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“All right. I don’t know.” Claire glared at the cat. “She’s a powerful Keeper, or she wouldn’t have been able to seal the hole, not to mention attempting to use it. But…” Her eyes narrowed. “I am also a powerful Keeper, or I wouldn’t have been summoned here. Waking her would be the only way to find out which of us is stronger, and I’m not willing to risk the destruction of this immediate area on a point of ego.”

“So she’s still sealing the hole? Like a cork in a bottle?”

“Essentially.”

“You’re here to pop her out and close the hole?”

“It’s more complicated than that.”

“And that’s why you called your mother?”

“Yes.”

“Okay.” He took a deep breath, and laid both hands flat on the table. “The woman in room six is an evil Keeper.”

“That’s right.”

“And you’re a good Keeper?”

Claire leaned back and pulled a vinyl business card case out of her blazer pocket.“My sister made these for me. She meant them as a joke, but they’re accurate enough.”

Aunt Claire, Keeper

your Accident is my Opportunity

(abilities dependent on situation)

The card stock felt handmade and the words had the smudgy edges of rubber stamp printing.“ShouldI call you Aunt Claire?”

“No.”

He’d never heard such a definitiveno before. There were no shades ofmaybe, no possibility of compromise. When she indicated he could keep the card, he slipped it into the pocket of his T-shirt.“I’ve always wanted to see real magic.”

Claire leaned forward, eyes half lidded, palms flat on the table.“You should hope you don’t get the chance.”

It would’ve been more dramatic as a warning had she not placed one palm squarely on a bit of spilled jam.

Dean handed her a napkin and managed not to laugh although he couldn’t quite control a slight twitch in the outer corners of his mouth. “So was Mr. Smythe a Keeper, too?”

Claire showed her teeth in what wasn’t quite a smile. “Augustus Smythe was, and is, a despicable little worm who walked out and left me holding the bag. He’s also a Cousin.”

“Did he put her to sleep?”

“No, a Cousin can’t manipulate that kind of power.” As much as it irritated her to admit it, Dean’s little synopsis had to have been essentially correct. “At some point, there was another Keeper involved.”

“But Mr. Smythe is a Cousin, and you said Cousins monitor unsealed sites.”

“Your point?”

“You said this site is sealed, that she was sealing it like a cork in a bottle…”

“No, you said like a cork in a bottle.”

“Okay. But if the hole is sealed, what was Mr. Smythe doing here?”

“Probably monitoring the seal since she can’t and monitoringher since the power that’s keeping her asleep is coming from the site.”

“Evil power is keeping her asleep?”

“Trust me…” She tossed the napkin down onto her plate. “It’s not likely to corrupt her.”

“But if it was a temporary solution, why has Mr. Smythe been here since 1945?”

“Has he?”

“Sure. He complained about it all the time.” With a flick of two fingers, Dean began spinning the knife again. “Why did Mr. Smythe sneak out like he did?”

“I have no idea.” The handle of her mug creaked slightly in her grip. “But I’d certainly like to ask him.”

“What are you after doing now?”

“Nothing hasty. Nothing at all until I get that second opinion. When I have more information, I’ll get to work closing things up but as long as the hole remains sealed, it’s perfectly safe. We’re in no immediate danger.”

“No immediate danger?” Dean repeated. When she nodded, he leaned back in his chair, continuing to spin the knife. “That’s, um, interesting phrasing. What about long-term danger?”

“That depends.”

“On what, then?”

“I can’t tell you.”

“There’s a whole lot you’re not telling me, isn’t there?”

“There’s a whole lot I don’t know.”

“Mr. Smythe was supposed to leave you more information?”

Claire snorted, sounding remarkable like Austin at his most sardonic.“At the very least.”

“Which is why we need you,” the cat told him, looking up from a damp patch of fur. “Smythe’s not here, and you are.”

“But I don’t know anything,” Dean protested.

“You should make a good pair, then. She thinks she knows everythi…Hey!” he protested as Claire picked him up and dropped him onto the floor. “It was ajoke! Keepers,” he muttered, leaping back up onto the chair, “no sense of humor.”

The wisest course, Dean decided, would be to ignore that observation altogether. Stilling the knife, he looked up from her elongated reflection in the blade.“If you don’t mind me asking, where do Keepers and Cousins come from?”

“Just outside Wappakenetta.” When both Dean and Austin stared at her blankly, she sighed. “We have a sense of humor, it’s just no one appreciates it. If you’re asking historically, Keepers and Cousins are descendants of Lilith, Adam’s first wife.”

Dean started to grin.

“I’m not joking.”

“You’re not serious! Adam’s first wife?”

Enjoying his reaction, she waved off his question with a dismissive gesture borrowed from Marlon Brando inThe Godfather.“I only know what I’m told, but some of our people are very into genealogy.”

“But you’re talking aboutAdam and Eve!”

“No, I’m talking about Adam and Lilith.”