“I’m sorry for kicking you out of the house,” I finally say. It’s a big step for me.

Ebb nods. “It’s okay. I understand.”

“I guess we both just want our parents back,” I say.

Ebb nods. “I want to be in the Beyond with mine, and you want to be here on earth with your mom.”

“Tomorrow is only one more day till the dark moon,” I say, turning glum.

Ebb looks at me for a long time. “I suppose you’re not going to run,” he says, sounding resigned.

I think of my packed backpack, then shake my head. I know in my heart I couldn’t bring myself to leave, to give up.

Something seems to move across Ebb’s face, some kind of choice being finally made. “Then… I have something else to show you,” he says.

He moves toward the back of the cave, and gestures for me to follow.

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you before,” he says. “But I wanted you to run instead of giving you false hope.” He pauses and looks at me. “If you’re staying, you’re going to need it.”

He leads me back deeper into the cave, to a little nook completely protected from the water, where only something smaller than a boy could fit. Then he turns to me very solemnly.

“I’m not the only person who used this cave as a hiding place. Someone else did too, many years after I died.”

He nods me forward, and I look inside. I can’t tell what’s in there, so I pull it out. It is heavy in my hands.

“I don’t know how it works,” Ebb says in a warning tone.

I unwrap whatever it is from the bundle of cloth. And gasp.

It’s a quiver full of arrows, and a bow, but it’s also unlike any bow and arrows I’ve ever seen—like a weapon, but also something more. Each arrow is painted with tiny, exquisite scenes: forests and flowers and sunsets and dreamy landscapes. The bow, too, is covered in brightly colored depictions of rainbows and fields and mountains. The paint is faded, but I would recognize my mom’s art anywhere.

And though I have no experience in these kinds of things, I realize what Ebb has been holding back.

And I know a witch hunting weapon when I see one.

CHAPTER 18

If my house is isolated, Germ’s is almost impossible to find. It’s not on GPS or any maps because it’s not really supposed to exist. Her dad, when he was around, parked their mobile home there because the land was unclaimed and it didn’t cost anything, and they just… stayed. It’s like the house that isn’t, tucked behind an old junkyard.

Tuesday afternoon, one day till dark moon, that’s where I go, breaking my promise to myself about leaving Germ out of things.