I feel sick, and Germ looks mortified. Ebb turns to glare at her.

“Half an hour of seeing, and look what you two have done,” he says, pulling at his hair in agitation. “This is the worst thing that could have possibly happened.”

“I’m sorry,” Germ whispers.

There is a long silence as Ebb glowers at Germ, then me. “I should have never shown you,” he says, shaking his head. “I’m so stupid.”

Germ can’t stand anyone putting themselves down, so she reaches out for Ebb’s hand, and her fingers slip right through his. “Don’t say that,” she whispers. “Never say that.”

I can only think back to the witch, her eyes on mine, the things she said. Tricked. A hidden child. A girl child. End you.

Ebb waves off Germ’s attempt at kindness, angry and cold-eyed. “All I know is, if the clouds hadn’t moved, if the moon hadn’t come out, you’d be…”

“The moon?”

“She didn’t want to get burned,” he says curtly. And then I remember what The Witch Hunter’s Guide said about this, why witches fear the moonlight.

Then he changes tack again, filled with too many thoughts at once. “She means what she says. When the moon is at its darkest phase, she’ll come back for you. She’ll punish us ghosts for knowing about you. We’re all in terrible danger now.”

“When does the moon go dark?” Germ asks.

Ebb stares out at the sky, counting to himself on trembling fingers, his eyebrows low over his eyes. “Dark moon is Wednesday night. Four days,” he says.

“Four days?” Germ puffs, shocked.

I’m trying to make sense of it. Less than an hour ago I didn’t even know witches existed, and now one is coming for me? In four days?

But Ebb is too distracted to respond. He’s pacing, in a ghostly way, floating back and forth across the room, dim and drained-looking.

“You should run, leave here tonight.” Then he seems to reconsider. “No, it won’t be enough. You won’t survive on your own. Now that you have the sight, you’re a bright target; she’ll find you. I know witch curses can’t kill, but when she says she’ll end you, she means it. You’ll need help to get away.”

Germ looks at me, guilt written all over her face. Lost for words, I shake my head at her and give her a well-meaning wince. I know she was only trying to fight for me and my mom.

Ebb looks down at his floating feet, thinking. “We need to talk to someone who knows more than I do,” he finally says decisively, moving toward the hallway. “I have an idea. Come on. I’ll take you. It’s not that far away.”

“Far away as in we’re going outside?” Germ says. “Ummm, no. There’s, like, a witch out there.”