This would have been the perfect moment for Violet to have instigated an argument with me to put the pressure on Mischa to agree to a game. It would have been ideal for the spirits to have tried to prevent me from dying before they specified their offer, before whatever I stood to lose had been defined. With a tight frown, I glimpsed at Violet, but her eyes were fixed on Mischa. My fingers curled into my palms, forming loose fists. Maybe Violet truly had no intention of acknowledging my request. I tried my best not to let my anxiety show on my face; our success that day entirely depended on Violet. I had to believe she could do this. If she didn’t, she was likely going to doom us all.

“You have access to something very special,” Mischa said, folding her hands in her lap and fanning her fingers in a way that was so hypnotic that I averted my eyes. “Or, rather, you will… soon.” I wasn’t sure what the spirits were referring to, but my chin wrinkled in disgust at Mischa’s enthusiasm. “There’s nothing we love more than innocence. And there’s no one who can fulfill our desires with as much ease as a child.”

A child? I didn’t know any children.

But just as I wondered what in the world the spirits were getting at, the answer occurred to me.

Dad and Rhonda’s baby.

“If you want to play another game with your soul as the prize, then your half brother is the only thing you have that we’re willing to bargain for,” the spirits told me, never tearing Mischa’s eyes away from mine.

A brother. Although I felt as if I’d had the wind knocked out of me, I marveled at the unexpected news that Dad would be having a son. He and Rhonda probably didn’t even know their baby’s gender yet.

“If you lose? Then we’ll evacuate this body and relocate to yours. We’ll return to Florida tomorrow instead of you, and we’ll find a way to infect that baby’s soul as soon as he’s old enough to speak. After all, no one ever says no to a baby. He’ll be able to summon the souls of whoever we choose for many, many years.”

Suddenly aware of Jennie’s voice breaking through the static in my right ear, I heard her say, “No! Don’t agree to that!”

“What half brother? Am I missing something here?” Henry asked me.

Ignoring him, I struggled to find my voice, and my objection came out as a whisper. “Not that. Not the baby.”

“What are you doing?” Violet hissed at me, her face scarlet with rage. “Just say yes so we can play the game and get this over with!”

I shook my head at Mischa. “What do you even get by capturing all these souls?” I asked. “What’s the point of all of this? What has the point ever been?”

“Your sister is in a state you’ve heard described as ‘the dark place,’ ” the spirits reminded me. Her eyes were now as dark as charcoal, so dark that the pupils had blended in with the irises. The veins beneath her skin looked darker, almost blackened, like actual cobwebs beneath a thin veil of translucent skin. “As long as we collect souls, we keep ourselves out of a place much, much darker. We like it here, among all of you, where there is work to be done and there are games to be played.”