“Neither of you are exactly subtle,” she said. “Secret conversations. Bouzoukis.” Arms folded, she studied first Charlie, then Jack.

Jack squared his shoulders and met her gaze, no child to be cowed merely because he was expected to be. To his surprise, she smiled.

“Really?”

He wasn’t sure what kind of answer she wanted, so he continued hold her gaze without speaking. When she finally turned her attention back to Charlie, he changed enough to blink his inner as well as his outer lid across dry eyes.

“If I ask you what you’re hiding, Charlotte, will you tell me?”

“No.”

“No?”

“Not yet,” Charlie amended.

“Not until you’ve either solved the problem or discovered you can’t solve the problem.”

“Pretty much.”

Auntie Gwen made a noise Jack couldn’t quite identify. It would have sounded like she was accepting the inevitable had the aunties considered anything regarding their interactions with the family inevitable. He supposed the closest translation would be that’ll do for now. “Then I won’t ask. But don’t leave it too long, Charlotte.”

“Trust me, this one has a best-before date.”

He wondered why Charlie’d put the emphasis on this one rather than trust me, then he remembered that once the aunties lost trust, they didn’t bother to ask questions.

“Most secrets do.” Auntie Gwen turned on one heel and started back down the stairs. Her voice floated up from the stairwell. “Sooner or later, it all comes out in the wash.”

As the sound of her footsteps reached the bottom of the stairs, Jack opened his mouth. Charlie pressed two fingers down against his lips before he could say anything. She moved quickly across the roof, crouched in the doorway where Auntie Gwen had been standing, and brushed her palm across the wood. It looked a little like the motion he used when he fixed a scorch mark. When she straightened, she stroked the open door at hip height. As she turned slowly in place, he saw her eyes flash black, rim to rim. Scales rippled down his spine and his tail lashed once, twice in response to the power she almost never showed. It seemed Auntie Gwen had left charms behind. Two obvious charms, but clearly Charlie thought there was at least one more.

He had no idea how she’d managed to hide a charm when he hadn’t taken his eyes off her.

“How,” Charlie asked as though she were unconcerned about eavesdroppers, “can you choke on your own smoke?”

Unsure if the question was camouflage to hide what she was doing from Auntie Gwen, or if she really wanted to know, Jack crossed the roof and joined her. “It went down the wrong way.”

Arm over her head, she patted the edge of the upper framing, grinned, and flashed him a thumbs up with the other hand. “So you blew it out and then sucked it back in?”