The Claiming (The Last Resort #2)
Author: Jasmine Warga
Date: 0101-01-01 00:00:00+00:00
Description: The next evolution in interactive storytelling is here! A must-read from New York Times bestselling author Jasmine Warga! For the first time, Teddy is actually excited for the school year to start. His new neighbors, Lila and Caleb, are transferring to his school, which means he'll finally have real friends! But Teddy has a secret he's desperate to protect — one that explains why none of his classmates have spoken to him in years... And that's not all. Despite having sent the fire maiden back through the portal, strange things keep happening at the Castle Hill Inn. Teddy's nightmares are back
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.

IN MEMORY OF MY GRANDPA, WHO ALWAYS LIKED TWISTY STORIES

1. Game Instructions
2. Title Page
3. Dedication
4. Chapter 1
5. Chapter 2
6. Chapter 3
7. Chapter 4
8. Chapter 5
9. Chapter 6
10. Chapter 7
11. Chapter 8
12. Chapter 9
13. Chapter 10
14. Chapter 11
15. Chapter 12
16. Chapter 13
17. Chapter 14
18. Chapter 15
19. Chapter 16
20. Chapter 17
21. Chapter 18
22. Chapter 19
23. Chapter 20
24. Chapter 21
25. Acknowledgments
26. About the Author
27. Copyright

Teddy jolted out of bed as the first rays of sunlight made their way into his room. He was too happy and excited to go back to sleep. His new friends, Lila and Caleb, were back from their visit to Arizona, and they all had plans to meet up later. He couldn’t believe it. He, Teddy, was going to hang out with real-life friends! Actual kids his age! Lila was even switching to his school!

His heart raced in his chest. But not in an unpleasant way. Instead, in a vibrant, seize-the-day type of way.

It was too early to go over to the inn where Lila and Caleb lived, so he went to his computer and opened the Phantom Hunters forum—a site about ghosts, paranormal activity, and unexplained mysteries. He’d been a member of the community for years. But ever since he’d posted his story about facing down the Fire Maiden with Lila and Caleb, he’d become, well, kind of a big deal!

He quickly scrolled through the comments, soaking in every bit of praise and adoration for what he and his friends had accomplished. And that gave him even more energy!

Normally, he was sluggish in the morning. Especially when he’d had one of his nightmares. Mornings during the school year were a particular struggle. His mom repeatedly yelling up to him. His sisters yelling. And finally, his dad knocking on his door. (His dad was not a yeller.) It took a while for Teddy’s brain and body to warm up. But today, he felt like he could run a hundred miles, ace a math test, and clean his room in one fell swoop.

Luckily, none of those things needed to be done because it was still summer. Two glorious days left. Teddy planned to enjoy every second of them. And he hadn’t had a single nightmare since they’d forced the Fire Maiden through the portal!

He threw his favorite Goonies T-shirt on over his head and burst out of his room, flying down the stairs. Nadia was already in the kitchen, dressed in her lifeguard uniform. Her curly black hair that matched his was pulled into a braid.

“You’re up early,” she said.

He could hear the judgment in her voice. His sisters were morning people. More than that, they were what he called shiny people. Responsible people. Good-at-everything people.

And he was Teddy.

If they didn’t all share the same hair, he would have serious questions about whether they were related.

But today was different. Today was not a day for feeling bad about himself, because he was a hero today. He was not only a hero; he was a hero with FRIENDS. It was like he hadn’t realized how lonely he had been for years, but now there was a buzzing inside him, a lightness. He beamed as he grabbed a bowl for his cereal.

“What’s with you?” Nadia asked Teddy, narrowing her eyes as his other sister, Dena, entered the kitchen. She was dressed in a polo and pressed khakis. She had an internship at city hall. It sounded to Teddy like she mostly sorted mail, but the way she carried herself you would think she was the president.

Dena playfully rubbed the top of Teddy’s head. “Surprised to see you so early, bud.”

“It’s not like I always sleep in,” he said, filling his mouth with a spoonful of sugary cereal.

“Right.” Nadia and Dena exchanged a smirk.

“Plus, what’s wrong with sleeping?” Teddy continued. “You know it’s the most important thing you can do for your brain. And I’ve had a lot going on. I’ve needed to get rest for my strength.”

“Haven’t you just been watching your horror movies?” Nadia shot a judgmental glance at his T-shirt. “Or staying up late on your computer solving cold cases?”

Teddy took another bite of cereal. He was dying to tell them about the Fire Maiden, but he knew that never in a million years would they believe him. Plus, worse than not believing him, they would think he was hallucinating. That he was seeing things again. That his bad nightmares from before were back. That he was obsessing over the one terrible thing he was supposed to be over by now.

“They’re not my horror movies,” he finally decided on saying. “They’re movies that are beloved by many across the world.”

“Right,” Nadia said again. Right was her favorite word. Teddy wondered if that was because she was used to always being right. Nadia was the oldest in their family, and she had set an impossible standard for everyone. Not only was she a star student, she was also an accomplished athlete. Last year, she had earned the silver medal at the swimming state championship. This year, she was determined to get gold. She was working this summer as a lifeguard at the local pool. Or rather, she was the head lifeguard, thank you very much.

Dena did her best to follow in Nadia’s footsteps. She, too, excelled at school. She, too, had extracurricular activities where she was celebrated.

Teddy had his horror movies.

He was also the top commentator on the Phantom Hunters board. Not that his sisters cared about that. But it was a pretty big deal.

And, Teddy thought, smiling again, I saved the world. Or at least the town. That felt big enough to be important. Right?

Outside the kitchen window, a sparrow flitted from branch to branch of the big old maple tree. You’re welcome, Teddy thought. I saved you.

Again, he didn’t know if this was strictly true. But it seemed safe to reason that if the Fire Maiden wrought destruction on the entire town, the tiny brown sparrow would have been adversely affected.

Lila, Caleb, and Teddy had managed to force the Fire Maiden back through the portal—the mirror that acted as a passageway between the land of the living and the spirit world. She was gone. They were safe.

Everyone was safe now. The nightmares that’d plagued the town were gone. Although he would have given anything to have saved poor Mr. Santiago, whose pug, Meatball, now lived with Lila and Caleb.

His sisters were talking to each other. Trading notes about all the important things that they were going to accomplish that day.

Through a mouthful of cereal, he asked, “Where are Mom and Dad?”

“They took a morning jog together because Dad doesn’t have to be at the clinic until eleven. It’s Wednesday,” Nadia answered.

She said the words It’s Wednesday in the Are you clueless or something? way she often addressed Teddy.

“Right,” he said, trying on her word for size.

His father ran the local veterinary clinic. His mom managed the finances for said clinic. It was sort of adorable that they got along so well. But Teddy was twelve, and almost in seventh grade, which meant he was no longer allowed to find anything about his parents adorable. Or at least not out loud.

“They trusted that Dena and I could keep an eye on you. Though we figured you’d still be sleeping before we left. I was going to write you a note—”

“I can handle myself,” Teddy said. He didn’t wait for her to butt in with one of her rights. Instead, he kept talking. “And I have a busy day today. I’ve been working on a very important project with my friends.” He paused, chewing some more cereal. Froot Loops, in Teddy’s opinion, should be their own separate food group. They were one of the most delicious things on the planet.

“It’s something very important,” he repeated. “My best friend and I … well, I can’t talk too much about it.”

Dena’s eyebrow shot up. Nadia spun around to stare at him.

“Your best friend?” Nadia asked, incredulous.

“Something very important?” Dena asked, echoing Nadia’s incredulity.

“Yes.” Teddy put his spoon down. He reveled in having his sisters’ full attention. “I can’t tell you too much about it because it’s top secret, but we had a huge success recently. It’s all very exciting.”

It had been years since Teddy had talked about friends with his sisters. Mainly because he hadn’t had any to talk about. He didn’t bring home friends after school. And he never got invited over to anyone else’s house, either. No birthday parties or afternoon arcade hangouts.

His family had chalked this up to Teddy’s eccentric personality. His obsession with his Phantom Hunters online forum and ’80s horror movies. And that definitely didn’t help. But they refused to accept the real reason: After everything that happened that winter when he was nine … other kids avoided him. Some didn’t know what to say. Others seemed a little afraid of him. That’s why Teddy had been so grateful for the Phantoms; they were from all over the world, and didn’t know anything about his past.

His mom was always trying to encourage him to get off the computer and make friends “in real life,” as if that were so easy.

But now he had friends. In real life. And he was going to talk about them.

“Okay, Teddy Bear,” Nadia said with a laugh. Dena giggled, too.

Heat rose in Teddy’s ears. He didn’t want to let them get to him. Not today of all days. But he couldn’t ignore the annoyance that was rising in his belly.

He tried to calm himself down by remembering that Lila’s dad called her Lila-Bear. It was something they had in common. His friend!

“Fine.” He stood up and splashed the remains of his cereal out in the sink. Tiny dots of milk splattered on the countertop. “You don’t have to believe me. But I’m probably responsible for saving your lives.”

His sisters laughed some more. Teddy shook his head. He was determined not to let them get him down. He had done something important.

And even greater than that, he had plans today.

Plans with his friends.

Teddy’s body was still buzzing as he crossed the yard to head to Lila’s. It was strange to think of the big brooding mansion next door as Lila’s house when it had belonged to Grandpa Clem for so long. Teddy missed Grandpa Clem—who’d insisted that Teddy call him “Grandpa Clem” even though they hadn’t been related. He’d pretty much been Teddy’s only real-life friend. But it made him feel better when he thought about how happy it would make Grandpa Clem to know that he and Lila were such good friends.

Sometimes, he would look up at the darkened windows of the house and think that he spotted Grandpa Clem. But whenever he raised his hand to wave, the silhouette disappeared.

Grandpa Clem had been the only adult in Teddy’s life who hadn’t found his obsession with the paranormal odd. Actually, it was the complete opposite. Grandpa Clem had trusted Teddy. He had told him about how the inn wasn’t a hotel for people—it was a place for spirits passing on to the afterlife. He had let Teddy in, confided in him.

It had made Teddy feel important.

It had made Teddy feel less lonely.

Outside, the summer morning air was already hot, the grass dewy, as if it was sweating just like Teddy. He climbed the stairs up to the front porch, and they creaked under his weight. He liked how the house made these sounds. Some people probably would’ve found it creepy. But Teddy viewed it as the house greeting him.

“Hello to you, too,” he said.

The door was slightly ajar, so he didn’t bother to knock. He let himself in and found Caleb lounging on one of the living room’s velvet couches. He was playing a handheld video game and letting out a string of incomprehensible comments.

“Hey,” Teddy said.

Caleb didn’t respond.

“HEY,” Teddy said again.

“Oh, sorry,” Caleb said, looking up from the game. When he saw Teddy, he sprang from the couch and his face split into a wide grin. “Sorry. Hey, Teddy. What’s up, man?”

Teddy knew it was kind of cheesy that this greeting made him feel so good. Caleb was younger. A little kid, really. But no matter, it still felt really nice to be liked. At school, kids mostly ignored him. Sometimes, they would whisper behind his back. The whispering used to be a lot worse. But now it was mostly cold indifference. Sometimes, Teddy actually missed the whispering because at least he knew people saw him.

But Teddy wasn’t going to think about that now. He matched Caleb’s smile.

“Hey, hey, where’s Lila?”

A gust blew through the room, causing the foyer doors to slam. Teddy jumped. Caleb froze, eyes wide.

“What was that?” Teddy asked, his voice cracking a bit. He’d mostly grown used to sensing the ghosts that drifted through the inn—Grandpa Clem had taught him not to be afraid—but that was before he’d witnessed the power of a truly evil spirit.

“I can see them now,” Caleb said quietly. The hairs on Teddy’s neck stood straight up.

“You can?” Teddy didn’t need to ask who Caleb meant by “them.” But only channels like Grandpa Clem and Lila could actually see and talk to ghosts. Caleb wasn’t a channel. Teddy wasn’t a channel. Unless …

“Yeah, ever since we got back from Arizona.”

“You can see them, without the channelstone?” Teddy clarified. Both he and Caleb had gotten a glimpse of the spirits in and around the inn after they’d found the powerful stone Grandpa Clem’s former business partner, Blight Howler, had hidden away.

Caleb nodded.

Teddy’s stomach swirled with a mix of fear and jealousy. He’d always wanted to be able to see ghosts unaided. But also, that would mean he would be able to see … ghosts. Once you could interact with the spirit world, there was no going back. It’d be a part of your life forever.

Another rush of wind. The heavy window drapes fluttered, and dust filled the room. Teddy coughed.

Then a thin boy appeared from behind the drapes. He was dressed in trousers and a billowy white shirt. His hair was the color of wheat, and his sharp blue eyes had a hungry look to them as he scanned the room. Then he sighed and drifted off.

“Who—who is that?” Teddy asked Caleb.

Caleb looked at the boy and took a deep breath, steadying himself. “That was Jeremy. I guess you can see them, too.”

Teddy gulped. His scalp felt hot and itchy as he processed what was happening. But then excitement spread through him, bursting in his chest like fireworks. This was incredible! He could see ghosts! A million questions bubbled in his brain. When was Jeremy born? Did he know how he’d died? Teddy wanted to learn as much as he could, and then maybe he’d be able to help the spirit find his way to the portal. Sometimes, ghosts just needed a little assistance with their unfinished business. Before he could figure out what to ask first, Lila walked into the room.

