Colin peers closer at Max, who promptly bops him on the nose with a paw, startling him. I roll my eyes, plopping the cat back to the floor. “He’s also a giant pain.”

Max flicks me with his tail, impatient to get to dinner.

“Are all Jabberwockies cats?” Colin asks, absently rubbing his nose.

I snort. “If you ask Max, they should be. But no, they come in a lot of different forms.”

“And the house?”

I lead the way down the steps and into the foyer. “The Hollowthorn Woods outside the house is a super powerful source of magic because of how thin the Shield is here, and the original house was built from its trees. Even we don’t really know more about its magic than that.”

We join a thin trail of guests funneling down the hall toward the ballroom. A guest spots Max, remarking about how cute he is, and he raises his head proudly.

“And your family?” Colin asks. “Do they all…see death?”

I shake my head. “We all have different powers. Except my dad; he’s normal. Well, sort of. He’s a relic hunter. Those are magical objects. He’s on a hunt right now.” Although my powers come from Nora’s Irish line, my dad’s Jewish side of the family has some magic of their own, though I haven’t seen them in a long time. My last memory of them is when they came to the inn one October when I was really young, and we built a hut in the yard and ate challah dipped in honey. I remember we were celebrating something, but when I asked my dad about it later, he didn’t want to talk about it.

My dad doesn’t talk about a lot of things, though. Like why he never takes his family’s phone calls. Or why he goes on hunts for months at a time, leaving Nora to run the inn. But when he does return, he always brings me a new funny T-shirt and stays up all night telling me stories. I just wish he stayed a little longer.

I glance sidelong at Colin. With pale skin, dark hair, and shockingly bright eyes, he’s the kind of cute Kara would have teased me about before I finally told her that I have no interest in romance and dating, and never will. The initial shock aside, he’s taking all of this really well. I think he might even be starting to believe me. At the very least, he’s willing to hear me out, and that’s more than a lot of people would do.

Hopefully dinner will help him settle in even more, and then we can get started finding answers.

Colin slows, glancing at the front door.

“Who are you looking for?” I ask.