Still, he couldn’t forget that scary look on Maria’s face when she pushed past him in the hall. What if something was seriously wrong? She’d been acting really weird ever since the séance. What if she’d seen something that night that really upset her? What if she didn’t want to tell anyone because she was afraid they wouldn’t believe her?

And what would any of that have to do with Delilah?

Brandon pulled away after a couple of minutes. “I’m just going to go check on her. Really quick.”

Mateo smiled. “By all means.”

“I’ll come straight back.”

“Take your time.” Mateo was still smiling when Brandon left.

Brandon knocked on Delilah’s door, but there was no answer. So he went down three flights to Maria’s room and knocked again, covering his mouth as he yawned. He’d been up late Monday writing a paper on Julius Caesar, and he’d barely slept since then.

There was no answer at Maria’s room, and no light under the door. Brandon was turning to go when the door cracked open and a voice whispered, “Did it work?”

“Did what work?” Brandon said.

“Oh.” The door opened wider and the light flicked on. Lily blinked against it. “Hi.”

“Hi. Um. Sorry.” Now that Brandon could see into the room, it was clear Lily was alone. “I didn’t mean to wake you up.”

“You didn’t. Everything is fine. I was just studying. How are you?” Lily smiled brightly.

Brandon couldn’t remember the last time Lily had smiled at him when Maria wasn’t there to see. He’d already run into her once that afternoon, in Austin’s room, and Lily’s expression had been just as dull and gloomy then as always.

“I’m okay,” Brandon said. “I just wanted to see if Maria was here.”

“No. She’s at the bio lab. She got special permission to work there after hours on her senior thesis project.”

Uh-oh. Had Maria lied to Lily? Things were even worse than he’d thought.

“Bio lab,” he repeated. “Are you sure?”

“Of course I’m sure.” Lily smiled that bright smile again.

“All right, well . . .” If Maria was keeping a secret from Lily, he wouldn’t give her away. “When she gets back, could you tell her I want to talk to her? She can text me anytime. Even if it’s late.”

“Will do.” Lily just kept on smiling. Brandon didn’t trust that smile.

He said good-bye and started back toward the stairs. As soon as he heard Lily close the door behind him he turned toward the front door instead.

The lights in the hall flickered, then went out. A collective groan went up from behind the closed dorm room doors, but Brandon wasn’t worried about the power.