My lower lip started trembling uncontrollably, and I swallowed hard to keep myself from crying. Trey was facing the biggest crisis of his life, just as big as what I’d been up against back in September, and there was nothing I could do to help him. He’d helped me research ghosts and curses, and he’d done everything I’d asked for and more when we first realized what Violet had done to my friends. But now I couldn’t think of a single way in which I might be able to help him.

“What should we do?” I asked in a tiny voice.

Trey leaned toward me and cupped my face in his hands as a new energy filled his eyes. “I’ve been thinking a lot about Violet, and Olivia, and Candace—but mostly you and me.” He smoothed the hair back from my forehead and tucked it behind my ear. “We’re in over our heads, and this isn’t our battle to fight, McKenna. I know you have this—this—thing inside of you that won’t let you abandon someone in trouble. Maybe because you lost Jennie so young and were too little to save her. But it’s not selfish to want to have a normal life, okay? We tried. We did our best, but now all I want is to go somewhere with you—somewhere else. Somewhere safe. I don’t care if we’re penniless, and Mischa ends up killing every single person in this goddamn town. All I want is to be with you and leave all this behind.”

His face was bright with hope, and I could tell that he expected me to agree. God, how I wished I could. Nothing sounded better than just getting on a bus or a train with Trey and never thinking about the Simmons family, tarot cards, or Willow games ever again. But I couldn’t nod. Couldn’t speak.

“I know I’m asking a lot of you, and I’ll understand if you say no, or need more time to think about it. But if we leave together now, we can go anywhere. I could get a job on a fishing boat in Alaska, and you could get your degree. Or if we go to California, you could go to community college for free! I just think if we stay here, and keep falling deeper into this thing with—with—the Simmons family, and ghosts, and town history? One of us is going to end up dead.”

A fat tear escaped from my eye and rolled down my cheek.

“What is it?” he asked tenderly. “Is it your parents?”

I shook my head and managed to choke out, “It’s not that. I’m—I’m next.”

It took a second for the impact of my admission to register on his face, and he blinked, speechless.

“We had to do something to save Mischa’s sister, and I thought Jennie could protect me, but something bad happened yesterday. And I’m next.”

Trey’s face went pale and he dug his fingers into my upper arms. “No. Oh, God.”