Page 16 of Waltzing With Witches

I shrug. “I don’t know shit about vampire hearing. Do you? Maybe he can; maybe he can’t. Do we care, though?”

Lou’s eyes narrow. “I don’t know, Morgan. Do we care?”

I give her my best oldest-triplet-so-I’m-basically-the-mom look. “I want to figure out what’s going on so I can go back to the inn.”

She tosses her red-gold braid over her shoulder. “I suppose it was nice of him to bring you here so you’re not like…homeless. But, to be frank, you should have called me immediately. I’d hobo it with you in a tent any day, girl. You know that, right?” Lou’s eyes go wide and concerned-looking. “I’ve got you, Mor,” she murmurs. “Till the stars die out, remember?”

It’s something we started saying after Mom and Dad died in a car wreck. Lou might be closer in age to me, Thea, and Wren than my mom, but she’s still our aunt. She’s always been halfway between a sister and a surrogate mother.

“Till the stars die, I remember,” I murmur back, slinging my arm around her neck to pull us into another hug. I breathe in the familiar scent of her shampoo, surprised anew when that burnt marshmallow smell fills my nose. “Please come tour the castle with me. I’m nosy as hell, and I didn’t feel comfortable by myself.”

“Where’s the Keeper?” she mumbles from my chest area.

“Keeping,” I say with a laugh. “Watching buttons light up. Listening to alarms. He’s a ghost. We probably won’t even see him.”

Lou pulls back and grins, but I sense something sad in the way she looks at me. For a long moment, I think she’s about to share some wisdom she gleaned from her time living in Rainbow, but she says nothing, and it starts to get awkward. Nerves prickle down the back of my neck.

“Well,” I begin. “Wanna do a tour together? I’ve basically only seen the kitchen and the command center.”

“Fuck yes!” Lou shouts, reminding me of Thea with her exuberance. “Neither of the girls answered when I called, but we can try them again in a little bit. Wren in particular is not an early riser. Well shit, maybe I should try again now.”

She lifts her wrist, but I grab it and shove it back down. “Lou. I don’t need everybody coming up here to stare at me. It’s awkward enough as it is!”

Lou recrosses her arms. “Young lady, do I need to remind you that you have an amazing support system in your sisters and your aunt? We’re definitely calling your sisters, but we can do it later if you don’t want to right now. No effing way we’d leave you to the Keeper’s devices.”

“Don’t worry,” I grit out. His devices consist of ignoring me and ignoring me, in that order. I jerk my head over my shoulder. “C’mon. I sort of know my way around, but the castle will help us.”

“Lead the way.” Lou gestures up the dark hallway.

Half an hour later, we’ve made our way through all of the first floor, which consists of three bedrooms, the kitchen, a giant two-story library, a ballroom, and a myriad of hallways—one of which leads to his command center. We steer clear of that one, and he doesn’t appear. The castle does a marvelous job pointing out all of the interesting and beautiful rooms. Eventually, a door creaks open that leads us into a basement, where we find an honest-to-God two-lane bowling alley and bar.

“This is fucking ridiculous,” Lou muses as we walk the length of one lane.

“No shit,” I bark. “Look how dusty this place is!” I don’t know why it bugs the hell out of me that every room, every surface, every single damn thing in this castle is covered in dust and decay. It’s not right.

“That’s not what I meant,” Lou deadpans. “Who has a bowling alley in their damn house?”

“He played on the interhaven league,” I mutter. Sadness fills me, my feet like lead weights at the end of my legs. “It could be beautiful if someone paid attention to it.”

This entire castle seems like one big ole giant metaphor for my experience with the Keeper—linked together but discarded, unused, unclaimed, and uncared for.

Fuck that noise. I’m not one to sit around and wait for shit to happen. If he won’t take care of this place, I’ll do it. And Lou too, because I’m going to wrangle her into doing it with me.

LOL.

“Morgan Anne, what’s that look for?” Lou asks me from her spot at the far end of the bowling lane. “You look sneaky as fuck right now.”

I give her a sassy look. “Just thinking how somebody ought to take care of this place, and I think it ought to be us. The castle would appreciate it, and it’s the least I can do for the temporary room. And board,” I tack on. The castle did offer us cheese when we toured the kitchen. And it was really good.

Lou sighs as she rubs a hand over her face. She gives me a look I’ve seen from my mother my whole life—gentle admonishment with a hint of humor. “This is a big fucking place to clean by ourselves, ya know…”

A door creaks open from somewhere behind us, a floorboard rippling. A bucket of cleaning supplies is delivered to our feet, courtesy of the castle.

I grin at Lou. “See? The castle really wants this. You’ll help me, right?”

Lou grabs a dust-covered rag from the bucket and snaps it at my ass. “Bitch, I love you, so, yes, I’ll help you clean. But fair warning—you’re gonna have to feed me partway through.”

Around us, black wallpapered walls shimmy and shake. The castle is happy and excited.

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