “And you didn’t think to tell us while we were running around looking for her? For days?” Calisa demanded. She tried to peel herself off the wall to glare at the mirror, but she felt too wobbly. She clutched both Jack and the wall, bracing herself. “Why didn’t you say anything?”
Not my problem.
She glared at the shifting shadows within the mirror. She was tempted to lift it off the wall and shake it. It had known all along? While they were panicking and worrying? And Kendra was nearly flooding the inn? “It will be your problem too if the inn closes, you—”
From the library, Thomas said, “Ah, there you are, Zee. Jack and Cali had me worried.”
Auntie Zee!But…they’d passed the library on their way to the portal. She would have noticed if Auntie Zee were just chilling on the window seat with a book. Also, why hadn’t Auntie Zee spoken up when they were hauling the statue through the inn? Or when Kendra was soaking everything? She had to have noticed that they’d been in the middle of an emergency.
Calisa, with Jack’s help, hobbled forward. Leaning against the doorframe, she peered into the library. “Huh,” Jack said. “Um, Dad?”
There was no Auntie Zee.
Only the elderly white cat, Portia, curled on the windowseat.
Calisa looked at the cat.
The cat looked back at her.
She couldn’t be…“You’re not implying that Auntie Zee is…acat…Are you?” It felt like a ridiculous question, but given all that she’d seen…
“No, of course not,” Jack said immediately.
Thomas shrugged. “She is what she is.”
“What?” Jack said. “Portia? She…what?”
Calisa looked over her shoulder. The mirror was only smoke, wordless and unhelpful, but the statue, Evela, had followed them as far as the lobby.
Her head was inclined:Yes.
Chapter Twenty-Five
