Chapter 25 · The Third Witness

"She's in the basement." Daniel's voice came from behind me, flat and cold. "You go down there, you don't come back up."

I spun around. He was standing at the top of the stairs, one hand on the bannister, the other holding something I couldn't see. His face was pale, the kind of pale that came from not sleeping, from watching doors that shouldn't open.

"Elsie's down there," I said. "She told me the truth. About your family. About the pact."

"She doesn't know the whole truth."

"Then tell me."

He didn't move. Just looked at me like I was already gone.

"You can't save her," he said. "The house took her three hours ago. By now she's part of the walls."

"Bullshit." I stepped toward him. "You said you couldn't destroy the house because you're bound. Fine. But you never said you couldn't get someone out."

"I can't."

"You mean you won't."

His jaw tightened. For a second I thought he'd turn and leave. Instead he came down two steps, slow, like he was walking into something he'd been avoiding his whole life.

"My family made the pact in 1936," he said. "Three witnesses. Three names. One every generation.