Teddy darted toward his living friend and gave her a big hug.

Lila returned his hug. “Teddy! The Trionic is back together!”

“I can see ghosts, Li!”

“Yeah, Caleb can, too,” Lila said, a bit more quietly. “I guess our final encounter with the Fire Maiden counted as a ‘near-death experience.’ ” Lila had only become a channel herself after a brush with death during a car accident.

Teddy shivered, recalling their last showdown with the Fire Maiden. She’d been a hot-headed circus performer in the nineteenth century who’d used the stage name “Spitfire.” During an argument with the circus owner, the Fire Maiden’s brother, Grail Grimsbane, killed their boss to protect his sister. The Fire Maiden then started an enormous fire to hide the evidence and didn’t give the other performers time to escape. She’d always been jealous of them and felt they were getting what they deserved. Apparently, no one involved with the circus had “appreciated” her talents.

Teddy knew what it was like to feel underappreciated, but that didn’t mean he was going to set anything on fire.

The victims’ ghosts had been trapped in the town until Lila, Teddy, and Caleb helped them solve their unfinished business—learning how they died—and cross through the portal. This had made the Fire Maiden furious, and she’d done her best to kill the children until Lila managed to push her into the portal.

But there were still ghosts stuck in the inn, spirits whose unfinished business had nothing to do with the Fire Maiden or the circus fire.

“Have you met Jeremy?” Teddy asked.

“He’s been hanging around,” Lila said, a bit uneasily. Seeing ghosts was still new to her as well.

“Do we need to help him pass?” Energy was surging inside Teddy. He could feel it zip-zapping from his toes up to his head. He sprang onto the couch, kicking his feet.

“Sorry. I don’t mean to be weird. I just—”

“In the Trionic, no one is ever too weird or too much,” Lila said firmly.

Teddy smiled as wide as he could.

“So,” Caleb said. “What other ghosts are still in the inn? There was Bridget, right? And Mary? And that Timothy kid we saw nearby?”

“They’ve passed on!” Teddy said proudly. “I asked one of my friends from the Phantom Hunters forum to help them solve their unfinished business. And they all had these incredible stories.” His face fell slightly as he remembered what they’d learned, all the sorrow and loss the ghosts had experienced before they found peace.

He couldn’t believe that he was not only an expert on something, but an expert on something that people wanted to hear him talk about.

“I’m happy that Timothy got to pass, but I feel like I’m going to miss him. Is that weird?” Lila balanced on her tiptoes for a moment. “I was practicing this stretch in Arizona. Is it weird that I keep talking about so many different things?”

Teddy shook his head. “Nope! Remember, no one is ever weird in the Trionic. And everyone is always weird!”

Lila practiced her balance again. She fell. “Ugh,” she said. “Someday I’ll get it.”

“Can you tell us some of their stories?” Caleb asked. “Of the ghosts that passed on?”

Teddy puffed out his chest, enjoying the feeling of importance. “I thought you’d never ask.”

“Never ask what?” Lila’s mom said as she stepped into the living room. “Oh, hi, Teddy. It’s nice to see you again.”

“Hi, Mrs. Clement,” Teddy said brightly. “How was your trip to Arizona?”

“Good, good,” she said. “You can see I got some sun.” She stretched her arm out so Teddy could see her tan.

“Mom!” Lila said. “Don’t be weird.” Then she flashed Teddy a smile, an acknowledgment of their inside joke.

It’d been a long time since Teddy had had an inside joke with a real-life friend.

“Oh, come on,” Lila’s mom said. “Getting a tan is not weird.”

“Making us stare at your arm is, though.”

“Noted,” Lila’s mom said. “Now it’s back to work. And the inn’s Wi-Fi suddenly isn’t working. Is it working for you guys?”

Teddy checked his phone. “Nope.”

“It’s not working for me, either,” Lila said.

“And I don’t have a phone!” Caleb said. “Mom, can I get a phone?”

Mrs. Clement pinched the bridge of her nose. “This is no good. We need the Wi-Fi to work if we’re going to welcome guests to the inn.”

Teddy and Lila exchanged a look. It’d been years since regular guests had stayed at the inn. Lila’s parents assumed it was because Grandpa Clem had gotten “too caught up” in his “various hobbies,” but the kids knew the truth—a house that contained a portal to the afterlife was just too haunted for most people.

Once Mrs. Clement had left the room, Lila asked, “Did the ghosts say anything else about the Fire Maiden? Like, do we think she’s really gone?” Lila wrapped her arms around herself. Her face suddenly went pale, like she was remembering the horrors from earlier in the summer.

“We’re safe,” Teddy said. He put his hand on her shoulder. “And the ghosts that passed wouldn’t have said anything about her, anyway. They didn’t die in the circus fire. So they had nothing to do with her.”

“I guess … It just seemed like all the ghosts in the inn were afraid of her. Remember Sara-Elizabeth? She said she didn’t like the Maiden, and she died decades after the fire.”

“Hm,” Teddy said. He watched as Lila continued to shiver. He squinted at her. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah,” Lila said. She rubbed her arms again. “It’s just … never mind.” She looked down at her socked feet.

“Show me the tiptoe move again,” Teddy said.

“You don’t think it’s babyish?” Lila asked.

“No way,” Teddy said.

Lila went back up on her tiptoes. She stretched her arms above her head. She counted aloud. “I made it six seconds that time—progress!”

“Progress for sure.”

“Guys,” Caleb said. He put his video game console down beside him. “No one needs to be scared.”

“I’m not scared,” Lila said quickly. She bit her bottom lip.

“It’s okay if you are,” Teddy said.

“I’m not,” she said.

“Good!” Caleb said. “Because the Fire Maiden is gone. We banished her. We won!”

“Caleb’s right, Li,” Teddy said. He kept trying out the nickname. So far, she hadn’t told him to stop. “This is the part of the movie where we get to celebrate.”

“No,” Caleb said. “This part isn’t in the movies because it’s boring. The final credits have already rolled. Speaking of boring, school starts soon. Yuck.” Caleb grabbed one of the dusty old decorative pillows and pulled it to his chest. “I don’t want to go back to school.”

“Caleb, sixth grade is easy breezy,” Lila said. “You have nothing to worry about.”

“Easy for you to say. You’re done with it,” Caleb retorted.

“I was amazing at fourth grade, thank you very much. I made an excellent papier-mâché replica of a victim of the bubonic plague.”

“Whoa!” Teddy said. “I wish I could have seen that.”

“Yeah,” Lila said. “It was super cool. Wasn’t fourth grade just the best?”

The warm excitement that had been bubbling inside Teddy fizzled out of him. He didn’t want to think about fourth grade. Fourth grade had been one of the worst years of his life.

He looked at Caleb. “Yeah. Fourth grade is … you’ll be fine,” he said slowly.

“See?” Lila said triumphantly, putting her hands on her hips.

Caleb stuck his tongue out at Lila when she wasn’t looking. He exchanged a sneaky smile with Teddy.

“I’m just so glad everything from earlier this summer is over,” Lila said. “Now we can focus on school. You’re going to introduce me to all your friends, right?”

Teddy gulped. “Um, yeah, definitely.” What would happen when she realized he didn’t have any friends at school? Would that end up being too much weirdness for her to handle?

He watched as Lila moved to brush her hair away from her face. For a moment, Teddy thought he saw her hand flicker. He blinked and everything went back to normal. He rubbed his eyes. Nothing to worry about.

He scanned the room for another ghost, but it was empty.

For now.

Teddy was standing on the edge of the frozen lake. His mouth opened, but he couldn’t make a noise. No matter how hard he tried. Teddy could feel the cold of that day, the harsh slip of the ice, the spit of the sleet on his cheeks. He could hear Ethan’s screaming, his pleading.

He kept opening his mouth, yelling and yelling, trying to reach Ethan, trying to let him know that he heard him, trying to let him know that he was going to help. He would do anything to help. But his feet felt chained to the ice. He couldn’t see anything, only a whirl of sleet, Ethan’s panicked voice echoing all around him.

“No, no, no!” Teddy screamed.

His door swung open. A light flicked on. He woke with a jolt, his forehead coated in slick sweat. Outside his window, the wind was howling. He could see the shadows of swaying trees cast on his wall.

At just that moment, a crack of lightning illuminated his whole room. And then a big crash of thunder. He balled his fists, grabbing at his sheets.

When Teddy was younger, he loved storms. He liked interesting and extreme weather of all kinds. But that changed when he was nine. That changed after Ethan and the accident.

He closed his eyes. He didn’t want to think about Ethan.

“Habibi, are you okay?”

He opened his eyes again.

“Habibi,” his mom repeated. “It’s okay. I’m here.”

His mother didn’t usually speak in Arabic. But his father had taught her a few words. And her favorite one was habibi, which meant “sweetheart.”

She bent down and kissed the top of his head. His forehead was still sweaty, but he was shivering so hard that his teeth were chattering.

“Yeah, I’m okay. I’m sorry, Mom. I didn’t mean to yell.”

His mom sat down at the foot of his bed. “It’s okay, baby. You’re safe. You know that, right?” She gave him a concerned look. “It’s been a while since you’ve had a nightmare. Is anything going on?”

Teddy’s throat was dry. He couldn’t tell his mom he was thinking about Ethan. That wasn’t something they ever talked about. It was an unwritten rule of their house.

“Just …” Teddy gazed out his window. The storm was outside, but it somehow felt inside him as well. The crashing and booming. “Just … preparing for school,” he managed to stammer.

“Oh, sweet boy,” his mom said. She placed her hand on his forehead. “You’re so warm.”

Teddy shivered again. He didn’t feel warm at all. He wiggled his toes under the blanket. It was true—he hadn’t had one of these nightmares in weeks. Not since they’d sent the Fire Maiden through the portal.

“I’m just a little nervous for seventh grade,” he said.

That was true. But it wasn’t the whole truth.

He was admittedly feeling a little nervous about Lila seeing him at school. He hadn’t exactly been the most forthcoming about his social status. How desperately bad it was. He’d tried to play it cool. But now Lila was going to learn the truth. That none of his classmates liked him. Worse, even: None of his classmates noticed him.

He imagined Lila learning this, and deciding to ignore him, too.

“You’re going to do great,” his mom said. “Remember, this is the year that you’re going to start taking school seriously, right?”

Her voice was still sympathetic, but she was looking at him in a way that Teddy hated. All expectations. Expectations that he surely wouldn’t meet.

She stood up from his bed. She switched the light back off. “Try to get to sleep. And remember, you have one more day of summer to enjoy.”

Teddy snuggled back down in his bed. He tried to think about what he wanted to do on the last day of summer. Maybe he and Lila could ride their bikes to Dairy Queen. He pictured himself ordering an extra-large Oreo Blizzard.

But as much as he tried to hold on to those thoughts, they kept drifting away. Replaced by the image of Ethan’s panicked face.

Replaced by images of that horrible day many years ago. The horrible day that changed everything for Teddy.

The morning of the first day of school, in an attempt to brighten his spirits, Teddy laid out three of his favorite T-shirts on the floor. All of them were tributes to movies—Jaws, Ghostbusters, and The Shining. The Shining one was pretty intense. Lime green and featuring a large Jack Nicholson smiling in a completely unhinged way.

Teddy loved it. He loved it so much. But no one else seemed to love it.

He almost chose to wear it, but decided it would probably be too much. He didn’t want to do anything to creep Lila out. He was just about to throw on the Jaws one when he heard his sister yelling.

“Teddy Bear!” Nadia called up. “You don’t want to be late!”

“Coming,” he mumbled, pulling the T-shirt on over his head.

By the time he made it downstairs, he only had three minutes to eat breakfast before he was supposed to meet Lila in front of the inn. They had made plans to walk to school together. Which was absolutely awesome. Like infinity awesome, there-weren’t-enough- exclamation-points-in-the-universe awesome. For the first time in years, he was going to be walking into school with a friend!

“Teddy,” his mom said, and he dodged away from her touch as she tried to smooth down his curls. “Did you even comb your hair?”

Teddy ignored her and took a few quick bites of his peanut butter toast.

His sisters chattered together, comparing schedules, not so subtly bragging about all their honors classes. His dad hummed to himself as he watered the succulents by the kitchen window.

Teddy looked at the clock. He was already a minute late. “I’ve got to go!”

“What?” Nadia said. “We don’t have to leave for another five minutes.”

“I’m not going with you,” Teddy said, the storm-cloud feeling of first-day nerves clearing for a moment. “I’m walking with Lila.”

His mother took a sip of her coffee, smiling. “I told you, Nadia.”

Nadia narrowed her eyes. “That’s your new friend?”

“Right,” Teddy said, beaming. “Anyway, I’ve got to go.”

He sprinted out the door and jogged toward the inn. As he glanced across the street, he thought about how he used to often spot Mr. Santiago walking Meatball in the mornings.

“I’m sorry we didn’t figure it out in time,” Teddy whispered. “I wish we could have saved you.”

The Fire Maiden had spent years trying to grow powerful enough to cross back through the portal. One way for a ghost to do that was by spreading fear—an emotion that makes ghosts stronger. She figured out what people in town feared most and tortured them with terrible dreams. Poor Mr. Santiago had ended up falling to his death while sleepwalking during a nightmare.

