Dad folded his hands together and looked directly at me to make it clear that he meant business. “No more candles. I don’t want any open flames in this house.”
This was a reasonable request, I knew. Especially after he and I had lost so much because of fire. But those candles, that ritual—they were the only way I had of protecting Mischa. I was about to object when he silenced me with a wave of his hand. “I mean it. Rhonda was very upset this morning, and I thought all of this nonsense with witchcraft and devil games was over.”
I was just going to have to agree and figure out a more discreet way of conducting the candle ritual moving forward. Arguing would be futile, and if Violet’s spirits were meddling with candles and lighters in my bedroom when I wasn’t home, then it was probably for the best that I kept those materials somewhere outside.
“Okay. Sure, Dad,” I said. As much as I never wanted to return to the Sheridan School for Girls or any type of boarding school like it, the idea of being considered a burden on my dad’s marriage was even more upsetting to me. “Has Rhonda been acting kind of strangely lately because of me? Don’t tell me everything’s fine. I can tell there’s something going on with you guys, and if it’s not cool for me to be here, Mom’s attorney can talk to the judge in Shawano County and figure out another—”
“Rhonda’s pregnant,” Dad said at a barely audible volume. He cleared his throat and took a sip of water as if even saying the words made him uncomfortable.
“Oh.” I was as stunned as if I’d almost been hit by a car. It had never occurred to me that Dad and Rhonda would want to have kids together. The possibility of having a half brother or sister had never even crossed my mind. Rhonda was considerably younger than Dad, but I had always kind of figured that Dad was done with kids, in general. He wasn’t even the kind of guy who liked to joke around with coworkers’ little ones at picnics.
“And she’s having some complications,” he added. “That’s not a great sign, so early on.”
“I didn’t know,” I said, my face turning red. This conversation had suddenly gone in a much different direction than I’d anticipated. “That’s big news. Great news. I mean, not the complications, but I—you know. Didn’t know that you guys were even—” I cut myself off. Talking to my dad about something that even loosely bordered on his sex life was just too gross to continue.
“We’ve always kept things kind of open-ended on the topic of kids. Rhonda didn’t seem too keen on the idea of changing diapers in the middle of the night until… Well, opinions change when different circumstances present themselves,” Dad said, sounding tired. “But right now, it’s important that she not be under any additional stress.”
I held my breath for a moment, waiting for him to specify that stress being caused by me. But instead, he said, “Please don’t mention to her that we spoke.”
CHAPTER 3
AFTER CLEARING THE TABLE, I boiled eggs that I’d have to peel in the morning for Mrs. Robinson and placed them in the fridge. As I climbed the stairs to my bedroom on the second floor to be ready when Trey called, my thoughts were racing. A little half brother or sister? Butterflies swirled around my stomach at the thought of having a tiny sibling around. Of course, my mom might have been upset by the news, but I was getting the sense that her relationship with Glenn was more serious than she was letting on, so perhaps she might not have minded too much if Dad were to have another kid.
And then darkness crept into my thoughts: If Violet’s spirits were able to jeopardize my mom’s safety and lure poor Stephani deMilo out onto thin ice, what chance did a defenseless infant stand against them? Caring about another person only made me more vulnerable. Just when I thought that breaking the curse couldn’t seem less possible, the stakes were unfairly raised on me again.
I stepped into my bedroom, wondering how I might explain any of this to Trey, when I noticed the top drawer of my nightstand had been left open by an inch. I dashed around the foot of my bed to peer inside. My fears were confirmed: the candles, candle holders, salt, and lighter were gone. Rhonda must have thrown them out, and the realization made my heart beat wildly. This would not have been a big deal except that the sun had set. There was nowhere within walking distance where I could buy replacements for any of those items before I had to perform the protection spell again in the morning.
Panicking, I texted Kirsten to ask if she might be able to light the candles in Chicago on my behalf in the morning. Even if she agreed, that still would have been a disruption in the routine, which was troubling. But I had to try.
She hadn’t texted back yet when my phone rang at seven thirty with Trey’s call. Although I really hadn’t wanted to upset Trey with news about Violet or the curse while he was stuck at Northern Reserve, I now felt compelled to at least make him aware that it wasn’t over—if only for his own safety.
“Hey,” Trey said once the operator at Northern Reserve had patched through his call to my cell phone. As always, even under the most awful circumstances, the sound of his voice sent a thrill through me. Connecting with him, hearing his breath on the other end of the phone, knowing just for a few minutes exactly where he was and what he was doing, calmed my nerves even as my pulse quickened. It wasn’t as if contact with Trey made me forget about the danger that Mischa was in, that we were all in. Rather, he reset my belief that one day the nightmare that Violet had unleashed upon us would end. Deep in my bones, I felt that Trey and I belonged together. Knowing that he was mine and I was his reaffirmed my belief that there was order in the world; despite all of the chaos we had yet to conquer, our bond was real, and nothing could tear us apart.
“Hey,” I replied. Subtly updating him about Mischa and her fear of the number three, Mrs. Robinson, and candles in my bedroom lighting themselves on fire was going to be tricky. Since I knew a monitor was listening on the Northern side of the call, I had to choose my words carefully. I assumed from my own experience at Sheridan that the guards at Northern probably only half listened, and most likely had a list of keywords based on Trey’s case history for which they were supposed to keep their ears peeled. So I had to do my best to avoid saying words like “violet,” “curse,” “death,” and “revenge.”
“How are things in sunny Florida?” he asked. “Have you found a date to prom yet?”
“Ha.” From what I’d gathered, prom was a really big deal at Hyde Park High School, even bigger than it had been in Willow. I’d made the mistake of mentioning the chosen theme, Moulin Rouge, to Trey on our last call. I had guessed correctly that he’d find the idea of teenagers in suburban Florida dressing up like turn-of-the-century Parisian courtesans to be amusing. If Olivia had simply not invited Violet to her birthday party back in September and set a horrific chain of events into motion, I probably would have been very excited about prom. I had to believe that one way or another, Trey and I still would have fallen in love that year, and I’d be begging him to humor me by renting a tux. As a tenth grader, I’d imagined going all out for prom with a full-length gown and gloves. But there was no way I’d even consider going to the dance in Tampa with anyone besides Trey. Prom was just one more part of the normal high school experience I’d have to forfeit, and resenting it would prevent me from remaining focused. “Haven’t been looking for one, to be honest.”