And so it was that Ivy put her grandmother’s cloak around her shoulders and opened the door, only to find a village girl standing on the stoop. She looked nervous, and she held a pie tightly in both hands.

Ivy recognized her as the little girl she had seen in the bakery all those years ago. It was from this girl’s brother that Ivy had first learned of the witch. Ivy wanted to grab the girl by the shoulders, shake her, and tell her that her brother had been right, but he had been wrong, too. That the witch was far more wicked than he could have imagined.

“Yes?” she said instead.

The girl held out the pie. “It’s for your gran,” she said. “My mother is ever so thankful for the remedy she gave us. My brother’s cough has all but gone now.”

“Thank you,” said Ivy, stepping out onto the stoop. “But my gran is dead.”

The village girl looked at Ivy then, and her face drained of color. She pointed to the ground behind Ivy, but when Ivy looked, she saw nothing at all.

“What is it?” Ivy said. “What’s frightened you?”

“You’ve got—you’ve got no—” The girl’s voice trembled. “You’ve got no shadow.”

Then she thrust the pie into Ivy’s hands, turned away, and fled.

27

When Monday morning arrives, I can’t wait to get to school so Fina and I can talk about the flowers. Professor Swann left them for Gram, I’m sure of it. Could he have been the person in the graveyard on Halloween night, too?

When the bus pulls up to Ruby’s stop, she’s standing on the sidewalk. I wave to her.

But she keeps her head down and doesn’t look at me at all. Not even once she’s on the bus.

She walks right by me. Straight down to where the Graces are sitting on either side of the aisle. The Graces were particularly rude this morning, shaking their heads and staring at me with looks of disgust. Ruby hesitates, then slips into the seat beside one of them.

What is she thinking? I wait for the Grace she’s chosen to look shocked, to shriek at Ruby to get out of her seat. But she doesn’t. She gives Ruby a sideways look and simply shrugs.

The bus pulls away, and I turn my eyes forward, my stomach suddenly flipping over.

When we pull up at Edie’s stop, she climbs to the top of the stairs. She pauses there, staring hard at me for a moment, and then her face does a funny thing.

One second, she’s wearing her usual annoying smirk, and the next, her mouth and eyes are screwing up into this weird worried look. Her shoulders turn inward, and then she brushes past me as quickly as she can.