The summer air was hot and sticky. And the lawn outside the inn was lush and green and probably needed to be mowed. Teddy made a mental note to ask Lila’s parents if they wanted him to mow, just like he’d done for Grandpa Clem.

By the time he reached the inn’s entrance, he found Lila sitting on the front steps, holding Meatball in her lap.

“I was just thinking about you!” Teddy said.

“Me?” Lila said.

“Well, no,” Teddy said. “Meatball!”

The pug leapt out of Lila’s arms and jumped up on Teddy’s legs. Teddy bent down to let Meatball lick his face.

“I know we’re supposed to think it’s gross when he does that, but I kind of love it,” Lila said.

Teddy patted the top of Meatball’s head. “I love it, too!”

The kids said goodbye to Meatball and headed off to school. The air felt like it was getting stickier by the minute.

“It is so hot!” Lila said, fanning herself dramatically.

“Isn’t it hot in Arizona?”

“Yeah. But it isn’t humid.”

They wound their way through residential streets—brick and clapboard houses, painted mailboxes, lawns that had been recently mowed. There were other kids walking to school. Teddy even spotted some kids from his grade, like Jason Muddleston, who he had been friends with in third grade, and Dahlia Rooney, a quiet girl who liked to read mystery novels. He could tell they were looking at Lila with curiosity. He should introduce her, but …

Lila pulled on her backpack straps. She let out a shivering sound. “Ahhh, I know it’s silly, but I’m so nervous for today. It’s just, you know, I told you how back in Arizona, my friends thought I was too much and dramatic and, you know—” She waved her arms in the air for effect.

“I like drama,” Teddy said. “I mean, I think horror movies are actually a subset of drama movies.”

“Right. It’s just …”

“What?” Teddy said.

“I’m worried your other friends at school won’t like me. And then you’ll decide you don’t want to be friends with me.” Lila let out a big breath. “Whew. It felt good to get that off my chest. But also scary to admit.”

Teddy dragged his foot along the sidewalk, tracing a looping circle. The sun made the flecks in the cement sparkle. His head felt hot. Tell her, his brain hissed. Tell her the truth. But his mouth felt like it was filled with paper gauze.

“Um,” he said. “They’ll like you.”

She brightened. “Really?”

The whole rest of the walk, Lila chattered. She was telling him about a really cool TV show she’d been binge-watching, which was about this woman who moved to a small town that was filled with paranormal creatures.

“Like in the first episode, she ends up tracking down this cryptoid that is basically like a version of Bigfoot.”

“Bigfoot,” Teddy said. “Cool.”

The show really did sound cool, but he was only half listening because with every step, they got closer to school, and closer to Lila finding out the truth: He, Teddy Hamad, was a friendless loser.

Soon, the school appeared in front of them. A big squat brick building with a green metallic roof. The sign outside the school read WELCOME BACK, STUDENTS! in big black letters. The exclamation point was hanging crookedly.

“Look,” Lila said, pointing at the exclamation point. “I think the punctuation got tired.”

Teddy smiled. It was going to be okay. Lila saw the world in the same way he did. She wasn’t going to ditch him.

Castle Hill Middle School was nearly a hundred years old. The window frames had been painted a bright blue, contrasting sharply with the worn color of the brick. As they approached, Teddy saw the lawn in front of the school was crowded with students, meandering around, swapping stories of their summers.

Teddy could hear Lila mumbling under her breath, reassuring herself.

As they climbed the front steps, a boy named Peter Sweeny gave Teddy a long look. Peter was another boy he’d been friendly with before the accident. Teddy noticed Peter had a brand-new navy backpack with his initials, PPS, monogrammed on the back in white letters. In third grade, when they had been friends, Peter had had a dinosaur-patterned backpack.

Teddy kind of missed that dinosaur-patterned backpack.

“Do you know him?” Lila asked, looking over Teddy’s shoulder at Peter.

Teddy shook his head. It felt impossible to explain. And so he didn’t.

“Okay.” Lila took a deep breath. “I’m going to find my locker, but then I’ll meet you in homeroom, okay?”

Teddy nodded and headed off to find his locker. Two days ago, they’d compared schedules and had been thrilled to find out they were in the same homeroom. As Teddy walked down the hallway, he swore he heard whispering behind him. He turned his head and saw Peter again. He was standing with Jason. He noticed Jason had a similar plain-colored backpack. Teddy’s own backpack was Loch Ness Monster patterned. He thought it was pretty sweet but now felt a little self-conscious about it.

Teddy made eye contact with Jason. He waved his hand, but Jason looked away. Teddy put his head down and tried to ignore Peter and Jason, and everyone else. It was okay. He had Lila now.

It took him a moment to find his locker. And once he did, he had to fiddle with it four times to get the combination to work. He unzipped his backpack, grabbed his notebook with Bigfoot on the cover and his X-Files: I Want to Believe pen, and then tossed everything else back in his locker.

When he walked into homeroom, he saw Lila was already sitting next to two girls, Mackenzie and Aubrey. Teddy’s stomach plummeted. Mackenzie and Aubrey were two of the most popular girls in the whole seventh grade.

Mackenzie was short, with shiny, long auburn hair and big blue eyes. Last year, she had started wearing makeup, and her lips were almost always colored with some shade of pink gloss. Aubrey was taller than Mackenzie, with hair the color of wheat. Teddy noticed her fingernails were painted a sparkly silver and she was wearing a tennis skirt, even though she didn’t play tennis.

“Hey, Teddy!” Lila said brightly. “Do you know Mackenzie and Aubrey?” She giggled in an airy way that Teddy hadn’t heard her do before. She flipped her hair, pushing it behind her ears. “I was super struggling with my locker combo, and they came to my rescue.”

“Hm,” Teddy said, searching his brain for something smart to say. “Yeah, the combinations can be kind of sticky.”

Lila giggled again, and Mackenzie looked suspiciously at Teddy. “You two know each other?”

“Oh yeah,” Lila said. “We spent all summer hanging out. Teddy lives next door to me.”

“Interesting,” Aubrey said, lifting her chin in the air so she was literally looking down on Teddy. The way she said interesting made it sound like she found the fact that Teddy was Lila’s neighbor anything but interesting.

“You live in the old inn, right?” Mackenzie asked. She angled her body toward Lila, effectively cutting Teddy out of the circle. He slid into the seat behind Lila and waited for her to include him in the conversation again.

And miraculously, she did! She scooted so that she was leaning back, facing him a little, while she answered Mackenzie. “Yup. My grandpa used to own it.”

“I love your scrunchie,” Aubrey said, pointing at Lila’s hair.

“Oh, thanks,” Lila said. “It’s so muggy here, so I feel like I need to put my hair up. In Arizona, it was hot, but it was never this humid.”

“The humidity is the worst,” Mackenzie groaned. “But Arizona, that is so cool. So much cooler than Ohio.”

Lila shot Teddy a nervous look, but all he could manage to do was shrug.

“I don’t know,” Lila said, her voice still light and airy. “Ohio has been pretty cool so far.”

“I guess it’s okay,” Mackenzie said.

“When I grow up, I’m going to live in California. I’m going to be a movie star,” Aubrey said.

Teddy sat up. He had no idea Aubrey was into movies! “Aubrey, what kind of movies do you like?”

Aubrey gave him a look like he’d just asked her if she wanted to eat raw moose. She twirled a glittery gold pencil between her fingers. “What. Kind. Of. Movies. Do. I. Like?” She repeated his question back to him, each word sounding like it had a hard period after it.

Lila laughed awkwardly. “Teddy really loves movies.”

Teddy turned toward Lila, a little hurt. “Don’t you like movies, too?”

Lila nodded quickly. “Oh yeah. It’s just, you’re like the expert.”

Mackenzie smirked at him. “I didn’t know you were a cinema expert, Teddy. What kind of movies do you like?”

“Mostly horror,” Teddy said. “But I sort of love everything from the golden age of blockbusters. If Spielberg directed it, I love it.”

“I love Jaws,” Mackenzie said, and Teddy couldn’t hide his surprise.

“You do? I do, too!”

“I know,” Mackenzie said, deadpan. “You’re wearing a Jaws T-shirt.”

Teddy looked down at his shirt. His cheeks felt warm. Now he wasn’t sure if she actually liked Jaws or if she had just been making fun of him.

“Jaws is a great movie,” Lila said weakly.

Before he could come up with anything else to say, Mrs. Loomis, their homeroom teacher, began taking roll call. She rattled off some names and then said, “Walid Hamad?” She peered over the clipboard she was holding. “Ha-MAD? Am I saying that right?”

“Yeah, that’s right. And that’s me,” Teddy said, waving his hand in the air. “But you can call me Teddy.”

Most of his classmates were used to this. They’d known him his whole life. And he’d been going by Teddy since kindergarten. Because that’s what his family called him at home. But Lila looked over at him with surprise. He shrugged at her, the warmth from before now even stronger in his cheeks.

Mrs. Loomis was making her way through the homeroom roster. She had announced that she was going to go in reverse alphabetical order, so it was taking a while to reach Lila’s name.

“Lila Clement,” Mrs. Loomis finally called out.

“Here,” Lila said.

Mrs. Loomis scanned the classroom. Teddy followed her confused gaze. There was something … off about Lila. He blinked, trying to clear his vision. What was it?

He shifted his weight so he could lean over, getting a better look at Lila. He felt a cold sliver of fear wedge in between his ribs. Lila was flickering again.

This time, though, it wasn’t just her hand. He watched in horror as her head and shoulders disappeared out of view and then slowly reappeared. As he stared at her, he got the uneasy feeling that he wasn’t looking at Lila anymore, but that he was staring at a ghost.

He reached out, gripping the edge of his desk with his fingers. He felt the strange urge to hold on to something. Like if he grabbed the desk tight enough, he would also hold on to Lila.

Mrs. Loomis pulled on her glasses, which had been hanging around her neck. “Where are you, dear?”

The back of Teddy’s neck was sweaty. He leapt up from his seat. He waved his hands over his head. “She’s here!”

“Mr. Hamad,” Mrs. Loomis said in a clipped voice. “Please sit down. I am trying to locate Lila Clement.”

Finally, Teddy heard Lila’s voice say, “Here.”

But it sounded like it was coming from underwater. Weak and muffled.

Mrs. Loomis coughed. “My eyes must be acting up. I can’t see you.”

“Lila,” Teddy hissed, his voice panicky. “What’s happening? Try to stand up.”

Lila stood up. The flickering stopped for a moment.

“Oh,” Mrs. Loomis said. She stared at Lila with confusion. “There you are.”

“Are you going to sit down, Teddy?” Mackenzie asked. This caused the rest of the class to snicker.

Panic filled Lila’s eyes. Did she know what was happening? Could she feel it?

He raised his hand again.

“Yes, Mr. Hamad?”

“Can I use the restroom?”

Mrs. Loomis gave him a pointed look. “Is that really necessary?”

“Yes!” he said, bouncing up and down as if he really had to go. The class laughed. He was used to this. The only time he ever really got his classmates’ attention was when they were laughing at him. But right now, he had bigger things to worry about.

All he could think about was how Lila was flickering. And how her flickering made her look like a ghost.

Once he was out in the hallway, he paced up and down past the rows of shiny metallic lockers. He went to his locker and got his phone. He tried to log on to the Phantom Hunters forum, but the school Wi-Fi was blocking that URL.

Frustrated, he tossed his phone back into his locker and resumed his pacing.

“Okay,” he said to himself. Teddy was the type of kid who liked to talk to himself; he liked to hear his thoughts. He had learned this made him an external processor. “So what do you know? You know that Lila was flickering. You know that when she flickered, you got the sensation that she was seeing a ghost. But that doesn’t mean she is a ghost. She can’t be a ghost because she’s alive. And she’s your friend.”

As he paced the hallway, he looked down at his shiny brown loafers. He knew they were grandpa shoes. He knew it wasn’t cool to wear them. But he liked them. He liked them way more than sneakers. And so he wore them.

Teddy continued to pace, his loafers making a soft pattering on the tiled floor. He didn’t realize how long he’d been in the hall until the bell rang—a sharp monotonous beep. The hallway grew crowded quickly, and he held his breath, waiting to spot Lila.

“Teddy!” she said, running over to him. “Where did you go? You’re going to be in so much trouble.”

“Lila!”

It was Mackenzie. Aubrey was following behind her.

“Wasn’t that so weird?” Mackenzie said. “Like, what was Mrs. Loomis even saying? She couldn’t see you? Like, what?”

“So weird!” Aubrey parroted. “Like, hello. You were right in front of her face.”

“Uh,” Lila said. “Yeah. It was really … weird.” She looked nervously at Teddy.

“Bold move, Teddy Bear,” Mackenzie said.

Teddy was about to ask her not to call him Teddy Bear, but Lila said, “I think Mrs. Loomis is pretty mad.”

“Her eyesight might be bad, but she definitely noticed you never came back,” Aubrey said.

Teddy scrambled to come up with something. “I actually have a really bad headache. Lila, can you help me? I need to get to the nurse.”

Mackenzie made a snorting sound. “You have two feet. Can’t you walk to the nurse on your own? I was going to show Li where her new class is.”

Li?! That was Teddy’s nickname for Lila. He gritted his teeth. Don’t engage. There are more important things going on. Think about how Fox Mulder would behave. Actually, maybe not. But still. Don’t overreact.

