“I stepped on it,” Felix answered for me, blunt as ever. “I didn’t realize where he was, and I flew down the stairs one morning. And…”

Savannah’s smile fell. “So you can die then. Inside the house. But how does that make sense? You’re almost 150 years old.”

Felix tapped his fingers against his thigh, a nervous habit I had long come to recognize. I wasn’t sure which part of this situation was making him uncomfortable. “You can…” he trailed off, and then started again. “We’ve deduced that inside the house you can’t die of things like starvation or thirst. Lack of sleep. But if you were to get sick or injured…there’s nothing that can be done.”

“So what do you guys eat if you can’t starve to death? And what’s the point in Theo making hooch in the basement?” She looked around the room, seeing her surroundings for the first time. “Do you even have a fridge in here? How do you survive in a Victorian house?”

“Edwardian, technically,” I piped up. “The house was built in 1907, so it’s an Edwardian house.”

Savannah narrowed her eyes at me. “The realtor told me no one knew, or cared, what came after Victorian, so they lumped it all together.”

“Yes, well, the realtor told you wrong.” I smiled, even though internally I was kicking myself for thinking she’d find it interesting.

“How old are you exactly?”

I laughed. “Does it matter?” Would she be completely turned off once she realized I was old enough to be her father? Technically, so was Theo, but he didn’t look it.

She nodded. “It does to me.”

I sighed. “I’m 45. Have been since 1975. Will be for the next thousand years too.”

I watched her eyes widen as she processed the information. Bad? Good? I was desperate to know.

“Anyway,” Felix interrupted. “No fridge. But again, food isn’t necessary.” He looked away from her for a moment, and then pinned her with his gaze again. To my surprise, she stared right back at him, unblinking. “Think of the curse like the tale of vampires. We don’t age inside the house, but we also do not require sustenance. We essentially exist outside of time, our bodies frozen from the moment the curse takes effect. As for Theo’s hooch…”

“Gotta survive somehow, sweet girl.” Theo winked at her, and I half expected her to swoon right under our noses. “Although I am getting down to my last few cans of fruit. Don’t know what I’ll do after that.”

“I don’t even want to think about a sober Theo,” I muttered, but Theo only grinned at me.

Savannah ticked things off on her fingers. “Okay, so no creatures. You can die, but not of old age. No food, but Theo likes alcohol. Am I missing anything?”