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"Are you okay?" Jenna says, and for some reason her soft voice inmy hand, which is full of sweat I nod dazedly

Once the elevator doors close behind us, the alarm stops The silence says that everyone is safe Well, everyone that Linden thinks is important The kitchen staff and all the attendants, as pro about the mansion If the worst happens and they’re sucked into the ether, they can be replaced Houseood orphans

As we’re walking down the hallway of horrors, I ask, "When will dinner be served?"

What I’hn chuckles It’s such an ugly sound He says, "All this one can think about is food I suppose if we’re all in one piece tonight, dinner will be at seven as usual, darling"

I s hter-in-laant hiet bloay I want him to stand alone in the kitchen while knives and pans spin around in the hurricane winds and plates smash at his feet And then I want for the roof to be ripped away, and for hi s

We come to a room that is warmly lit, with overstuffed chairs like the ones in the library, and divans and canopy beds with gauzy lilac and white netting Coes of fake tranquil landscapes The air coets out of her wheelchair, brushing Linden off as she explores the chess table "Is it soirl like yourself has never been taught the cultural art of chess?" House a o, she is now She wants to be cultured as much as she wants to be sexy and well read She wants to be all the things a young girl is not "Teach me?" she asks as she takes a seat

"Absolutely, darling"

Jenna, who hates Househn evenclosed around a bed and takes a nap The do notions; they can’t do hn thinks they will be handy if the mansion is destroyed and we still need someone to knit our blankets and darn our socks Linden sits on the divan surrounded in papers and architectureto amuse himself, with a pencil in his hand

I sit next to hi?"

His dark eyelashes are downcast, like he’s considering whether what’s on the page is worth my time Then he holds it up to show me, and it’s a delicate pencil sketch of a Victorian house flourishing with flowers and ivy But under all that, there’s a stable structure Solid bea s I can even see inside to outlines of floors, and doors with clothes hanging on the knob I can see that a fae, and a wo it The house is at an angle so I can see two of its outer walls A swing in the yard looks like it has just been in e There’s a bowl in the grass, where a dog will take a drink after it returns frohbor’s flower bed

"Wow," I exhale, without htens a little, and then clears the papers away so I can sit closer to him "It’s just an idea I had," he says

"My father thinks I shouldn’t draw families inside the houses He says nobody ant to buy a design unless it’s clean and they can only see the

"I would live there," I say Our shoulders are touching; this is closer than we’ve ever come outside of my bed

"It helps ives it a kind of, I don’t know, soul"

He showscat on the porch, towering office buildings with gleaazebos, and a lone store that pops out of a blurry strip mall And I’m stunned, not just by the precision of his lines, but by the is and explaining his process I would not have iy This kind of deftness and talent

He’s always see in his world is what it seens co Meant to last a natural lifetirew up

"I used to sell lots of designs before" he says, not finishing the thought We both knohy he stopped designing Rose fell ill "I used to oversee the construction, too Watch the drawings coo back to it?" I say

"There’s no tier lifetime The look in his eyes ht

He smiles at me, and I can’t read what it means I think, for just a second there, he looked up and saw heterochros his hand to ers uncurling like so to bloom He looks serious and soft He’s closer than he was a second ago, and I feel ravity, and for some reason I feel like I want to trust hi hands, and I want to trust hi for his to catch it

"I want to see your drawings too!" Cecily says, and my eyes fly open I draw my hand away from the crook of Linden’s elbohere it had soed

I look away fro on a piece of caramel that fills her whole left cheek I scoot over and let her sit between us, and Linden patiently shows her his designs

She doesn’t understand why the rope on the tire swing is broken, or why there’s a solstice wreath on the front door of the e, I can tell, but she keeps ns because she has his attention and won’t relinquish it

I cliauze behind me

"Are you asleep?" I whisper

"No," she whispers back "Do you realize he al She turns to face ot here," she says "Don’t forget"

"No, never," I say