I thought of Gundarsson’s and what it might be like for my own wake to be held there. And what would become of Mischa if I died before rectifying her situation? Her soul might remain suspended in the gap between the worlds of the living and the dead for all eternity. “That might not be possible. I’ve messed up pretty badly.”

“There is only one way,” Jennie told me. “And I don’t know if it’ll work.”

“Just tell me,” I urged her. “I have nothing to lose. If it doesn’t work, I’ll be dead in the next ten days, anyway.” After the words left my mouth, I realized how insensitive I sounded. Jennie was dead, after all.

She hesitated. “If it doesn’t work, it might be worse for you than dying. Worse for me, too.”

I couldn’t find words to respond. It was awful enough that Mom was sleeping at the Emorys’ house without even so much as a change of clothes to her name. Poor Glenn was probably going to need surgeries for his burns. Trey was trapped in a web of problems that I couldn’t help him navigate. But putting Jennie in some kind of danger? That, I could not consider.

“Behind you,” Jennie said. The cabinet she had opened to get my attention was still cracked open behind me, and I opened it further to see that it contained teacups, saucers, and a shelf of mismatched coffee mugs. “Take out two teacups,” Jennie ordered, and I obeyed.

“Where should I put them?” I asked.

“On the counter.” I took a few steps forward and set the cups gently down on the floating island.

“Turn them over,” Jennie advised. “Upside down.”

I carefully turned them over and set them down again, and I awaited further instruction.

“See the porcelain canister near the toaster? Lift the lid and take out one coffee bean.”

I’d never realized before just how very aware Jennie was of the details of my surroundings. She was right on the money; the porcelain canister she had instructed me to open was full of aromatic coffee beans.

“Now set one coffee bean underneath the teacup on the left,” Jennie told me.

Amused, I asked, “Are we going to play the shell game?”

“Just watch,” she told me. And the two teacups began moving on their own in circles, swapping places and swerving around each other—slowly, at first, and then so rapidly that my eyes couldn’t keep up with them. I was impressed that Jennie was able to harness enough energy to produce so much motion. The teacups stopped suddenly, appearing to be back in their original positions. Jennie asked, “Which cup do you think the bean is under?”

They’d been moving far too quickly for me to have had any chance of following the bean. But to play along, I raised the cup on the left. Not surprisingly, there was nothing underneath it. So I lifted the cup on the right to find that the bean wasn’t there, either. “I’d be impressed if you weren’t a ghost who can do magic tricks,” I teased Jennie.