“You’re right,” Marie interjected. “You’re right.” She studied me carefully. “He’s not my grandfather, but he is family, so I look out for him, even when he gets himself into trouble.”

“Okay.” I was happy she was willing to offer me that. “I can work with that.”

“Can we leave the rest of the questions for another time?” Marie asked.

“Actually, I have one more,” I said. “Were you sneaking around outside the house before I moved in?”

The corner of Marie’s mouth twitched like she was holding back a smile.

“Mrs. Redmond—the lawyer who’s handling all the legal stuff for the house—said she saw you in the driveway a few weeks ago. I was wondering why you were there.”

“I was making sure everything was on the up-and-up. Circe wouldn’t have wanted some stranger in her house.”

“I’m a stranger,” I said.

Marie shook her head. “You’re not. Maybe you feel that way, but it’s not true.”

I checked my phone. No messages from Mom or Mo yet. They’d wait till the clock struck eleven to remind me of my curfew. If I didn’t text back, they’d be in the car at five after, like some kind of modern-day fairy godmothers. Except instead of snatching back a fancy dress and glass heels, they’d take my free time, phone, and any thoughts I had of being almost grown.

“You have to go?” Marie asked.

“It’s about to be eleven.”

“That’s not really an answer, is it?”

I hoped that her question meant what I thought it did—that she wanted to see me again. “I’m guessing you don’t have a curfew.”

“Oh right,” she said. This time, her disappointment was crystal clear. “C’mon. I’ll walk you out.”

She led me back through the maze of corridors and to the front drive. As I walked down the steps, Nyx came striding out of the darkness from the direction of the bluff and the strange noise I’d heard earlier.

Marie cleared her throat loudly and Nyx stopped, dusted something off her jacket, and fastened the buttons.

“Call me. Or I’ll call you,” Marie said. “Oh, and I can take you to see them whenever you want.”

“Who?” I asked as I moved to the car door.

“Selene and Circe. They’re in your family’s plot, not the big cemetery where everyone else is buried. It’s off the beaten path. If you ever want to go, let me know.”

“Oh. Right,” I said. I wasn’t sure that was something I wanted to do, and the topic had caught me off guard.

“It’s completely up to you,” Marie said.

“I’ll think about it.” I turned and Nyx opened the door for me.

I climbed in and Marie retreated into the house. I sat quietly in the back seat as Nyx drove me home. When we pulled up to the house, Mom and Mo were at the door, waiting.

I let myself out and Nyx met me on the passenger side of the car.

“Miss Morris asked me to leave you with this.” She handed me a small card. “It’s my phone number. She said you’re welcome to come up to the house anytime.”

“That’s really nice of her,” I said.

“She’s taken a liking to you,” said Nyx. “I think she’s been without a true friend since Astraea died, and that was a very long time ago.”

“Couldn’t have been that long. She’s only seventeen.”

Nyx burst into a deep, throaty laugh. She took a second to compose herself. “Forgive me. Technically, that’s true.”

“I don’t know what that’s supposed to mean,” I said. “But I know that nobody around here likes to give me straight answers and it’s irritating as hell.”

“She’ll fill you in, I’m sure.” She readjusted her blazer and straightened up. “When Miss Morris thought they—the Colchis family—were gone, she was undone. And when she found out you were related to them . . .” She stared off to the side for a moment. “I’ve never seen her so relieved.”

“Why? What does it matter if I’m related to them? Everybody I’ve met here makes it seem like that’s a big deal. I don’t see it like that.”

Nyx looked thoughtful. “Who am I, or any of us, to tell you how you should feel? But a word of caution, if I may? Now that you’re here, people will come. All kinds of people, most of them with no ill will. Try to keep an open mind.”

I thought of Alec and Marie and wondered if she meant people like them or something else completely. “I can do that. I think.”

“I hope so.” She gave me a pat on the arm and left.

Mom and Mo made me give them a minute-by-minute rundown of my visit. They wanted every excruciating detail. We stayed up for an hour going over everything: the library, the fancy appetizers, the fancy car, the multiple pools, and Marie’s affinity for old things. In the end, they could only agree that I needed to be careful and that Marie probably had a lot of money and too much free time. But I knew she had more than a passing interest in me, and it lit me up inside. I hoped I’d be able to see her again, and soon.

CHAPTER 19

I slept, but only because I couldn’t sneak out of the house in the middle of the night to use the new key. When I woke up the next morning, it was barely seven. I lay in bed thinking of what Marie had said. She’d told me not to open the door, that there was something unfathomable behind it. She was worried that the plant was poisonous but that wasn’t a concern for me. All I could think of was opening that door.

When I heard Mom and Mo get up, I slipped the key with the heart onto my lanyard and went down the hall to tell them I’d be back for breakfast. As soon as I closed the front door behind me, I broke into a run. I bolted around the side of the house and across the lawn, into the tree line. The pathway opened up before me and I ducked through. I followed it to the garden, and as I came to the clearing, I took out the key and opened the gate. As it swung open, a sprig of climbing snapdragon slithered down from the wall and encircled my head, twisting itself into a crown of fuchsia blooms before breaking off and returning to the wall. This was our exchange every time I went in, and my collection of flower jewelry was deposited all around the house, not a single petal or stem wilted.