The hallway was emptying out around them. Kids were scurrying off to their next classes. All around them, locker doors were slamming closed, sneakers were squeaking against the hallway’s tiled floor, and people were shouting hellos to friends they hadn’t seen all summer. Teddy took a deep breath and the insides of his nostrils stung from the bleach scent of the hallway.

“It’s okay!” Lila chimed in. “I get really bad headaches, too. And when they happen, it can make it hard to see.”

“Maybe that’s what was happening to Mrs. Loomis,” Mackenzie said, tilting back her head and laughing.

Lila laughed, too, but Teddy could tell it was forced.

“Well, I hope you guys make it to the nurse okay. Do you know where it is?” Mackenzie asked.

“I do,” Teddy said.

“But I thought you were too headachy to make it there safely?” Mackenzie said, her eyes narrowing.

“Uh,” Teddy said.

“We’ll find it!” Lila jumped in.

“Okay,” Mackenzie said slowly. “Aubs, let’s go! See you around, Li.”

Lila waved at them. Once they were out of earshot, Teddy started talking. He knew he was sometimes like a garden hose on full blast when it came to speaking, but he couldn’t help it. There was so much to say.

“What is going on? Do you feel it when it’s happening? What do you think is causing it? Do we need to go back to the inn? Do we need to check the mirror? Do you think the portal has been reversed again? Would that cause this? I just don’t know. That doesn’t make sense to me. I want to ask the Phantoms but—”

“Teddy,” Lila said.

“No, you’re right. It probably isn’t the portal. We fixed it! Maybe we should go to the inn? Talk to some of the ghosts? They might know. But there shouldn’t be as many of them. Or at least not any evil spirits since we closed it. Hm. I just don’t—”

“TEDDY,” Lila said, louder this time.

He looked up at her. She wasn’t flickering, which was a relief. Her dark hair was pulled back with the scrunchie Mackenzie had complimented. He wondered if he should compliment it, too, or if that would be weird. She was wearing a plain red T-shirt. Which seemed like sort of a basic choice for her.

“I like your T-shirt,” he went ahead and said.

She looked down at her T-shirt. “What? No, you don’t.”

“Yes, I do.”

“Teddy, no, you don’t. It’s a boring T-shirt. I didn’t know what to choose. I really do like your T-shirt, though.”

He smiled. He looked down at his bright blue Jaws shirt. It was pretty cool. “But back to the flickering. It’s not happening right now.”

Lila looked around them. The hallway was empty. But both of them knew that at any moment, a teacher might step out into the hall and yell at them. Lila leaned back against the locker. Teddy held his breath, waiting for her to disappear. He only exhaled a little when she didn’t.

“Why didn’t you tell me your real name wasn’t Teddy?” Lila sounded a little hurt.

Teddy looked at the poster above Lila’s head. It was a sign stressing the importance of attendance to academic achievement. Guess he was already blowing that one and it was only day one.

“It is my real name. It’s what everyone calls me. My family gave me that nickname when I was a baby. But my legal name is Walid. It’s Arabic. My dad’s from Jordan.”

“I love it,” Lila said. “You’re lucky to have such a great real name and nickname.”

Teddy felt a surge of relief that he hadn’t accidentally offended Lila, but it was short-lived. He looked at the attendance poster again. It seemed more menacing now somehow. “We should get to class.”

Lila looked down at her hands. “But I don’t understand what’s going on. I’m … disappearing? Like, I don’t mean to be dramatic, but … this feels like a moment to be, I don’t know, dramatic!”

“Hey!” a voice called out.

Teddy spun around. For a moment, he thought it might be a ghost. But it wasn’t. It was Mr. Riley, his sixth-grade earth science teacher and the intramural basketball coach. He was wearing an Ohio State Buckeyes hoodie and khaki pants, which was the only outfit Teddy had ever seen him wear.

“Mr. Hamad. What are you doing out here in the hall? Fraternizing with your friend?” Mr. Riley looked at Lila. “I don’t know you yet. But it’s sad we have to meet under these circumstances. Both of you, get to class.” He snapped his fingers. “Today, I’m only going to give you a warning since it’s the first day of school and all, but next time—” He made a chopping ax motion.

Teddy thought making a chopping ax motion was probably inappropriate. And also probably against the school’s code of conduct. But now didn’t seem like the exact right moment to bring up that point.

“Sorry, Mr. Riley,” Teddy mumbled. “We’ll get to class.”

“Good,” Mr. Riley said. He clapped his hands. “Chop, chop.”

Lila and Teddy walked down the hallway together.

“We probably should go to class,” Lila said. “It’s a bad look to skip on the first day.”

Teddy grimaced. “I guess I already started that with homeroom. But this feels so much bigger. We need to figure out what’s going on with you.”

“Let’s talk about it at lunch?” Lila suggested. She pulled her schedule out of her pocket. When she did, her hands flickered briefly.

Teddy’s heart hammered.

“Lila,” he said.

“What?” She looked at him.

“Nothing. So, um, what class do you have next?”

“Bio,” Lila said, wrinkling her nose.

“Oh! I think bio might be cool this year. We get to dissect a frog, I heard.”

“That’s what I’m afraid of.”

Lila set off down the empty hallway, the fluorescent ceiling lights beaming down on her.

She rounded the corner, and he was alone again. But he couldn’t stop thinking about the flickering and the wedge of fear inside him that wouldn’t budge.

The problem was that he didn’t quite know what he was afraid of. And as a horror movie expert, he knew that meant the worst was yet to come.

Teddy’s Jaws T-shirt was sticky with sweat by the time he met Lila on the front steps at the end of the day. Castle Hill Middle School had been built in 1928 and did not have central air-conditioning. He couldn’t stop fantasizing about gulping down a giant frozen lemonade. But every time he thought about frozen lemonade, he thought about Lila’s flickering again, and was back to feeling nauseous with fear.

At least Lila didn’t seem nervous, just also a bit overheated.

“You’re sweaty!” he said.

She laughed. “That’s just what every girl wants to hear.”

Teddy’s face felt hot. Not only from the heat, but also from embarrassment. “You know what I mean. It is SO hot.”

“Perfect climate for a lava monster, huh?” Lila said as they started their walk. Earlier in the summer, they’d spent a whole day on a Phantoms thread devoted to “unusual cryptids.”

“Well, technically, I think lava monsters would want to live near volcanoes. I’m trying to think of a paranormal creature who would enjoy this heat. Maybe a swamp monster?”

“Teddy,” Lila said. “I mean this in the most loving way possible, but has anyone ever told you that you are a know-it-all?”

It was Teddy’s turn to laugh. “Only about stuff no one else cares about. I don’t think my math teacher is going to accuse me of being a know-it-all this year.”

As they walked home on the tree-lined streets of Castle Hill, Teddy looked up at the big, bright blue sky. Summer in Ohio could be brutally humid, but it was also lush and verdant. The trees were filled with bright green dewy leaves and the air was thick with the smell of grass clippings.

He kind of loved summer. But he also loved air-conditioning.

“Hey,” he said. “Does the inn have air-conditioning finally?”

“Yes! My dad got it fully working right before we left.”

“Thank the moons!” Teddy said.

“I like that.” Lila raised her arms. “Thank the moons!”

But when she moved, Teddy noticed the flickering again. She must’ve seen it on his face, because she said, “It happened again. Didn’t it?”

“Can you feel it?” He could hear his own voice shake when he asked, a flicker of his own.

“Sometimes,” Lila said. “It feels like a rush of cold. It took me a while to understand I wasn’t imagining it. But now that I’m aware of it … I keep feeling it.”

They were getting closer to the inn. He could see its turret in the distance, cutting a heavy shadow-sized piece out of the sky.

Lila put her hands over her mouth. “Ugh, I know I’m being dramatic again.”

“Li,” Teddy said, refusing to stop calling her the nickname he’d come up with just because Mackenzie was using it, too. “You’re not being dramatic. This is a) a very dramatic situation, and b) drama is always welcome.”

Lila nodded, a small smile appearing at the corner of her lips. Then her hand flickered slightly. “It happened again! I felt it.”

“Okay,” Teddy said. “Let’s get to the inn. And make a plan there.”

The kids raced together toward the inn. But they couldn’t run that fast because the air was unbearably muggy. Once they reached the inn’s front steps, they collapsed on the covered porch.

“I wish I had a frozen lemonade machine,” Teddy said. He flopped down on the wooden floor of the porch, staring up at the covering. He’d sat on this porch so many times with Grandpa Clem, drinking Grandpa Clem’s homemade lemonade, learning about the spirit realm, soaking up not only Grandpa Clem’s wisdom but also his kindness.

“A frozen lemonade machine would be so clutch,” Lila said. “How do you imagine it would work?”

“I’m picturing something super sleek. A silver box. You press a button and voilà. A frozen lemonade materializes out of nowhere along with a surprise snack. Sometimes a chocolate cupcake, sometimes a chocolate chip cookie, sometimes—well, almost always chocolate.”

“That would be the life,” Lila said. She was sitting on the front steps. When she saw him lying supine, she laughed. “That can’t be comfortable.”

“Anything is comfortable when you can imagine a frozen lemonade and secret super snack machine.”

Just then, the front door swung open.

“You guys are home!” Caleb said, and then proceeded to rattle off facts about his day. “My teacher is pretty nice. We have a job board. And we’re even allowed to grab the bathroom hall pass without raising our hands. She believes in independence and responsibility.”

“That’s nice, Caleb,” Lila said, and her voice reminded Teddy a little bit of Nadia.

Teddy turned toward Caleb. “That’s great, man. Our day was … eventful.”

They stepped inside the inn. Lila’s mom had already repainted the foyer. It no longer had its old drab wallpaper (though Teddy secretly missed how much personality that wallpaper had). The room was now a bright eggshell color. There was a small mirror with a simple silver frame on the wall, and a little wooden table with a light pink ceramic vase filled with sunflowers.

Teddy knew the changes were good. The changes meant that Lila and Caleb were staying because their parents were reopening the inn for actual operation. But still. He missed the old wallpaper. He missed the musty air. Most of all, he missed Grandpa Clem.

“Let’s go to my room,” Lila said.

They climbed the ornate wooden staircase that led to Lila’s room. When Grandpa Clem had run the inn, her room had been called Tiger’s Eye. But now Teddy simply thought of it as Lila’s room. Another change.

Change is okay, he reminded himself. That was something he’d tried to learn a long time ago but still found pretty hard.

He was strangely glad when the stairs still creaked under his weight. Some things remained the same.

Tiger’s Eye definitely was not. Lila had painted the room a pale purple. She’d hung up a corkboard that was filled mostly with photos of macaroni and cheese. Also some national parks she wanted to visit. And it had a brochure of the local pizza place.

The canopy bed was the same, but she had switched out the comforter for an aqua-blue cotton one. Her parents had put a white wooden desk in the corner, and she had a brand-new rolly desk chair with light-up translucent wheels.

“Voilà!” she said. “Don’t you like my new room?”

“Technically, it’s not new. It was always here. Remember, it was called Tiger’s Eye. And …”

“Teddy,” Lila said. “Know-It-All Moment.”

Teddy frowned. But he knew she was right. “It does look pretty cool. I like the purple color.”

“It’s less spooky,” Caleb said. He sat on Lila’s bed and bounced up and down. Lila didn’t tell him to get off. Nadia and Dena definitely would’ve told Teddy to get off if he was doing that on their beds.

Caleb bounced some more. “So tell me what’s happening! No secrets in the Trionic!”

“You said that already,” Lila groaned.

“That’s because you haven’t told me! And my patience is wearing thin!”

“That’s Mom’s line, Caleb,” Lila said, then her face turned pale as her big-sister annoyance faded away. “The thing is, I seem to be … disappearing. At random moments, I flicker. Like parts of me, or my whole body, disappears. I never know when it’s going to happen. And only recently have I even felt it happening.”

“You flicker?” Caleb repeated, sounding slightly skeptical. Although he’d fully accepted that ghosts were real, he still wasn’t ready to buy into every paranormal mystery presented to him.

“Yeah, she does,” Teddy confirmed. “She turns translucent and then vanishes for a second. Like a ghost.”

“But you’re not dead,” Caleb said to Lila, stating the obvious.

The three of them fell silent as the word yet seemed to fill the room.

“Could it just be a weird side effect of being a channel?” Caleb asked. “Maybe Teddy and I will start flickering, too.”

“I don’t know,” Teddy said. “Grandpa Clem never said anything about people flickering.”

“Do you think … she has anything to do with it?” They didn’t need to ask who Caleb meant. None of them loved saying “the Fire Maiden” aloud, even now. Lila shook her head fast. “No! Definitely not. She’s gone. We banished her, remember?”

“But it’s too much of a coincidence, isn’t it?” Caleb insisted. “We force her back into the portal, and then right after, Lila starts flickering.”

“No,” Lila said firmly. “No way.”

“I’m just saying, I’m good at recognizing patterns. That’s why I do eighth-grade math even though I’m only in sixth grade.”

Lila rolled her eyes and took a seat on her bedroom floor’s circular light green rug. Lila’s room was filled with tons of colors. And not colors that usually were paired together. Teddy respected the bold choices.

Lila crisscrossed her legs. “There has to be another explanation.”

