When I stepped into the hallway outside Mrs. Robinson’s room to call Cheryl, she told me that power lines and cell phone towers had been torn down all over town, which was why I hadn’t heard the news until two hours after the devastation had occurred. No one in Willow had been able to use their phone until service was restored. And our town was so small that it would have taken a lot more than a powerful tornado to create a national buzz on social media.

The big news was that Timber Creek, the gated community where the Portnoys lived, had been where the first and largest of the three tornados had touched down.

“Mischa’s house was flattened,” Cheryl informed me in a strangely calm voice. She didn’t know anything about our failure to fully break the curse. I’d spared her having to feel any sense of responsibility about that since she’d been so eager to help us infiltrate Violet’s New Year’s party, and had played a key role in us getting Violet to participate in a second round of the game in Michigan. She still saw Violet every day at school, and it seemed unfair to put the burden of knowing there was unfinished business on her. “That’s what I heard, anyway. But… McKenna? My mom’s friend from work lives across the street from the Portnoys, and she said that Amanda’s… hurt. Like, badly. It doesn’t… look good.”

Amanda, Mischa’s sister, aspiring Olympic gymnast—on the brink of death. Amanda, the most popular girl in the senior class at Willow High School, who was always with her boyfriend, Brian. She was only eighteen.

My mouth went so dry that I coughed when I tried to swallow. Out of all the streets in Willow, out of all the families I knew in town… the tornado had flattened Mischa’s house. Her sister had been injured—and on the day when I hadn’t been able to perform the protection spell. Suddenly dizzy, I leaned against the cool wall and pressed the back of my left hand against my forehead. I felt like I was dreaming, like what Cheryl was telling me couldn’t possibly be true. It was too horrible to believe.

An unfamiliar throbbing sensation began at the back of my head.

“She must have just gotten home after school. When the tornado hit, it just tore right through the house. There’s nothing left but a pile of bricks. And her body was thrown into my mom’s friend’s front yard. I mean, this is awful, but my mom’s friend said she was out there for over an hour, just, like clinging to life. Ambulances couldn’t get through because there are so many power lines down in the streets.”

I couldn’t feel my legs or feet. It truly felt as if clocks had stopped ticking, and I was standing in a hallway under fluorescent lights in another dimension. The pulsing in my head grew stronger, making it feel as if my brain was beating like a heart, pressing painfully against the inside of my skull. Without even feeling my knees bend, I slid down the wall until I found myself squatting on the floor. A cheerful aide wearing scrubs passed me and smiled, but looked away quickly when she saw the aghast expression on my face.