Dad folded his hands together and looked directly at me to make it clear that he meant business. “No more candles. I don’t want any open flames in this house.”

This was a reasonable request, I knew. Especially after he and I had lost so much because of fire. But those candles, that ritual—they were the only way I had of protecting Mischa. I was about to object when he silenced me with a wave of his hand. “I mean it. Rhonda was very upset this morning, and I thought all of this nonsense with witchcraft and devil games was over.”

I was just going to have to agree and figure out a more discreet way of conducting the candle ritual moving forward. Arguing would be futile, and if Violet’s spirits were meddling with candles and lighters in my bedroom when I wasn’t home, then it was probably for the best that I kept those materials somewhere outside.

“Okay. Sure, Dad,” I said. As much as I never wanted to return to the Sheridan School for Girls or any type of boarding school like it, the idea of being considered a burden on my dad’s marriage was even more upsetting to me. “Has Rhonda been acting kind of strangely lately because of me? Don’t tell me everything’s fine. I can tell there’s something going on with you guys, and if it’s not cool for me to be here, Mom’s attorney can talk to the judge in Shawano County and figure out another—”

“Rhonda’s pregnant,” Dad said at a barely audible volume. He cleared his throat and took a sip of water as if even saying the words made him uncomfortable.

“Oh.” I was as stunned as if I’d almost been hit by a car. It had never occurred to me that Dad and Rhonda would want to have kids together. The possibility of having a half brother or sister had never even crossed my mind. Rhonda was considerably younger than Dad, but I had always kind of figured that Dad was done with kids, in general. He wasn’t even the kind of guy who liked to joke around with coworkers’ little ones at picnics.

“And she’s having some complications,” he added. “That’s not a great sign, so early on.”

“I didn’t know,” I said, my face turning red. This conversation had suddenly gone in a much different direction than I’d anticipated. “That’s big news. Great news. I mean, not the complications, but I—you know. Didn’t know that you guys were even—” I cut myself off. Talking to my dad about something that even loosely bordered on his sex life was just too gross to continue.

“We’ve always kept things kind of open-ended on the topic of kids. Rhonda didn’t seem too keen on the idea of changing diapers in the middle of the night until… Well, opinions change when different circumstances present themselves,” Dad said, sounding tired. “But right now, it’s important that she not be under any additional stress.”