“Well …” Teddy said, and then he hesitated.

“What?” Lila asked. She sat up on her knees. “Say it.”

“What if there’s another evil spirit?”

Caleb plugged his ears. “DO NOT SAY THAT. There’s NOT another evil spirit.”

Teddy shrugged sheepishly. “Sorry. It was just an idea.”

“The house actually feels kind of empty without so many ghosts nearby,” Lila said. “Teddy, you said your friend from the Phantoms helped Timothy cross over?”

“Yup!” Teddy answered. He not-so-secretly loved that Lila had asked him about the Phantoms. Making it seem like it was a legit source of information. Which, of course, it was. But most people didn’t seem to think so. “His unfinished business was finding out what happened to his little brother. They were both on the Titanic. Timothy died but George was rescued.”

“The Titanic?!” Lila repeated. “That’s bananas.”

Caleb frowned. “That big boat, right?”

“Yes, Caleb,” Lila said, sneaking a smile at Teddy. “So much for being advanced.”

“Hey!” Caleb tossed one of Lila’s decorative leopard-print pillows at her. “I’m advanced at math. Not at boats.”

“Also advanced at spilling orange juice,” Lila snickered.

“The Titanic was an enormous steamship that sank in 1912 after hitting an iceberg,” Teddy said, feeling the urge to explain, even if no one really needed the information.

“It was the largest ship ever built at that time. It was meant to be unsinkable, and its maiden voyage was a huge event,” said Lila, her eyes dreamy, like she was somewhere else. Teddy held his breath, waiting for her to flicker. But she didn’t. “I can’t believe I spoke to someone who was on it.”

“And what about the other ghosts that crossed over while we were in Arizona?” Caleb asked.

“Mary and Bridget,” Lila added. “Were they also circus fire victims?”

Teddy shook his head. “Mary died in the Great Chicago Fire. The Phantoms said she was a seamstress.”

“She was the one who asked about the candle burning,” Lila said. “Right?”

“Yeah, she was also fixated on the fire.”

“How did Bridget die?” Lila asked.

“The Hindenburg explosion,” Teddy said.

Lila’s eyes widened. “Wait, another famous disaster? That’s … kind of weird, isn’t it? What are the odds?”

Caleb’s brow furrowed. “That’d be difficult to calculate, because it depends on what counts as ‘famous.’ But if we assume there are three to four major disasters per decade, divided by the average death rate—”

“It was a rhetorical question,” Lila said, cutting him off. “So we have two transportation disasters and one famous fire. What does this tell us?”

“Technically, the Hindenburg was fire adjacent,” Teddy said. “Like the aircraft literally caught fire.”

“So … another fire,” Caleb said. “We need to figure out if that’s a statistical anomaly. I know that, as of the present day, the odds of dying in an airplane crash are like one in eleven million. Off the top of my head, I don’t have the statistics for dying. But I could google.” He held out his hand to Lila.

“What?” she said.

“Give me your phone so I can google.”

He tried to pull up the web browser, but he wasn’t able to get a signal. “Wi-Fi still isn’t working.”

“Increased paranormal activity can interfere with technology,” Teddy said uneasily.

“In that case …” Caleb said slowly. “Do you think we should check the portal? Like make sure the mirror is no longer inverted.”

“We know the mirror is secure. We fixed it!” Lila said.

“Yeah,” Caleb said. “But you’re flickering. Or you claim you’re flickering, I haven’t seen it.”

Lila stood up. She dusted imaginary dirt off her pants. Or Teddy assumed it was imaginary because he did not see any dirt. “Let’s just go.”

“Where?” Teddy asked.

“To check on the mirror so Caleb will be quiet about it.”

“But …” Caleb said. He backed up closer to Lila’s headboard. “Maybe you’re right …”

Lila shook her head. There was a fierce look on her face. Teddy knew that Lila didn’t consider herself to be brave, but she was. She was very brave.

“Let’s go,” Lila said, her voice strong and insistent. She charged out of the room and headed for the stairs to the fourth floor.

Unlike the times before, there was no debate among them about who would go first. Lila was going first. Caleb, again, would get to be the filling in the sandwich. Which left Teddy as the caboose.

The steps up to the portal room were still worn and dusty. Whatever renovations Lila’s parents were doing to the inn hadn’t yet reached this part of the house. Teddy held his breath as they climbed up and up and up. He tried not to think about a ghost grabbing him from behind.

That’s ridiculous, his brain told him. You are a ghost expert. You know that ghosts can’t manipulate the physical world.

But … the other part of his brain hissed.

It was one thing to know things. It was another to believe them. When you were scared, Teddy had found, it became harder to believe the things you knew.

The kids climbed the stairs in silence. Teddy could hear Caleb panting. The hot, stale air was dusty. Teddy coughed.

“Are you okay?” Lila whispered.

“Fine,” Teddy managed to say, even though his knees felt weak. It was hard not to think about what had happened the last time they’d been up here—the frightened ghosts who didn’t know they were dead, let alone how they’d died. The terrible screams of agony when Mr. Howler was sucked through the portal.

He glanced at Lila and Caleb and was pretty sure they were thinking the same thing.

When they reached the top floor, Teddy was relieved to find that the landing was empty. At least, he couldn’t see anyone. But this part of the house would never feel empty. Not after centuries of spirits had passed through this corridor on their way to the afterlife. Many had made peace with death. But some had not. There was a charge in the air, like the walls were crackling with hundreds of years of emotions. The sadness of those who weren’t ready to say goodbye. The fury of those who’d been wronged. And most powerful of all, the lingering confusion of the ghosts who hadn’t been able to pass over, whose unfinished business had kept them tethered between the land of the living and the land of the dead, never able to rest.

“Ready?” Lila asked. She didn’t wait for Caleb’s or Teddy’s response.

Teddy held his breath, his heart pounding in his chest.

Lila pulled open the door, and Teddy felt his whole body tense. Then he let out a long breath. The ornate carved mirror was right side up, just how they had left it. The glass was smooth—there was no hint that it was a passage to the afterlife. At least, not unless you listened carefully. Teddy closed his eyes, and for a moment, he could hear the sound of wind blowing somewhere very far away. And beyond that, muffled whispers.

Or were they screams?

“See?” Lila said. “Nothing to worry about.”

Teddy opened his eyes just in time to see her flicker.

“Lila,” Teddy said hoarsely. “It’s happening.”

But this time, she kept flickering. Like a TV losing signal.

“Lila!” Caleb shouted, waving his hands through the air. “I can’t see her anymore.”

“She’s going to come back,” Teddy said, sounding more confident than he felt. “That’s how it works.”

“How do you know?” Caleb said. His hands were shaking. “Statistically, that seems—”

“Caleb,” Teddy said. “We can’t get afraid. That will …”

“How do you know?!” Caleb’s face was red. Now his whole body was shaking.

And then Lila reappeared. She was lying face down on the floor, holding her head.

“Lila!” Teddy said. He crouched down beside her. Caleb did the same. “What happened? Where did you go?”

“I saw it,” Lila said. Her voice was low and frayed. She sounded exhausted.

“Saw what?” Caleb asked.

She stared straight ahead as if fixated on something far, far away.

“I was there. I went through the portal.”

A chill passed through Teddy. “What’d you see, Li?” he asked quietly.

She turned to him, and it took all of Teddy’s self-control not to flinch at the strange look in her eyes, the unusual pitch of her voice. “The land of the dead.”

The kids had agreed to meet the next day after school at the library to see if they could find some kind of explanation for the flickering. Lila and Teddy would walk together since they were coming from the middle school, and Caleb was going to have their mom drop him off.

“Isn’t Mom going to think it’s weird you want to go to the library?” Lila had asked.

“Nope,” Caleb had said. “Because I don’t even have to lie. I’m going to say I want to use the Wi-Fi. Which I do. She’s going to think I want the Wi-Fi for playing video games when really …”

“You want it for researching ghosts,” Lila finished his sentence.

Teddy hadn’t wanted to go to the library. He generally tried to avoid the library. Not because he didn’t like books.

He actually loved stories. And he also loved that the library had free movies. And free computer games. And free computers where you could play games.

But Ethan’s mom worked at the library. She was one of the main librarians. And Teddy tried to avoid Ethan’s mom because he assumed she never wanted to see him. He understood. He wouldn’t want to see him, either, after everything that had happened.

But he also understood that the library was their best option for doing research, given that the inn’s internet was not reliable. So he was going to have to take the risk. But his stomach coiled at the thought of facing Ethan’s mom.

The summer sun was bright, making Teddy squint as he and Lila walked. He studied an oddly shaped cloud in the sky. He wasn’t in the mood for talking, and it seemed like Lila wasn’t, either. She’d barely said more than a few words at a time since yesterday, when she’d flickered and gotten a glimpse of what was “beyond the veil,” as Grandpa Clem had called it.

Teddy asked a few times if she wanted to talk about it, and had been weirdly relieved when she’d said no. He loved learning about ghosts and paranormal activity in the human world.

But that didn’t mean he wanted to know what really happened in the land of the dead.

“You’re quiet today,” Lila said.

“Sorry,” Teddy mumbled. He felt like every step they took toward the library was a step closer to having to tell Lila about Ethan and what had happened. It wasn’t that he didn’t think she would understand. It was just … a really hard thing to talk about.

“Are you having trouble sleeping?” Lila asked. He noticed the dark circles under her eyes.

He hesitated, then finally nodded. “I get these nightmares sometimes.”

“Yeah.” Lila shook her head as if trying to get rid of a bad thought. “Me too.”

“Did you dream about … what you saw yesterday?” Teddy asked.

“I don’t know,” she said. “It’s all kind of hazy. But yeah, I think so.”

Teddy’s nightmare had been about Ethan, as usual. If he let himself think about it too much, he’d be back there again. Standing on the frozen pond, his legs shaking, his mouth open in a scream that made no sound. The freezing hail pounding down on the ice. Ethan’s face—

No. He wasn’t going to think about that now.

“Hey,” he said, pointing at the oddly shaped cloud. “What do you think that looks like?”

Lila stopped walking. For a moment, Teddy exhaled. Maybe they would never make it to the library.

“A noodle?”

“Like a mac and cheese noodle?”

“Yup,” Lila said.

“Are you almost always thinking about macaroni and cheese?”

“I would say that’s a pretty factual statement,” Lila said, and both of them laughed. It was a comforting sound—the first time she’d sounded like the old Lila.

But then the library came into view. And Teddy didn’t feel like laughing anymore. Caleb was waiting for them, right by the front door. Lila’s mother was there, too.

“Oh good!” Lila’s mom said. “You’re here. I have to get back to the inn. An electrician is coming today to help us update the wiring.” Lila’s mom crossed her fingers. “Wish us luck!”

“Good luck?” Teddy said.

“Yeah, Mom. Good luck,” Lila said.

“The good news is that people seem really eager for the inn to reopen. A woman called today trying to book a room. She said she wanted the so-called haunted room that Clem always used to give her. Can you imagine?” Lila’s mom laughed. “But at least there’s excitement!”

Teddy and Lila looked at each other.

“Ghosts.” Lila’s mom shook her head. “So funny. Anyway, I’ve got to go. I don’t want to be late for the electrician!”

Once she had left, Caleb said, “Ready?”

“Ready,” Lila answered.

The library was an old white clapboard house with high ceilings. It had been in the center of town for years. One of the original buildings that wasn’t affected by the circus fire.

The library smelled exactly how it always did. Musty and warm, with a hint of vanilla. He had no idea what generated the vanilla smell. But it had always been there, as long as he could remember.

The kids headed over to the computer station.

“What do we even search for?” Lila asked. “How to tell if an evil spirit is causing you to flicker?”

“I’m more interested in what connects all the ghosts,” Teddy said. “It’s weird that they all died in such famous disasters. Should we start there?”

“Sure.” Lila nodded. “What happens when you search for ‘Timothy Marlowe Titanic’?”

“I’ll type it in,” Caleb volunteered. “I’m very good with computers.”

“Caleb, it doesn’t take expertise to type something into Google,” Lila said wearily.

Teddy looked over his shoulder to see if he spotted Ethan’s mom. When he didn’t, he let out a tiny exhale.

“Oh wow,” Caleb said after a few minutes.

“What?” Lila and Teddy said at the same time. Teddy swiveled in his chair. It made a squeaking sound under his weight.

“He died aboard the Titanic,” Caleb said, deadpan.

“Caleb!” Lila said. “Come on. Be serious.”

“I am being serious. That’s what first comes up.”

“Of course that’s what first comes up,” Lila said. “Dig deeper.”

“Did someone say Titanic?” a voice behind them asked.

Teddy felt his insides freeze. He held his breath. Please, please, please, he thought.

But his pleas to the universe were not answered.

“Teddy?” the voice said. “Is that you, sweetheart?”

Sweetheart. Such a nice word. Such a kind word. A word that he did not deserve, especially not from her mouth. His legs felt like they were made of cement, but he forced himself to turn the chair and face her.

Mrs. Marfson. Ethan’s mom.

“Hi, Mrs. Marfson.” He looked down at his hands. He couldn’t look her in the eye.

“It’s so great to see you.” She craned her neck to see his computer screen. He quickly minimized his tab, even though it was Caleb who had typed something into the search bar. His computer was still on the start page. “Are you researching the Titanic for a school project? I know computers have made research so much easier, but let me know if I can help you locate any books.”

