But that was reality for you. If there had been some benevolent force watching over them, there was no way it would’ve let Lily and Maria wind up where they were now.

Tap. Tap. Tap.

Lily didn’t know what had moved the planchette that night. All she knew was that it wasn’t a spirit. Because there was no such thing.

She didn’t know what she’d heard that night at the window. She didn’t know who Maria thought she’d seen in the ballroom, or how she thought she’d been talking to her dead nanny, or what she thought had killed Brandon. She didn’t know why she’d found her favorite photo of her and Maria lying on the floor with the glass cracked over Lily’s face.

All she knew was that none of it had anything to do with imaginary creatures of any kind. This was the real world, not some crappy horror movie.

Tap. Tap. Tap.

Lily had scored a 2380 on her SATs. She hadn’t done that by believing in fairy tales.

But now Lily was afraid.

Not of ghosts. There was a rational explanation for all the things that kept happening. Whatever that rational explanation might be—that was what Lily was afraid of.

But the only rational explanations she could think of all led to Maria.

Lily knew Maria as well as she knew herself. There were a lot of people Maria didn’t particularly like, but she wasn’t capable of actually hurting anyone.

The problem was, Maria hadn’t been herself lately.

Tap. Tap. Tap.

The student health center had decided to keep Maria for a few hours to make sure she slept. They hadn’t run a drug test—Lily doubted they had the equipment for that—but they’d said Maria’s pupils weren’t dilated, she didn’t have a nosebleed, she knew who the president was, and she was probably just stressed about exams coming up.

Lily agreed. Yes, that was probably it.

The nurse said she’d give Maria something to help her sleep through the night, and that Lily should go on back to the dance. Lily told Maria to call her if she needed anything, but Maria didn’t seem to hear. She was lying on the cot, her face tipped toward the ceiling, her eyes moving back and forth like she was watching something Lily couldn’t see.

Lily had no intention of going back to the dance. Instead she’d gone straight to her room and yanked her homecoming dress over her head, tearing off the top button in the process. She’d thrown it over Maria’s desk chair and collapsed on her bed.

More than an hour had passed since then, but none of their friends had come to check on them. No one wanted to be around Maria. Lily didn’t want to either, but no one ever asked what Lily wanted.