“What would you do if I asked you to kill me?”

I felt paralyzed. Breathless. “What?”

He leaned toward me. “Would you do it?”

There was something in his expression that unsettled me. Like anticipation, like … hope. But before I could answer, his light brown eyes lit up. “Ah, your clothes.”

He stood—oh God, there were bells on his ankles, too?—and crossed to the door, where he accepted a stack of folded clothes from the downtrodden woman from before. “Thank you, Saba. Here, Andromeda, go get yourself suited up against the cold, and then I’ll give you a tour of the house.”

CHAPTER 5

When I stepped out into the hall, dressed in wool stockings, a dress more fitted to my waist than I was used to, and a sweater, Magnus was waiting for me. He gazed at the walls as the Manifested hands pressed their doughy prints against the walls and ceiling, like a mob trying to get out.

“Good morning,” he said to the hands, before turning to me. “Ready for a tour?”

I eyed the walls warily. I’d felt those hands last night. Whatever they were doing, it had nothing to do with wishing someone a good morning.

“I’m ready.” I handed his sweater back to him and he put it back on before leading me down the hall.

Random items falling off walls in one room. Strange ripples on the floor, like drops of water, in the next. A room that just seemed unnaturally covered in soot.

Everything appeared to be average Manifestations. But after last night, and knowing ten debtera came before me, I knew better than to think that way.

“You should put these on for this next hallway,” Magnus said, picking up a pair of rubber boots from the corner and handing them to me. Then he grabbed a large black umbrella and opened it.

I shuffled in the large boots to keep up as we rounded the corner to the next hall. It was covered in glistening white, feathery flakes drifting down from the ceiling.

I hugged myself and stood a bit closer to Magnus to stay under the umbrella. The snow floated around us as we walked, the inch-deep layer crunching beneath my feet. I wanted to reach out my hand, but I wasn’t sure I should touch it. As beautiful a Manifestation as it was, it was still part of the curse.

We left the wet umbrella and boots at the opposite end of the hall and continued on, stopping in front of a large closet.

“All the supplies you could ever need are in here.” Magnus unlocked the closet and opened it to reveal stacks upon stacks of thin silver disks, all about the circumference of my face. On one shelf there was a basket full of spools of different-colored thread, and beside that a welding pen. “Just ask me or Peggy if you need access.”