Teddy nodded. His throat still felt like someone was squeezing it. “Thanks,” he managed to eke out. “I’ll let you know.”

“And how’s school?”

“Oh, um …” He looked nervously in Lila’s direction. Lila gave him a confused look. “It just started.”

Mrs. Marfson gave him a gentle smile. “I know. That’s why I was asking how it is. Seventh grade, huh?”

What she wasn’t saying was that Ethan should be starting seventh grade, too. But he wasn’t starting seventh grade. And he wasn’t starting seventh grade because of Teddy.

Teddy folded his hands on his lap. He wiggled in his chair.

“Well,” Mrs. Marfson said. “It was so nice to see you. I miss seeing you.” There was a catch in her voice. Teddy could feel hot pressure building behind his eyes. But now was not the time to cry. Now was the time to figure out what was happening to Lila. So he could save her. Like he hadn’t been able to save Ethan. He looked down at his shiny loafers, blinking as fast as he possibly could.

Teddy didn’t trust his voice, so he just nodded. He hoped she would understand. He hoped she would forgive him for this awkward moment. Even though he knew she could never forgive him for what had happened.

Once Mrs. Marfson had walked away, Lila turned to him. “Who was that? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

“She’s not a ghost,” Teddy said tersely.

“I know,” Lila said, hurt in her voice. “It was a joke. What’s with you?”

Teddy shook his head quickly. “It’s nothing. Let’s get to work. Let’s all type in ‘Timothy Marlowe Titanic’ and see what we can find.”

The kids were quiet for a moment. The sound of their click-clacking on the keyboards blended with the other sounds of the library—the swirl of the ceiling fan, the soft hush of whispering patrons discussing books, the flipping of pages, footsteps on the polished wooden floor.

“Wow!” Lila finally said.

“What?” Teddy leaned over to peek at her screen.

“Timothy Marlowe was born in Castle Hill.”

“No way!” Teddy said.

“Yes. It says it right here. In this news article from the Castle Hill Ledger.”

“Well, yeah, of course,” Caleb said. “I mean, that’s why he was hanging around here, wasn’t it?”

Teddy shook his head. “Grandpa Clem said there are only a few dozen portals in the whole world, so spirits come to ours—yours—from all over the country. It’s actually a pretty strange coincidence that Timothy died in such a famous disaster and happened to be from our town.”

“Please don’t call the portal ours.” Caleb shivered. “Why couldn’t I have inherited something normal from Grandpa Clem, like a priceless collection of baseball cards?”

“’Cause that’s so normal,” Lila said.

“But yeah,” Caleb continued. “That feels unlikely to be a coincidence. Statistically and philosophically speaking. But definitely unlikely to be a statistical coincidence.”

Teddy didn’t bother to ask Caleb what the difference between a statistical and a philosophical coincidence would be.

“I’m going to type ‘Bridget Sullivan Hindenburg Castle Hill,’ ” Caleb announced. “I’m sort of a search engine genius.”

“Whatever you say,” Lila mumbled.

“Guys, guys,” Caleb said a few seconds later. “You’ll never believe it. Bridget also has family ties to—”

“Castle Hill,” Teddy said. His own search had yielded the same results.

“Are you sure?” Lila asked, her lips pursed. “This has to be a mistake.”

“I don’t think it’s a mistake,” Caleb said. He was typing quickly on the computer. “I think it’s a clue. A statistically significant clue.”

Teddy’s brain hurt. He knew this had to mean something. But he wasn’t sure what.

“And you’d never guess it, or probably you would guess it by now, but Mary Johnson also has connections to Castle Hill.” Caleb tilted back in his computer chair, raising his hands up. “I mean, you don’t have to thank me. But don’t be mad. This is helpful information.”

“We know,” Teddy said, interjecting. “It’s just, we don’t know what it means. Or if it has anything to do with Lila’s flickering. I don’t see how that could be connected.”

“I know,” Caleb said. “But something weird is going on, and we need to follow whatever evidence trail we can find.”

“So, what? We ignore my flickering and just hope I don’t disappear before we stumble across some explanation?” Lila was clearly trying to sound calm, but there was still a note of panic in her voice.

“I think he’s right, Li,” Teddy said gently. “There’s a pattern here. It has to mean something. And maybe that something could explain the flickering.”

“There must be something that links everything,” continued Caleb. “That explains why all the ghosts had unfinished business that kept them from crossing over all those years. We probably need to know more about their genealogy.”

Teddy raised his eyebrows at Caleb. Sometimes it was hard to believe Caleb was only in sixth grade.

Caleb shrugged. “What? That would probably help us to better understand if there is any connection. We could dig into their family histories. Maybe they all lived in the same house? I don’t know. There has to be something.”

“When we were in second grade, we took a field trip to Castle Hill’s town archives,” Teddy volunteered, a surge of electricity skittering across his brain. “It’s in this small building, right by the cemetery, actually. They collect things. Like—” Teddy’s brain was moving faster than his mouth. He was so excited about this idea. Maybe he wasn’t as good at search engines as Caleb, but he knew about the archives. “Like they have records of people who lived here a long time ago. And who their relatives were and—”

“Like genealogy,” Caleb said.

“Let’s go.” Lila pushed her chair back and stood up.

“Like, right now?” Teddy asked.

“Why not? We need to figure this out.”

And Teddy understood what she was saying. She didn’t have to fully spell it out. They needed to understand what was going on before Lila’s flickering got worse.

“Do we really have to go, like, right now?” Caleb asked. “It’s nice to have such a strong Wi-Fi signal. I was thinking I could maybe play a few games. And then we could go? What do you think?”

When Teddy glanced at Caleb’s screen, he saw he had about fifteen tabs up. It was impressive how well Caleb was able to multitask.

“I think not!” Lila said. “I literally disappeared and was in the world of the dead. That means I get to make the choice, okay?”

“Okay, okay,” Caleb said, typing something into the search bar. “Oh wait, hold on. It looks like the archives are closed for the next couple of weeks.”

“What?” Lila pushed him out of the way to look at the screen. “How is that possible.”

“Funding cuts,” Teddy said. “My parents are always talking about it.”

“Great,” Lila muttered. “That’s just great. I guess I’ll just have to hope I don’t vanish before then.”

Teddy grabbed her arm. “We’re not going to let that happen.”

She looked up to meet his eyes. “Promise?”

“Promise.”

They did as much research as they could over the next few weeks, but couldn’t find the information they were looking for. “The internet is a powerful tool,” Caleb had said, almost reverentially. “But unless the town digitized their archives, there’s a limit to what we’ll be able to find about individual people from that long ago.”

Lila’s flickering did seem to be getting worse. It was happening more frequently now. But she hadn’t had any more peeks beyond the veil, so Teddy supposed that was something to be grateful for.

As soon as the archives reopened, they set a plan to visit after school. As they set off, the sky that had been blue and bright was now gray, filled with dark clouds that looked like they might burst at any moment.

The air was muggy and thick as Teddy led the group toward the outskirts of town where the archive building sat at the edge of Castle Hill cemetery. They were uncharacteristically quiet as they walked. Teddy knew that he was far, far more likely to encounter a ghost at the inn than in a graveyard, but as the grassy slope dotted with headstones came into view, the hairs on his arm began to stand up. He was a channel now. If there were any ghosts, he was going to be able to see them.

Lila and Caleb seemed to be having similar thoughts. Without saying a word, they all paused before they reached the gate. “Do we have to go inside?” Caleb asked warily.

“Remember how Dad always said that a graveyard was the safest place you could be?” Lila said.

“Um, yeah. That was before a ghost tried to kill you.”

“Actually, ghosts don’t tend to congregate in graveyards,” Teddy said, trying to sound more confident than he felt. “And yeah, we can go the long way around, but we might want to hurry up. It looks like rain is coming.”

They walked through the gate and made their way down the central gravel path. Most of the headstones were old—cracked and covered with moss—but a few were much newer. Teddy had thought the one he wanted to avoid most was on the other side of the cemetery, but then a familiar name snagged the corner of his vision. Heart pounding, Teddy looked away and sped up, trying to forget what he’d seen. The dates that’d be seared into his brain forever.

“The archives are over there.” Teddy nodded at a small wooden house with peeling, faded blue paint. “Oh wait, you guys gotta see this.” Eager to leave the other grave far behind, he led them around the side of the house where a few very old, semi-collapsed headstones peeked out from a copse of trees. “I found this when we came for our field trip. It has to be a joke, right?”

Lila and Caleb followed Teddy’s pointed finger toward one of the stones, the only one whose writing was still visible.

Caleb snorted, then read aloud, “Here lies Eleanor. Ignite. Impress. Barf. I don’t know, it looks pretty real. Maybe her family didn’t like her very much? I bet she was someone’s really annoying older sister.”

Lila rolled her eyes and looked up at the darkening sky. “Very funny. Let’s head inside before the rain starts.”

When they stepped into the archives building, they were greeted by a distinctive scent Teddy remembered from his field trip. The air inside the archives smelled like old paper and damp socks. Kind of gross. Old and musty. The walls were lined with tall file cabinets, some modern-looking and made of metal, others that seemed much older and were made of wood. A few drawers stuck out, faded papers spilling from them. There were also a few framed maps of the town from different eras. Teddy would’ve liked to take a closer look at those—he loved old maps!—but before he had time, a tall, thin man emerged from the office. He was dressed in a dark blue three-piece velvet suit. Teddy felt like the man must be hot. There was no way it was comfortable to be wearing such a heavy fabric on a day as warm as this one.

“Can I help you?” the man asked. He peered out at them from behind his thin-framed glasses.

“We want to do some research,” Lila said.

The man smiled, revealing two crooked, yellowed front teeth, his eyes twinkled with excitement, which should’ve been endearing but made Teddy feel uneasy. “You’ve come to the right place. This is a fantastic place to conduct …” He paused, his smile stretching further on his face. “Research.

“I’m Mr. Houser, the head archivist here. Archivist is just a fancy word for a specialized type of librarian. A master researcher, if you will.” He shrugged in a way that was obviously meant to seem humble but actually seemed like he was bragging.

Caleb coughed. The man looked in his direction. “We know what an archivist is,” Caleb said. Then he looked at Lila and Teddy. “Or at least, I do.”

“We have three names,” Lila said. Teddy was glad to hear that the fierceness in her voice had returned. “People who we think lived in Castle Hill a long time ago. They all died in famous disasters.”

Mr. Houser’s face lit up with interest. “Really? Who?”

Teddy stepped forward. “There’s Timothy Marlowe; he died on the Titanic. Mary Johnson; she died in the Great Chicago Fire. And Bridget Sullivan; she died when the Hindenburg exploded.”

Mr. Houser raised his eyebrows. “That is quite …”

“Odd, right?” Caleb volunteered. “It seemed strange to us that three people with ties to this small town were all killed in famous disasters. We were curious to see if there was some connection between all of them.”

Mr. Houser scratched under his chin and was silent for a long time. There was a small electric fan that was plugged into the wall. It was blowing on full blast but doing very little to move the stale, heavy air of the town archives office. “Hm. It is strange. But I’m not sure what kind of connection you would be looking for. Sometimes the world is indeed a strange place.”

“Can you pull genealogy records for us?” Lila asked.

“Well, yes.” Mr. Houser straightened his shirt cuff. Outside, there was a loud boom. All the kids jumped.

“Thunder,” Mr. Houser said. “We always feel summer storms in this little building. I will see what I can find about your three … research subjects. Give me a moment.” He disappeared back into the office just as raindrops began to spill down the dusty windows, leaving strange shapes in their wake.

After a few moments of silence, Teddy felt like he should say something. “Would you rather eat spaghetti or sushi for the rest of your life?”

It was the type of question that would’ve made Mackenzie go “Why are you so random?” but Lila didn’t miss a beat. “Spaghetti. It’s closer to macaroni and cheese. Pasta family, you know. Makes it macaroni and cheese adjacent.”

“Sushi, obviously,” Caleb said. “There’s more variety. Spaghetti, only a few ways to prepare it. Sushi is a broader category. It’s clearly the correct choice.”

Teddy smiled. It’d been a long time since he’d met anyone his age who understood how his brain worked. There’d been no one since Ethan.

Another boom of thunder shook the inside of the house. Teddy jumped. He really didn’t like storms. Storms reminded him of his nightmares.

“Polka dots or stripes?” he asked to distract himself.

“Polka dots,” Lila said. “They have more of a dramatic flair.”

“Stripes,” Caleb said.

“You’re only saying that because I picked polka dots,” Lila said wearily.

“Not true! The human brain has a strong reaction to stripes. That’s why you’re supposed to paint them on babies’ walls.”

“How on earth could you possibly know that?”

“One of Mom’s weird podcasts.”

“I’ve found something very interesting,” Houser shouted from the other room. When he finally came into view, he was balancing three brown boxes in his thin arms. “Two of those names you gave me have a common ancestor.”

Teddy gulped, and next to him, he saw Lila shudder. He wasn’t sure if this was good news or very bad news.

“Who?” he heard Lila ask.

“Her name was Adelina Albescu,” Mr. Houser said. “Both Timothy Marlowe and Bridget Sullivan are related to her. Quite interesting.”

