“You’re different, though, Margot.” Sadness pulled at Nora’s features. “You’re the owner.”

Kant said, “You have different rules from us. You’re a Hull. The land is bound to your bloodline. It became yours the day your parents were placed into the ground, and it will remain yours until your death.”

A slow, squirming, writhing dread was creeping into her like maggots into a corpse. She took a breath and it whistled on the way down. “I…I can’t do this. I can’t stay here. I can’t.”

“Oh, sweetheart.” Nora rose and moved to Margot’s side. One hand went around her shoulders in a half hug. The other patted Margot’s hand, limp in her lap. “You’ll be all right. It’s hard now, but it will get easier.”

“We were hoping this bad patch would pass before you even arrived,” Andrew said softly. “They normally don’t last this long. We wanted you to move in during a peaceful stretch, give you time to adjust and prepare. But…this one has been bad. It was already going for a week before your parents… Well. And it’s getting worse.”

“I wouldn’t have left if I’d known the bodies were likely to rise again,” Kant murmured. “I can’t tell you why they’re so restless, even after Witchety’s visit. They shouldn’t be. But this can’t last forever. It will pass.”

There was something unspoken in that. It will pass…presuming you can survive it.

Her parents hadn’t. And they’d lived there for decades. She didn’t know the house or the land, or understand the curse even a fraction as much as they must have.

She already bore injuries from the previous night’s encounter. Her left arm was near useless. She was tired, run-down to the verge of breaking. And they expected her to survive however long it took for the badness to abate.

Nora must have felt the shudder move through her, because she made soft shushing noises and began to rock Margot. It was intended to be a comfort, but Margot’s skin crawled at the touch. She was too hot, too short of breath. She felt like she was suffocating.

“You’re not alone,” Kant said. “We’re going to help as much as we can.”

“We’ve already called Witchety for another cleansing,” Ray said. “Things are usually…calmer once she’s been through.”

Margot blinked furiously and felt wetness bead around the edges of her eyes. “Does she know what’s happening here?”

Kant dipped his head. “Part of it. Not much. A few from town—Witchety, Dr. Maynard—know a bit or have figured some out. Most others simply know Gallows Hill as a bad piece of land that they want to avoid.”