the baby bird slept, its bony breast rising and falling.
Skittering sounded somewhere in the walls. Mice, Scarlett thought. Great. She wondered if there might even be a bat or two. She’d move that exterminator up higher on the priority list. “Sleep tight,” she whispered to Haddie as she stood, picking up the bird in its makeshift nest so it wouldn’t wake her daughter later, turning on the white noise machine, and heading downstairs.
In the kitchen, she stood at the window, staring at the deepening nighttime sky, the silvery stars as clear as scattered diamonds on a bed of azure silk. Movement near the edge of the woods caused her to suck in a startled breath, but then she saw a small red fox duck around a bush. Her heartbeat slowed. Taluta. Her lips tipped as the red fox disappeared into the dense trees beyond.
Her gaze moved to the edge of the windowsill where she’d set the blade of grass Camden had miraculously fashioned into a fox. The grass had stiffened as it died, its color fading from emerald-green to brownish-gold. She picked it up, holding it in her fingers and marveling at it again.
Behind her, she heard the sound of a door softly closing. Scarlett whirled around, a startled breath escaping in a soft gasp. She placed the grass-shaped fox on the counter and moved cautiously toward the kitchen door that led to the hallway, and the foyer beyond. What had that been? A shutter flapping maybe? But no, it’d sounded distinctly like an internal door clicking closed. And it’d been close.
Scarlett leaned forward as she walked, peering around the corner to see into the foyer before she stepped into the open space. It was empty, the gas lanterns that she’d turned on earlier that evening emitting a soft glow, the flickering light making those flowered vines on the wall stretch and grow.
She heard a soft bump and turned toward the noise, her eyes fixed on the wall that held the bannister. She swore it sounded as though someone was climbing the stairs, but the grand staircase was devoid of human life. A shiver moved through her. Calm down. It’s just the age of the house. Stop spooking yourself.
But even as she attempted to explain the sound away, it continued upward, somewhere behind the wall. Something was there, moving. Something with weight. She pictured a strange ghoul, its black body climbing up the inside of the wall. Scarlett stood, frozen, listening to the soft taps of the thing climbing, heading up and away from where she stood, though—thankfully—in the opposite direction of where her daughter slept. Tentatively, she took a step, and then another, gathering her courage and following the sound, pressing her ear to the wall and then pulling quickly away, lest whatever it was reach through the planks and grab her. Which is ridiculous, she tried to reassure herself, and yet still the feeling of barely tempered dread persisted. There was something there. She could feel it on the other side of the wood. She could feel its menacing.
Her breath came short as she walked beside the soft thumps of climbing coming from within the wall until it moved upward, seemingly into the ceiling, the noises fading away. Scarlett waited, her heart thumping, as the sounds of another door opening and closing overhead could be heard. Her heart sped even further as fear spiked within. What the hell? Someone or something was in her house.
A board squeaked above as though whatever she’d heard was now walking the hall and Scarlett turned, bolting down the stairs and running to the kitchen where she picked up her phone and called for help.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Thirteen Years Ago
Kandace couldn’t sleep. She stood at the window, watching as the sun came up over the trees. Even though she’d left Los Angeles less than a month ago, the world felt so far away. Real life seemed so distant. Ever since she’d arrived at Lilith House, she’d felt as if she had slipped and fallen down some rabbit hole that transported her into a skewed past. Lilith House felt . . . ancient somehow. Ancient and off. There were things she could pinpoint that were strange and even dreadful, but there were other peculiarities that she couldn’t name but sensed all the same. As if something lay in wait for her just around each long and twisted hallway.
Kandace leaned forward when she spotted a blur of movement within the trees. Something large and seemingly tall. Or