My books have sheltered me from the moments that are hard, and whisked me away when I needed to escape. They’re like wool that keeps you warm in the cold and cool in the heat. On days when I find it especially hard not to crumple up because I wish I had a different mom or a different life, I escape to them.

Now I read my favorite, well-worn chapter in the whole Harry Potter series, where Ron, Harry, and Hermione make an escape on the back of a dragon they once feared. It’s my favorite because I like how by saving themselves, they save the beast, too. I love most of all the moment when they rise up, and fly.

And like always, even in the face of witches and curses, it works. It calms me. It saves me the way it always does.

And I sleep deeply afterward.

And the witch doesn’t come.

CHAPTER 13

The phone rings downstairs, waking me with a jolt Sunday morning. Before I’m even out of bed, I’m thinking about time: three days till dark moon. Three days, three days, I think with each step down the stairs.

I hurry to the kitchen and pick up our ancient phone from the cradle. (We have an old answering machine, too—all left over from some unknown owner of the house years ago.)

It’s Germ. She’s out of breath, and her words spill out all in a rush.

“So sorry I didn’t call yesterday. After soccer, when I got home, I tried to convince my mom that ghosts exist and told her that we talked to a bunch of them last night. But now she thinks I’m having seizures. She looked it up on WebMD, and it says when you have seizures, you hallucinate. So now she’s not letting me out of the house. Like, except tonight for the Fall Fling. She said I couldn’t call you because we just ‘egg each other on.’ She thinks I’m calling Bibi right now.”

“You’re allowed to call Bibi?” I blurt out, more hurt-sounding than I want to be, feeling betrayed by Germ’s mom.

Germ pauses for a second. “Because of the Fall Fling. We have to organize for tonight. Do you think…” She hesitates. “Do you think you still might be able to come?”

“What?” I ask. My promise to go to the Fall Fling has completely slipped my mind until just this moment.

Germ pauses. “I know, I know, it’s really crazy to ask, with everything going on. It’s just… I can’t back out because of Bibi, and… it’s going to be a disaster and I’m going to be humiliated. But I know it’s not a big deal compared to… everything. I know.”