“No way,” Teddy blurted out, then turned to Lila and Caleb. “The contortionist from the circus. She died in the circus fire.” The three kids exchanged wide-eyed looks, and Teddy knew what they were thinking. It was very, very strange that two of the ghosts who’d been “stuck” at the inn just happened to be related to people who died in unrelated tragedies decades earlier.

Mr. Houser fixed Teddy with a penetrating stare. “You, young man, are quite the expert on the circus fire.”

Teddy swallowed. He was torn between being thrilled to be recognized as an expert and also not wanting to draw attention to their mission. “Oh,” Teddy said. “I’ve just been doing research.”

He cringed a little when he heard the sound of his own voice. It was squeaky.

“For school,” Lila clarified. “Research for school.”

“Okay, so Timothy and Bridget were both related to the contortionist. But what about Mary?” Caleb said, clearly oblivious to the fact that Mr. Houser seemed suddenly suspicious of the kids. “What’s her connection?”

Just then, there was another huge crash of thunder and all the lights shut off. The small room of the archive office seemed even tinier in the dark. The air still without the fan.

“Uh-oh,” Mr. Houser said with a laugh. “It seems like we’ve lost power because of the storm.”

In the darkness, Teddy made eye contact with Lila. He knew what she was thinking.

There was no way any of this was a coincidence.

Mr. Houser lit a candle. It filled the room with a scent that reminded Teddy of dying flowers. He wasn’t sure why anyone would’ve chosen that specific smell, but Mr. Houser was also wearing a three-piece suit during the muggiest month, so his life choices were clearly suspect.

Tapping his fingers together, Mr. Houser volunteered, “I can continue to do some research, dig into Mary’s history. Are you most interested in how she could be connected to the fire?”

The kids nodded.

“Could you write down an email address where you could be reached?”

He pushed a note card toward them. When Teddy picked up the note card, he noticed it was made of the thickest paper he had ever felt. He quickly scribbled down his email address and passed it back to Mr. Houser.

“Thank you for your help,” Teddy said.

“My pleasure.” Mr. Houser smiled, his crooked teeth glinting in the candlelight. “I’m always here.”

It had been Lila’s idea to meet at Shakes on Friday night. Teddy was not the kind of kid who went to Shakes on Friday nights. Or rather, he was not the type of kid who was ever invited to go to Shakes on Friday nights.

Shakes was the local diner. It had been in Castle Hill for what seemed like forever. It served mediocre burgers and even more mediocre fries—in Teddy’s humble opinion—but it was a place to see and be seen. And Teddy was not someone people in his grade were usually eager to see.

But, Teddy had to admit, Shakes had the best milkshakes in southwest Ohio.

“Are you sure?” he’d said to Lila on the walk home from school. He’d scratched his head, furrowing his eyebrows. “Maybe it’s better if we meet up after?” Teddy was going to sleep over at the inn so they could figure out what to do with the shocking information they’d received at the archives.

“Mackenzie said it was fine if I brought you,” Lila had said cheerfully.

Fine? Teddy wasn’t sure he liked that wording.

“Come on,” Lila had said. “She’s nice.”

“Maybe to you,” Teddy had mumbled.

“Teddy!” Lila had said, exasperation in her voice. “Maybe the reason you don’t have so many friends is because you’re a little judgmental.”

Teddy felt like he’d been slapped. He didn’t know how to explain to her that Mackenzie was one of the kids who had made fun of him in the wake of Ethan’s death. Branding him as creepy and dangerous. And worse, that he’d believed that about himself. Even worse, he still sometimes did.

But instead of saying any of that, he had just hung his head and said, “Okay. I’ll meet you at Shakes.”

And so now, he found himself getting ready for the evening. He almost never bothered to try to tame his curly hair. But tonight he had gotten out the formerly untouched bottle of hair gel his mother had bought him two years ago. He opened it and squirted a few drops in his hand, running it through his hair.

When he looked in the mirror, he was pretty sure he looked like a drowned rat. So much for the hair gel looking good. He turned on the faucet and tried to rinse it out, but some of it stuck.

Oh well, he thought. At least his shirt was awesome. He had decided on wearing the lime-green Shining one. It was loud. But this was Friday night. It felt appropriate to make a statement.

He took a deep breath and headed downstairs.

His mom was beaming, waiting on the couch for him. She stood up when she saw him. “You ready?”

“Does my hair look terrible?”

“Teddy,” his mom said, her voice barely above a whisper. She pulled him close to her in a hug. “You look amazing.”

“Mom, Mom!” He shoved her away, even though he secretly enjoyed the hug. “And I know you’re lying. You hate this T-shirt.”

His mom smiled, and when he looked at her, he realized her eyes were glistening.

“Mom!” he said. “Stop. What’s wrong?”

She shook her head quickly, pinching her nose. “Nothing. Nothing’s wrong. It’s just—” Her voice broke a little. “You know it’s been so long since you’ve gone out with a friend. I’m so happy for you.”

Teddy slouched his shoulders. “Mom, I hung out with Lila all summer.”

“Yeah, I know, but that was like just creeping around at that old inn, right?”

Teddy frowned. “Creeping around? Mom, come on!”

“Okay, okay.” She was smiling, her eyes still shiny. “It’s just, Shakes is like normal kid stuff! I went to Shakes when I was a kid. I don’t know, it just makes me happy that you’re going. Is that okay? For me to be happy?”

She stretched out her arms, welcoming him into a hug. He accepted and let her squeeze him tightly. He knew that in the back of both their minds, they were thinking about Ethan. How Teddy was alive, and getting to do what his mother deemed normal kid stuff, and Ethan wasn’t. Now it was Teddy’s eyes that felt wet. He blinked that feeling away.

“Okay, you ready?” his mom said, grabbing her purse and dangling her keys in the air.

“Yup,” he said.

As they walked out to the car, his mom said, “You sure about the T-shirt?”

“Mom!” Teddy groaned.

“Okay, okay. I’ll be quiet.”

But his mom wasn’t quiet. She babbled the whole ride to Shakes. Talking about her seemingly golden teenage years and how she spent so many fun nights at Shakes.

“Dad didn’t grow up going to Shakes,” Teddy said.

His mom looked over at him at the stoplight. “Of course he didn’t. He didn’t grow up here.”

“I wonder what he was like as a kid. If he was like me.”

“If you mean he was handsome, smart, and charming, then yes,” his mom said, grinning.

“Mom,” Teddy groaned again, but he smiled a little. Sometimes he tried to picture what his dad’s childhood in Jordan was like. But it felt so much harder to imagine than his mom’s here. That made him feel sad in a way. He resolved that someday soon he would ask his dad more questions.

He also had this inkling that his mom had been like his sisters. A shiny person. Put together. Always knowing the right thing to say. His dad was a shiny person now, but Teddy was holding out hope that when he was a kid, he’d been a little bit more like Teddy. Not because Teddy wished for his dad to have had a tough time, but more that thinking his dad maybe had been similar made Teddy believe that someday, he might be okay, too.

His mom pulled up to the curb in front of Shakes. She leaned over and gave him a kiss on the cheek. He knew he should dodge it, but he didn’t.

“You’ll call me when you and Lila are ready to be picked up?” his mom asked.

“Yeah,” Teddy said. “I will.”

He got out of the car and took a deep breath as he opened the door to the restaurant. Shakes had opened in the 1950s and had kept that kind of vibe. It was filled with red leather booths, shiny fluorescent lights, and a black-and-white-tiled floor.

It took him a second to spot Lila. She was sandwiched between Mackenzie and Aubrey at a big booth that was filled with other kids. Kids who Teddy was decidedly not friends with, like Tate Brenner and Kevin Lanksy and Josh Miller.

Lila, though, stood up and waved to him when she saw him. “Teddy!” she said. “You’re here.”

Mackenzie made an expression like she’d just smelled something bad, but Teddy tried to ignore it. He walked slowly over to the booth. It was full, and it didn’t look like there was going to be room for him unless someone scooted over. He awkwardly lingered by the booth, looking at Lila for help.

Lila cleared her throat. “Um, guys? Can you scoot to make some room for Teddy?”

Teddy didn’t know silence could feel so loud. It rang in his ears. But finally, Josh reluctantly scooted in, and Teddy timidly sat beside him.

The kids at the booth chatted with one another.

“Who’s excited about Castle Hill’s game on Friday? I bet Jeremy is gonna run for like a hundred yards,” Kevin Lanksy said.

“Me!”

Teddy gave Lila a surprised look. He had no idea that she liked football.

“Me too!” Mackenzie said. “But I think he’s going to run for like two hundred yards.”

“That would be a lot of yards,” Josh Miller said. Teddy recognized the know-it-all quality of Josh’s voice. And as much as he didn’t care for Josh, as a fellow know-it-all, he had to respect it.

The conversation continued.

“Mrs. Porter is so weird, isn’t she?” Aubrey said.

Everyone agreed, including Lila. Teddy wondered if he should say something, too, except he actually liked Mrs. Porter. But even though he wasn’t really good at social stuff, he understood enough to keep his mouth shut.

So he quietly ate the cheese fries he’d ordered and sucked down his chocolate milkshake. He kept trying to make eye contact with Lila, but she seemed to be avoiding him. Or at least it felt like it. She was wrapped up in talking to Mackenzie and giggling at everything that Kevin Lanksy said, which made Teddy’s stomach churn.

Teddy loved chocolate milkshakes. They were one of his favorite things in the whole world, but suddenly, there was a sour taste in his mouth, and he didn’t feel like having any more of his shake. He pushed it out in front of him.

Lila raised her eyebrows at him. “You okay, Teddy?”

He glared at her. He didn’t mean to—it just came out. He picked at one of his cheese fries, not answering her.

“Teddy?” Lila said.

“Um?” Mackenzie said. “Hello? Can you hear her?”

“Yes, I can hear her,” Teddy said, his voice short and clipped. He hung his head. This was unlike him. He didn’t like being grumpy. It didn’t suit him. But nothing about this night felt right.

“How do you guys, like, know each other, anyway?” Aubrey asked, twirling a piece of her shiny hair between her fingers.

“We’re neighbors,” Lila said brightly. “Remember I told you?”

“Oops,” Mackenzie said, a fake smile on her face. “I must’ve forgotten.”

“No!” Aubrey said, her eyes lighting up. “That’s right. You live at the old inn!”

“The old inn,” Kevin Lanksy said. “Is it true that it’s haunted?”

Josh nodded excitedly. “I’ve heard that, too!”

“Ooh.” Mackenzie leaned her elbows on the table, peering toward Lila. “So is it true?”

Teddy could’ve sworn he saw Lila flicker, but no one else seemed to notice.

“That’s what they say!” Lila said with a nervous laugh.

“Wow!” Kevin said. “Have you seen a ghost?”

“Yeah! Tell us,” said Josh.

Lila and Teddy locked eyes. He shook his head quickly at her.

“Well,” Lila said. “I don’t know if I’ve actually seen one, but I’ve heard things.”

Teddy’s face felt hot. He couldn’t believe Lila was making a joke of this. Especially after all they’d been through. Especially with her flickering.

Especially, especially with the big discovery they had just made. And how dangerous everything felt.

But she kept chatting away. Making up things about ghosts. Most of it was false, but because Teddy knew the truth, he recognized the material she was pulling from. He shook his head again. This was not cool of Lila. Not cool at all.

Everyone else was lapping it up.

“We should have another ghost party,” Mackenzie squealed. “It would be so fun!”

“Definitely,” Josh chimed in.

“What’s that thing called?” Aubrey said, twirling a piece of her hair again. “A séance? We should do that again. At Lila’s house this time.”

What? Teddy stared at them, wide-eyed. “That’s probably not a good idea. Ghosts aren’t a joke.” Aubrey batted her eyes dramatically while Mackenzie laughed.

“What, Ted? Are you afraid?” Mackenzie asked.

Teddy’s jaw tightened. “Please don’t call me Ted. And it’s just … you shouldn’t joke about ghosts. It’s not a good idea.” He turned to Lila for backup, but she was busy whispering something to Aubrey.

Teddy looked down at his half-eaten plate of cheese fries. The sauce suddenly looked congealed and unappetizing. Nausea rose in his throat. He stood up.

“I’ve got to go.”

“Teddy, wait,” Lila said.

“Oh no, Ted,” Mackenzie said. “Did we bore you?”

“I think we scared him,” Josh said, laughing. “You know, Teddy doesn’t like ghosts.”

No one said Ethan’s name, but Teddy could feel all their eyes on him. Their words felt like slaps against his cheeks. He looked to Lila for help, but she wouldn’t meet his eye.

It was only after he walked away from the booth that he heard footsteps behind him.

“Teddy! Wait!” Lila’s voice called out.

“It’s okay, Lila. My mom’s on her way.”

“Teddy, I’m sorry.” Lila hung her head. “I just … I’m trying to make friends. Is that okay? It’s nice to feel liked.”

“I like you,” Teddy said.

“I know, but … wouldn’t it be nice to have other friends, too?”

Teddy considered this. He wasn’t sure. Lila was enough for him. He wished he were enough for her.

“It’s okay, Lila. It’s really fine.”

“No, it’s not. You’re upset. I don’t want you to be upset.”

Teddy glanced away from her. “You’re right. It’s not fine. How can you just …” He felt anger building inside him. It scared him. All of a sudden, he was back in his nightmare from the other night. He was standing on the frozen pond, his mouth open, screaming. The loudest scream he could make, but soundless. The terrifying realization that he wasn’t going to reach Ethan—

“Teddy!” Lila said. “Earth to Teddy!”

