The tap came again, once, slow and deliberate, from somewhere beneath the floor.
Ren did not move at first.
Neither did Fang.
The silence in the secure room had become so complete that even the children had stopped rustling. Snow's ears were pricked high, Smoke and Shadow were pressed shoulder to shoulder, and Sylvia sat rigid in Paul's arms, her tiny face turned towards the floor with a seriousness far beyond her age.
Pax was the first to speak.
"That," he said flatly, "is deeply unpleasant."
Ren's gaze stayed fixed on the floorboards. "Yes."
Fang swallowed once. "It wants us to know it is there."
Ren's hand moved, almost unconsciously, towards the ward charm at his waist. "Or it wants us to go down."
Pax stared at the floor as if personally offended by its existence. "Absolutely not. If something is under this house and it thinks tapping is going to lure us into a trap, I am filing a complaint against the universe."
