I smiled. It was a nice little fire. And it perfectly matched the color of her hair. I felt quite proud of myself.

“I have to do something!” Nixie went on. “Nobody is going to believe this! I need to take a picture.”

Just then the flames went out.

“What happened?” she gasped, looking back and forth from her palm to me. “Where did it go?”

I tilted my head to the side. “Where did what go?”

“Oh,” she said, wagging a finger. “I see what you did there. It’s a secret. I won’t tell a soul. You can trust me, Brynn.”

I laughed.

“But that can’t be it. You have to show me more.”

“I think that’s enough for one day,” I said, moving to shut the door. “Thank you for delivering the flowers.”

She peeked her face into the closing space. “But you will show me more, right? This isn’t the end. Because I’m pretty sure that was the best thing to have ever happened to me.”

“Good night, Nixie.”

“Good night, Brynn. And thank you for the you-know-what,” she said with a big wink. “Talk to you later!”

I clicked the door shut and leaned my back against it.

“What was that all about?”

My aunts, looking quite beautiful in their own silk gowns, were staring at me with their arms crossed over their chests.

“Nothing.”

“Mm-hmm,” Izzy said. “Well, let’s set up. The moon is almost in sight.”

I twisted my hands together.

She rushed over and gave my shoulders a squeeze. “Don’t worry. It will be all right.”

“Nonsense!” Nora shouted.

We both looked at her.

“It won’t be all right.” A smile spread across her face. “With the three of us together—”

“Four.”

We turned to see Gideon coming down the stairs. Both Izzy’s and Nora’s eyes widened at the sight of him.

My aunts may have been surprised, but I wasn’t. Something had changed in Gideon since we had put out all those fires. We had talked about it, and he was warming to the possibility that he could maybe find a way to live outside of the attic. At least for some of the time. He had been experimenting with his poetry, and he was starting to believe that through it, he might be able to get some warning of larger visions before they came to pass and it was too late for him to do anything about what they revealed. Like mini visions before the visions. So far, he said the clues they offered were much more opaque, hints to where things might be headed, but he thought with practice, it could give him more control over his gift. It was hard to say if it would work or not, but he seemed happy with the prospect of things changing, so that was all that mattered to me.

“Gideon,” Nora gasped.

“No,” he said, holding up a hand. “No fuss from any of you, or I’ll go back upstairs.”

“Right,” Nora said sharply, but her eyes were glistening. “As I was saying, Brynn, with the four of us together, tonight will be perfect.”