“Just static,” he admitted. Despite the fact that he was wearing a heavy sweater, he crossed his arms over his chest and rubbed his upper arms. “But it’s freezing in here all of a sudden. Can you hear your sister?”

I shook my head.

“He can’t hear me. He’s not a freak like you.”

“Thanks, Candace,” I laughed, feeling overjoyed and emotional, while looking Henry in the eye. I was thrilled to hear my deceased friend’s scratchy voice, even though connecting with her instead of Jennie made me even more worried about what had happened to Jennie when Mischa had read my card. I had to wonder why I was suddenly able to hear Candace; had she been trying to reach me since the fall? Or was my ability to hear souls’ messages growing stronger? “Could you give Henry some other kind of sign that you’re the one talking so he doesn’t feel left out?”

“Ugh.”

The overhead light flickered. Henry startled and squatted as if he’d felt the ground move beneath his feet and he was bracing himself for an earthquake. His eyes looked upward, and he pointed at the light fixture. “Candace did that?” he asked.

“Tell him that’s nothing compared to what I do at Isaac’s house,” Candace said. “He’s hooking up with Hailey West now. Did you know that? I haven’t even been gone six months.”

“Sorry,” I told her. Isaac Johnston was just about the last person on my mind those days. “Candace. The place where you are. Is it… dark?”

There was a long pause before she replied—long enough to make me fear our connection had been broken.

“What’s she saying?” Henry asked.

“Shh,” I said.

She finally said, “It’s hard to explain because things aren’t really light or dark in the way you’d think about where you are. Here, it’s just… nothing. There’s nothing around me in any direction. I can see you guys, but it’s, like, through a thick screen, sort of.”

I was wondering, of course, if Candace had ended up after death in the same place as Jennie. “I can’t talk for long,” Candace continued, making me realize that pursuing this line of questioning to try to establish communication with Jennie again was selfish of me and wouldn’t necessarily solve my most urgent problems. “They don’t want me talking to you.”

I didn’t have to ask who she meant by “they.” “They know she’s talking to me,” I informed Henry, and he also immediately knew which “they” I was referring to.

“Ask her about getting the spirits out of Mischa,” he urged me.

“Candace, Violet’s curse is on Mischa now. We have to use someone else as bait to—”

She interrupted me. “You don’t have to fill me in. I already know all of that. And you already know who the best person is.”

I shrugged at Henry and replied, “I promise you, I don’t already know.”

Candace sighed, exasperated, and I could vividly imagine her rolling her eyes at me. “Come on! Someone who easily influences other people, either through charm or by bullying?”