He was an old man, older than his father had ever lived to be, but he felt as embarrassed saying this in front of his family as he would have at ten years of age. He felt hot, flushed, and he knew his face was beet red. “I know because I’ve done it with her,” he said, not meeting their eyes. “But I… I stopped. She didn’t like that. Now she plans to—” He cleared his throat. “She plans to kill you. All of you.”

“She likes to play blood games,” Bella said.

He looked from his father, to his mother, to his brother and sisters. “Don’t you understand what I’m saying here? You are in danger. If you don’t do something, you’ll end up dead, your heads chopped off.”

“What do you expect me to do?” his father said calmly.

“I don’t know!” Norton was growing increasingly exasperated. “Hunt her down! Kill her!”

“Kill Donna? Your little friend? Billingson’s daughter?”

Norton pressed forward, finger pointed in the air in the classic lecturing position. “She’s not Billingson’s daughter,” he said. “The two aren’t even related.”

For the first time, something like worry crossed his parents’ faces.

“Of course she’s his daughter,” his mother said.

“Did he ever say that? Did he ever tell you that? Have you ever seen the two of them together?”

“Well, no. But…” She trailed off, obviously thinking.

Now he had his father’s attention. “How do you know this?”

“He told me. Billingson. Before he disappeared.”

“Disappeared? He’s—”

“He’s gone. She killed him. Or had him killed.” He knelt down on the floor in front of his father. “You know what this House is. You know what it does. You know why we’re here—”

His father fixed his mother with a look of black rage. “I told you not to—”

“She didn’t say anything. I found out on my own.” He looked into his father’s eyes. “She’s the one who told you not to say anything. She’s the one who told you not to tell us, right?”

His father nodded reluctantly.

“She’s evil.”

“I know that! This whole House is evil!”

“No, it’s not.”

Darren and Bella and Estelle had been quiet all this time, and Norton glanced over at them. They looked scared, but not exactly surprised, as though what they’d feared had turned out to be true.

“She likes to play blood games,” Bella repeated softly.

Their father nodded. “Yes,” he said tiredly. “She does.”