CHAPTER 58

Lily stood at the window with her arms crossed. Her tail swished from side to side in annoyance.

"Oh good. Now we get to see his ugly face again even better." She looked over her shoulder at Beth. "Is it time to check your phone again?"

Beth turned it on and frowned. "Still nothing. Literally." There was no signal, and her battery life had drained substantially overnight. She wondered if she forgot to turn it off. "This reminds me of snowstorms when I was a kid. Stuck in the house all day, and—"

"I don't wanna hear about it." Lily turned to face her. "This isn't a snow day, and it certainly isn't something I can relate to."

Undeterred, Beth turned her phone back off and picked up her teacup. With nothing better to do, she stood and headed for the kitchen.

As she walked into the kitchen, she saw Reggie standing on the counters. His nose was twitching, and a group of rats had clustered on the floor beneath him.

"Everything okay?" she asked.

"It is not, Lady Beth." Reggie bowed in greeting. "I have just received word that we've lost track of the colony."

"Excuse me, what? You mean, like..."

"The rest of us, yes." Reggie moved to the edge of the counter. "Sometime in the night, all of our portals slammed shut. I've been out here monitoring the situation with this man, and when it was time to change the guard, they never came."

"Reggie, that's terrible!" She set the cup down and took his paw in her hand. "What can we do? Are they okay?"

"I do not know, but I fear the worst. The colony has been living in the space between worlds for centuries, we are survivors. But I don't know who could have cut them off so suddenly." Down below, one of the rats chittered at him. "I agree, but don't think that's what happened."

"What did he think? Or she?" Beth frowned when she looked at the rats.

"She said that it could have been an insurrection and we were closed off on purpose. I doubt this only because there have been no rumors of displeasure with the current status quo. My kind have rather enjoyed being official members of this home." He shook his head. "Between the man in your yard and my missing colony, I am at a loss right now. Please excuse me."

With that, Reggie hopped off the counter, and his retinue followed him as he disappeared. Troubled, Beth navigated the kitchen in the dim light and set her cup in the sink. When she turned on the water, it came out at a bare trickle.

"Shit!" She smacked the faucet, then realized it would be better to have Tink look at it. On her way back into the front room, a dreadful thought occurred to her. The electricity was out, and the water was no longer running. Now Reggie's portals had closed.

Were they being cut off?

"Where's the crystal ball?" she asked when she entered the front room. It sat on one of the end tables on a small golden ring that cradled it. She picked it up and blew her hot breath on it.

"Ratu? I need to speak with you right away." Every time she had used the ball until now, the naga had appeared in a matter of minutes. There would be a swirl of purple smoke as the crystal connected to the other side, and then she would appear.

"What's wrong?" Lily asked. Beth held a finger to her lips.

"Ratu? Can you hear me?" She gave the ball a shake. For just a moment, there was a wisp of smoke, followed by the sound of a distant voice. Then nothing.

"Lily, we're being cut off," she said, then set the ball down. "Whatever that thing is out there, it isn't just calling for help. It's isolating us!"

"Fuck!" Lily's shout startled Kisa awake. As she rolled off of the couch and onto the floor, Tink was also startled awake. The goblin tumbled to the floor and landed gracefully on her face.

"We need to check on the others." Beth pointed at Lily. "I need you to see if you can get to the greenhouse. Kisa, check the Library. I'll see if I can open the Labyrinth."

She shot up the stairs before anyone could object, her heart pounding. Once in her room, she felt the first hot tear roll down her cheek as she grabbed the knob of the closet and entered the secret combination that would activate the magic and allow her to enter the cave.

When she opened the door, it was still just a closet.

"No," she whispered, taking a step back. Frozen in terror, she heard Kisa yell from down below.

"It's not opening," she cried up the stairs. "When I pull out the book, nothing happens."

No no no no no. Beth practically threw herself down the stairs and slid across the floor as she entered the office. Kisa was pulling down books frantically as Tink stood by, her features twisted up in horror.

"Magic book is broken," she whispered, then handed it over to Beth.

"How? How is this even possible?"

"How is what possible?" Death strolled out of the sitting room, his face buried in a Highlights magazine from the late nineties. He set it down on the desk, then looked at the books Kisa had thrown on the floor. "Did you know that they have hidden pictures in these? I find them quite enjoyable."

"We're closed off!" Kisa stood on a nearby chair so that she was eye level with Death. "Something happened to the house and the Library is closed. Do you know what that means?"

Death paused for a moment, then looked at the magazine he had set down. "It means I must ration my reading materials," he said, then picked up the magazine once again.

"Death?" Beth looked at the grim reaper with suspicion. "Why aren't you wearing your ear muffs?"

"Because that dreadful man out front has stopped shouting." Death lifted the magazine to look in it, but Kisa ripped it out of his hands.