Stella stood up, scanning the room again with a frown. Initially, she had thought there would be secret bird etchings on the bones that would guide her around the room to find the present. “Bird in the bones is so specific,” she said, thinking out loud. “Not on the bones. In.”

Well. Jewel probably had insurance.

Not that that would stop Stella—not her house, not her problem. The only piece of property she had agreed to protect was the tablet. Not stopping to question her sudden glee at the idea of property destruction, she took another stroll around the room. “Where to start,” she said in a singsong voice. “Bird in the bones. Birds in the box.”

Stella selected a bone flute. It weighed almost nothing, and when she shook it, nothing rattled inside. Holding one end, she slammed it into the wall as hard as she could. It popped open like a plastic Easter egg because of the seams. The bones had been meant to snap apart the whole time.

“That’s encouraging.” She broke a few more items—an owl figurine, what looked like a camera, and an airplane—only to find nothing.

There had to be another clue. Something she was missing.

Olive had said, Everything is connected, but bird is the key word as a clue. Where else had she seen or heard about birds? Nicole’s box. The riddle for this room.

And the nonsensical recipe.

Was she supposed to use that too?

Stella walked back to the bone throne and sat, placing her tablet on her lap to pull up the nonsensical recipe. The fourth line said:

Whip two partridges until a psychopomp and circumstance forms.

A partridge was a bird. “Whip the birds? Gotta find the dead things first,” she joked.

Psychopomp and circumstance was an interesting mash-up. Psychopomp was, like, a guide to the underworld. “Pomp and Circumstance” had to be a reference to the graduation song.

“A guide to help someone graduate to the underworld?”

What?

Stella had to be missing something. She stared at the golden door for a moment, pausing to let her brain reset. “C-P-R,” she reminded herself, and reread the challenge riddle.

This time there are two treasures to seek

One is hidden and the other must hide

The first is a picturesque evening grosbeak

The second relies on time being on its side

A picturesque evening grosbeak? Could that be literal? Something like a picture. A portrait? There were three frames on the walls. She didn’t know what a grosbeak was, though, had never even heard that word before, but birds had beaks. Maybe it was a made-up word to mislead her, just like Olive had tried to. She searched the room again, taking her time, moving from right to left.

When she made it back to the bone throne, she sat down. Something caught her eye, but only when she didn’t look at it directly.