Shaking, I got to my feet, noticing that my jeans were soaked from the puddle into which I’d fallen. “Yeah. Wow. Thank you,” I sputtered. “I don’t know what came over me. I couldn’t move.”

The middle-aged female driver, frantic, hopped out of the driver’s seat and dashed toward us, apologizing profusely as other cars slowed down to see if we were all right. Her children, inside the SUV, were screaming at the tops of their lungs. In a daze, I noticed the street signs on the corner where I’d nearly just died—South Willow Avenue and West Platt Street.

I broke into a cold sweat under my raincoat despite the humid morning as I shook off everyone’s help. Fear took over, and—practically disassociating—I ran the rest of the way to school. Once inside the building, I was able to pull myself together enough to look normal, but my hand still shook as I twisted the combination code to my locker. Because that was a warning.…

Violet’s spirits had the upper hand now. Mischa was going to obey all of their orders… and this time, they were going to do everything they possibly could to stop me from interfering.

Including killing me.

Now I understood that Mrs. Robinson had given me the gris-gris because she’d known—and maybe hadn’t wanted to tell me for fear of scaring me—that I was in imminent danger.

I still had moments before the homeroom bell, so I went straight to the cafeteria. I breezed right past the cereal bar and coffee station, and I grabbed a handful of salt packets from the condiments counter. Knowing that there wouldn’t be many people in the outdoor eating area at that hour, I stepped through the double doors and used the compass on my phone to figure out which way was east.

Then I tore open two of the tiny salt packets, poured them into my hand, and threw the salt in the air. A girl sitting at a nearby table with huge headphones over her ears looked up at me in annoyed curiosity. But I ignored her, and instead looked down at the pavement where the salt had landed.

And I involuntarily gasped.

The salt had turned red.

According to Mrs. Robinson, this meant something was “on my tail.” Presumably… something bad.

Throughout the school day, I completely ignored my teachers and scanned the dials on all of the radio apps I’d installed on my phone with my earbuds mashed securely into my ears. I refreshed the Willow Gazette website every minute or so hoping for updates, and worked myself into a state of outrage by lunchtime that news coverage about the damage in town was so vague. I figured that Henry wouldn’t arrive back in Willow until around noon the next day with all of the connections he’d have to make, and not only did I need to figure how to get myself back to Wisconsin before he could hurt Violet, but I also needed more than ever to open some kind of a communication channel with Jennie. Without her direction, I had absolutely no idea what to do.