“I think they pushed Delilah, too.” Maria turned the hot water on full blast and scrubbed at the dirt on her neck. Everything was falling into place, slowly. “Not Altagracia. One of the others. Delilah saw the spirits on the lake that night. Maybe one of them followed her inside.”

“Maria, I’m begging you, please try to act normal tonight. You can’t be talking like this. There aren’t any ghosts in the lake. There aren’t any ghosts at all.” Lily tugged on the soft ends of her curled hair. “Nothing pushed Delilah. She was high. She jumped out a window.”

Maria wished Lily would listen. It was all so simple if you just thought about it for a minute.

She didn’t know how many spirits were at Acheron with them. All she knew was that Altagracia wasn’t the only one. It had definitely been one of the others that had hurt Delilah.

Maria could feel the spirits now. It was only a weird tingly sensation, nothing she could’ve put a name to, but she knew when they were there.

Every time she walked past the old dining hall, she remembered that shadow she’d seen crouched on the ceiling. She didn’t know who, or what, that shadow had been, but it wasn’t Altagracia. The shadow spirit was something darker.

She tried to remember the stories Altagracia had told her. When she was little, she’d thought they were just that—stories. Now, though, she knew they were something more.

Altagracia had known about the spirits. She’d seen them herself, just as Maria had. When she told Maria about La Llorona, and all the others, she was trying to help Maria. To teach her what she knew. Then Altagracia had died before she could tell Maria everything she needed to learn.

Maria wished she’d told her something that could help her understand what she was feeling now. All these strange sensations that rippled under her skin.

“Don’t you think it was weird how it happened?” Maria said. “You don’t really think it’s all a coincidence, do you? This whole thing, Delilah and Brandon both—it’s been the spirits all along. They’re helping me, but at the same time they’re trying to get to me. I can’t let them do that.”

“Brandon?” Lily’s high-pitched voice was back. “What do you know about Brandon?”

Maria splashed more water on her arms. The hot water from the faucet turned to steam when it hit the cold air, pouring out of the sink and into the room to surround Maria where she stood.

“You’ve got to tell me,” Lily begged. “What are you talking about? What happened to Brandon?”