“If they won’t let us in to see her, then you can just drop me off at Matt’s house. I’m tired,” Mischa replied to him, sounding like she wasn’t the least bit interested in visiting her sister. Then, just as I thought my presence had gone unnoticed because they were about to clear the entrance to the cafeteria and press the button to summon an elevator, Mischa slowly turned to look over her shoulder directly at me, and she smiled.

“Look away,” Jennie commanded me over my earbuds. I maintained eye contact with Mischa for another long moment before tearing my eyes away, and in that second, the overhead lights flickered. Other people sitting in the cafeteria murmured in surprise, even after the lights stabilized. With my eyes focused down on the beige-flecked tile floor, I forbade myself to raise my head and glance in Mischa’s direction. “They’re just trying to intimidate you.”

“Yeah, well, they burned down our house today without even being anywhere near it. So it’s working,” I whispered.

Farther down the hall, a musical ding sounded as the elevator doors parted, and a moment later, Jennie told me, “It’s okay now. They’re gone.”

But it wasn’t okay. Nothing was okay. Glenn was still in the hospital, and if Mischa was so easily able to manipulate electricity then he wouldn’t be safe there—no one would. His injuries were my fault; he’d burned his right arm, which was the arm he used to perform surgeries on animals. The mistake I’d made with the ritual may have cost him his career. If I made another, the man who’d restored my mother’s belief in love might end up dead. My mother might end up dead.

“What should I do now? How do I fix this?” I asked, feeling completely helpless and defeated.

There was a long pause before Jennie replied, “You need to command them out of Mischa’s body and then banish them so that she can return.”

Eager to get out of the hospital now, I began walking toward the waiting area. “Like a real exorcism?” Trey and I had sought help from Father Fahey, the pastor at St. Monica’s, in the fall. He’d turned us away, claiming that aiding us would expose the other priests who lived in the rectory to more danger than he could allow. I didn’t think there was any way he’d entertain the idea of helping us now, not when breaking the curse was even more dangerous.

“Yes. But you’re going to need help. And you shouldn’t be near Mom right now,” Jennie told me.

“She needs me, though. She’s super upset.” I didn’t want Mom spending the night alone at the only motel around for miles. This fire was probably going to cause nightmarish memories to resurface for her. And to be perfectly honest, if I was going to die within the next ten days, I wanted to be around her as much as I could while I still had time.

“You’re making it too easy for them if you’re around her. It’s hard for them to apply energy in more than one place at a time. If you and Mom are in different locations, they’ll fight over who to torment. They won’t be able to come after you simultaneously,” Jennie explained.