Hexes and X's (Z&C Mysteries, #3) by Zoey Kane, Claire Kane

do you see that the net is too high up for us to reach, even with the hook?”
    While the two were talking, trying to map out a way to get out of that room, they also had to keep their eyes on the floor, in every direction, in case they were being moved upon. “See that narrow ledge that goes up to the net from the basket? We have to walk it to reach the netting. That is the obstacle to this room.”
    “Claire, you knock away the snakes and get them going out of my way if you can while I do the same and try to manage the basket and the ramp.”
    “Oh, Mom!” Claire breathed with the understanding of how dangerous that could be.
    “It has to be done. It’s the only way. We might as well get it over with.”
    Claire shone the flashlight in the eyes of the snake’s swaying head. All that did was cause it to rise and coil. She then took the walking stick and pushed the end of it along the floor, scattering the majority in different directions. Zo moved ahead with the hook and sometimes hooked it around the body of a reluctant snake, tossing it across the floor to the other side.
    A high-pitched “Zzzzzzzz” sounded.
    “Mom! Stop! Don’t move! It’s a rattler!” Claire took the larger end of the stick and moved it toward the snake’s profile, whereupon it changed its focus and began hissing at the stick with a more frantic “ZZZZZZZZ.” The diamond-head flicked its forked tongue at the end of the pole, coiled up and struck its wet fangs onto it. Zo leaped ahead toward her destination, out of harm’s way, while Claire took a golfer’s stance and drove the snake to another spot in the room. Timing was everything.
    All snakes slithered wildly after that, like everything was too hot to be still. Zo swung her hook up, caught hold of the basket, and threw it upside down. The snakes wound over each other, mad at the intrusion. As Zo pounded the hook on the floor, startling them further away, she spotted a glass vial fall out of the basket and roll a little. Thinking of its odd hiding place, she snatched the vial up and stuck it in her pocket.
    Zo then cleared the skinny ledge of snakes to walk up. She had to press her back against the wall to maintain balance, and crept along like someone on a ledge of a high-rise building. She had to continue upward until she was next to the exit door.
    “What are we going to fill the net with, Mom? I don’t see anything,” Claire called up.
    “With what we’ve got—snakes! Don’t stand under the net in case I drop a couple.”
    In all the excitement, Claire forgot to keep watch of her feet. A speedy black snake looped around her ankle. She held still, holding her breath, until it slid down her foot and away.
    Zo started hooking snakes from below her ledge, and cast them into the net which deepened more with the weight. When the net was filled to capacity, it still wasn’t heavy enough. She reached for the part of the rope hanging above the net, and rode it down, keeping her knees to her chest. The door moaned as it opened completely.
    “One problem, Mom. As soon as you jump off the net, the door will close again. I don’t know if we’ll get through in time.”
    “Get Millicent and lift her into the net,” Zo urged.
    Claire knocked off a snake coiled around the neck of the seamstress form, and with great effort lifted her up into the net, which took it down to the floor. Zo jumped off and they swept their way to the door with their sticks. One viper leaped in attack at Zo, which was met with a swing of her hook-stick like a bat, sending it smacking against a wall.
    They jumped through the waiting door and down a couple large steps. One step pushed down like a giant button. Fearing it triggered a booby-trap, the ladies readied themselves for Indiana Jones’s rolling boulder or the housekeeper’s disappearing floor. What happened instead was a relief—the door behind them rattled down to a close.
    “Well, dear, the good news is we won’t be followed by snakes, and we