His body morphs in a single smooth movement, and a low, keening cry erupts from his throat. Gran screams and slams her hands over her ears. Max cries again and the wraith begins to twitch and jerk. Black and white light appears around her skin, gathering shape. Max calls a third time, and the shape of the spirit’s body erupts from Gran’s, looking as if it’s trying to tear itself away.

Max turns translucent and steps through Gran. The wraith’s spirit rips from her, a scream echoing down the hall, before it disappears entirely.

Gran gasps, stumbling to the side, but Max is there, his body solid once again. He curls around her to hold her upright.

“Oh.” She places a hand against him, steadying herself. “Thank you, Maxwell.”

I rush to her side. “Gran! Are you okay?” She takes my hand, allowing me to help her toward her room.

“I’d say so,” Gran replies breathlessly. “It was certainly an experience.”

Max transforms back and trots after us, licking his maw in satisfaction. A door opens and a guest pokes out his head. “I know this place is going for authentic and all, but can you tone down the screaming? It doesn’t even sound real.”

Max snarls at him—the sound of a Jabberwocky, not a cat—and the man pales, retreating quickly into his room. I hear the dead bolt slide home.

I get Gran settled in a chair by the window of her room, and the house starts a small fire in the hearth. It makes me nervous to have any sort of heat in the room, as the whole thing is piled high with books. Books on shelves, books in stacks on the floor, books in dirt-less flowerpots and stuffed into nooks and crannies along the walls and inside the décor.

The pure disorganization of it all nearly gives me a headache, but I know Colin would love it.

“Bibliophile,” I mutter to myself.

As if sensing what’s on my mind, Gran lays a gentle hand on my arm. “It’s not your fault, dear. You didn’t know.”

I shake my head, suddenly feeling as if I might cry. “I was so ready to believe it. I felt like he was stealing my attention.”

I never should have let them send Colin away. He only agreed to go because he thought he was useless, that he’d failed as a Raven, but it’s because of me that he couldn’t use his powers. I’m the one who broke his connection to the journal.

“I messed up, Gran,” I say.

She squeezes my arm. “Everyone does, Anna-love. What matters is what you do next.”

“We have to tell everyone what happened,” I say, determined to make this right. “They have to know the wraith was lying. Colin’s not really a danger to us, is he?”