“Sorry,” Teddy said, blinking. It was strange how recently his nightmares were affecting him during the day, too. Pulling him in.

“It’s just … this ghost stuff. It’s not funny, you know. Mr. Santiago died. Did you forget that?”

Lila looked wounded and Teddy instantly felt bad.

“I didn’t forget,” Lila said. “It’s just that it feels kind of good to joke about it for a second. That weirdly makes me less scared. Like a moment of joy. Can you understand that?”

I understand, he thought. After Ethan died, Teddy had become obsessed with learning about all things paranormal—his attempt to process what had happened. But he didn’t have the words to explain this to Lila.

Before he could say anything else, his mom pulled up to the curb.

“I’ll see you tomorrow, okay?”

“Will you?” She flickered again, disappearing for longer this time.

A shiver went through him. The flickering was getting worse.

And he felt like he was losing his friend in more ways than one.

Teddy was sitting in his room at his desk listening to Smashing Pumpkins on full blast. All the kids at school thought Smashing Pumpkins was a weird old band, but he loved them. He had on his big headphones so Nadia wouldn’t yell at him for being too noisy. His headphones made him feel like he was at a personal concert.

He was scrolling through the threads on the Phantom Hunters forum. He had updated his Phantom friends on what he and Lila and Caleb had discovered at the town archives. He wasn’t ready to go over to Lila’s yet—he was still hurt about what’d happened last night—so he figured he’d get some of his online friends’ perspectives. He told them a little about Lila’s flickering (without using her real name, of course) and then explained what they’d learned about the three ghosts who’d died in famous disasters.

Do you think it could be a coincidence? he’d typed. It seems weird that they were all haunting the inn and the surrounding area.

Most everyone seemed to think there was no way it was a coincidence.

TobyLikesPeanuts99: ABSOLUTELY there’s no way it’s a coincidence.

PrplPupsonPups: There are no coincidences when it comes to ghosts!

WillDoAnything4IceCream22: Tell us more about the flickering! It sounds scary, but also fascinating.

KeepWhalesWild: Probably not a coincidence but also not so nice to ask for more details about the flickering. That is not kind. This is his friend!

WillDoAnything4IceCream22: He literally asked us what we thought!!! We need more details to tell him what we think!!!

TobyLikesPeanuts99: Let’s not fight. We’re all friends here!

PrplPupsonPups: Maybe not friends. But we all like ghosts.

TobyLikesPeanuts99: We are all friends!!! And we are going to solve this. Also ABSOLUTELY ABSOLUTELY not a coincidence!

RustyRoad689: Well, my dude, there can always be coincidences. But …

RustyRoad689 was one of his favorite people on the Phantom Hunters forum. His real name was Rosteen, which Teddy knew from the multiple sidebar conversations they’d had. Rosteen was an expert on ghost behavior. He’d taught Teddy a lot, like that ghosts didn’t populate graveyards, that sometimes ghosts didn’t remember how they’d died, and he seemed to know a lot about portals and what it meant to pass over.

There was another ping.

Rosteen had commented again:

It would be a wild coinkydink, though! Do you think this has to do with the Fire Maiden?

Deep down, Teddy did think it might have to do with the Fire Maiden. But he was trying not to think about that. He’d prefer any other explanation.

Rosteen’s comment had ignited a fury of other comments on Phantom Hunters. The Fire Maiden was one of the most popular topics for people who lived in his area—kids grew up hearing stories about her, sometimes even trying to summon her.

But now he knew she was real. Now he had seen the full scope of her power. He swallowed. It was no longer so fun to speculate about her.

He was about to type back and ask for other ideas when his phone buzzed. He ignored it for a second, assuming it was one of his sisters, pestering him about some household chore. Didn’t they realize he was way too busy doing important ghost research to be able to take out the garbage?

But then his phone buzzed again. And again.

He felt annoyance rise in him. “Nadia! Stop! I’ll do whatever it is you want in a few minutes. I’m busy right now.”

Nadia was not a ghost, but when you conjured her, she appeared quickly. She stood at the door to his room.

“Did you yell for me?”

“Yeah,” Teddy said. He took off his headphones for a second. He could hear the faint thump of bass pouring out of them. “Stop texting me. I’ll help with whatever in a second.”

“Teddy Bear, I’m not texting you. I’m studying for my AP Chem test. It’s really important. Someday, when you get to high school, you’ll—”

Teddy put his headphones back on. He knew it was rude, but he didn’t have time to listen to Nadia’s bragging. He forgot about his phone for a moment and went back to scrolling Phantom Hunters. But when his phone buzzed again, he finally picked it up and looked.

It was Lila.

COME OVER.

TEDDY, WHERE ARE YOU?!

TEDDY, PLEASE COME OVER.

TEDDY!!!

Teddy tossed his headphones down and raced out of his room. He sprinted down the stairs, charging past Nadia, who was in the kitchen getting a snack.

“Whoa! Where are you going?”

“Good luck studying!” he called out over his shoulder as he raced out the back door. Teddy wasn’t much of a runner, so even though the inn was right next door, he was red-faced by the time he got to the front door.

He knocked and patiently waited, even though he wanted to burst in. Up in the clear blue sky, he saw a group of geese flying overhead. It seemed too early for them to be migrating, but the air was cooler today than it had been in months. When he looked at the tree by Lila’s window, he saw that the corners of the leaves were turning golden. Inhaling, he sucked in the crisp air, which smelled faintly of campfire smoke.

Fall was almost here.

Tapping his foot, he was about to text Lila when Caleb pulled open the door.

“There you are!” Caleb said.

“I came as soon as I got the texts. Is Lila okay?”

Caleb shook his head. His face drained of color.

“Caleb—what’s going on?”

“Um, the flickering.”

Teddy gulped. “Is it getting worse?”

“It was … and just now … she disappeared. And I can’t find her.”

“What?” Teddy felt a jolt run through him. He darted up the staircase. He knew he shouldn’t burst into Lila’s room without asking, but this seemed like a moment when all normal rules were allowed to be broken.

“Lila? Lila? Where are you?” he whispered into the emptiness of her room. Her bed was unmade, the aqua-blue cover pulled back. Her desk was filled with gel pens and an open notebook. When he looked at the corkboard, he saw the pizza brochure was still there.

But no Lila.

“Caleb, when was the last time you saw her?”

Caleb leaned back against the pale violet wall. “Um, like twenty minutes ago. When she was texting you. That was after her last episode. She disappeared for almost a whole minute.”

Teddy could feel a cold sweat building on the back of his neck. His heart pounded in his ears. Focus, Teddy. Focus. This is not the time to panic.

But the panic was gripping him. He could feel it crawling all over his skin, and the more he fought it, the worse it got. Suddenly, his brain filled with images of that day with Ethan—the darkness of the sky, the cold patter of hail striking his face, his lungs burning from screaming, watching helplessly as Ethan—

No. He wasn’t going to get sucked in. He needed to find Lila.

Rushing out of Lila’s room, he headed for the staircase to the portal room. His heart continued to pound in his ears. He could also hear Caleb’s footsteps behind him, chasing after him. He took the stairs two at a time, gripping the thick wooden banister.

“Teddy?”

It was Lila. She was standing on the step ahead of him, looking down at him.

“Lila!” He instinctively reached out his arm to grab her, to make sure she was real, and then self-consciously pulled it away. “You’re okay.”

She shivered. Her face was paler than he had ever seen it. Her skin had a low translucent glow. Ghostly, he thought. But then tried to bury that thought.

“Where were you?”

Lila squeezed her eyes tight. Her face contorted into an agonized expression. “I was there … again. In the afterlife. In the world of the dead. Teddy, it was …”

She trailed off. When her eyes met his, it was his turn to shiver. He could feel her fear. Fear for which there were no words.

“It’s going to be okay,” he said, for her, and for himself.

“Uh, guys,” Caleb said from below them on the stairs. “We probably shouldn’t keep hanging out on the steps. It’s not safe. I know you guys love statistics, and falling down the stairs is a not-zero probability at this point.”

Lila laughed. It wasn’t her usual laugh, though. It was tentative, light, withdrawn. Nothing like the Lila he knew. As they climbed back down the stairs to Lila’s room, Teddy’s pulse raced. They’d found Lila, but he had a sense the danger was anything but gone.

Once they were in her room again, Lila climbed into her bed. She hugged her leopard-print pillow to her chest. Teddy sat down at her desk chair. He rolled in it as a way to get rid of some of his nervous energy. Caleb sat on the floor, leaning his back against the bed.

Lila turned her attention to Teddy. Her eyes looked sunken, like they were still on her face, but he got the nauseating sense that they could sink all the way into her skin at any moment, disappearing forever from view. “By the way, I’m sorry about last night.”

“Seriously. Don’t worry about it.”

“She can be a total jerk sometimes,” Caleb chimed in. “I could’ve told you that.”

“Caleb!” Lila said.

Teddy smiled a little. At least their sibling bickering felt normal even if nothing else did.

“It’s really okay,” Teddy added. He kept watching Lila. He knew he was staring. And he knew staring was creepy. But he couldn’t help it. He felt like if he watched hard enough, he could stop the disappearing from happening again.

“No, it’s definitely not okay. I just got so nervous.”

“It’s like … I don’t know.” Lila paused for a moment. “It feels good that so many people want to hang out with me, you know? I can tell they think I’m a little weird.” She snorted. “And I am a little weird. But since I’m new, they are kind of interested in me? And that feels good. Like really good. Especially after being dumped by all my old friends in Arizona. But I guess I got carried away.”

“I just didn’t like when you were acting like the ghost stories were silly made-up stuff.” Teddy stared pointedly at her. “Because we both clearly know they aren’t silly made-up stories.”

Lila nodded quickly. “I guess it just felt good to pretend that they were. For a moment, you know? It made everything feel less scary.”

“I get that,” Teddy said softly.

“You do?”

“Yeah.”

“Um, as nice as it is that you guys are cool with each other again, do we have a plan or what?” Caleb drummed his feet against the floor. It made a loud knocking sound.

“Caleb, don’t be so loud or Mom is going to come and yell at us,” Lila said.

“Do you guys want to come over to my house?” Teddy asked. “I know the Wi-Fi is spotty here, and I was thinking it might be good to talk to some of my friends on the Phantom boards. They have some theories about the ghosts who died in the disasters.”

“Sure,” Lila said. Overhead, the autumn sky was bright, but the mood of their walk was much stormier. Teddy knew they were all thinking about the Fire Maiden, the sense of dread slowly building inside each of them.

When they got to Teddy’s room, Caleb made himself comfortable on Teddy’s navy beanbag chair, but Lila stayed standing.

“I’m worried if I sit down, I’ll disappear,” she said, her voice still quiet.

“Is that how it works?”

“I don’t really know how it works. That’s the problem.”

“Right,” Teddy said, taking a seat at his desk. He opened his laptop, but before he could log on to the Phantoms, he saw he had an email.

“Whoa,” Teddy said. “Mr. Houser emailed me. You know, the guy from the archives?”

“The one in the suit?” Caleb said. “I’ve been wondering if I could pull off an outfit like that.”

“Caleb, I think your brainpower could be spent wondering about more important things.”

“I have space for many thoughts, thank you very much,” Caleb said, kicking his legs up as he lounged deeper into the beanbag chair.

Teddy opened the email. His heart rate quickened as he read it.

“Guys—there’s a connection between Mary and the fire.”

“Yeah, she died in the Chicago Fire,” Caleb said.

“No, there’s a connection between her and the circus fire. She was there. She was at the circus when the deadly fire started. She was visiting her grandfather, who worked for the circus as a bookkeeper.”

“Wait—” Lila said. “You’re saying that Mary was also related to someone who was in the circus? That’s … really weird, isn’t it?”

“Definitely statistically relevant,” Caleb agreed.

“Let’s see if your friends on the forum have any ideas.” Lila began to pace. “But it definitely feels like all these ghosts are related to … her.”

Teddy quickly logged on to Phantom Hunters. His fingertips were buzzing with this new information. “Is it okay with you if I share what’s been going on with the whole forum? I’ve told them a little, but it could be helpful to tell them all the details. Like about how you went partway through the portal?”

Lila shuffled her feet. “Do you think telling them will help?”

Teddy nodded. “I do. The more details the better. And I really think they’ll be able to help. The people on here, they’re good people.” He swallowed, shifting in his chair. “They’re my friends. I trust them.”

“Okay,” Lila said, stepping closer to Teddy and the computer. “Let’s try it, then.”

Teddy typed quickly. He tried to make sure to include as many details as possible about their showdown with the Fire Maiden, and how Lila almost went through the portal. He decided that for now he wouldn’t list everything they’d learned about the ghosts and their possible connection to the circus fire. He wanted to think on that a little bit more. Once he was done typing, he asked Lila to read the post. “Do you think this is accurate?”

Lila chewed on her bottom lip as she read it. “Yeah. It’s really good, Teddy.”

He pressed post, and leaned back to wait.

The computer dinged almost immediately. They had a reply!

“Whoa,” Caleb said, leaning farther back in the navy beanbag. “That was epically fast.”

Teddy opened the message.

“Oh,” he breathed. “It’s from Rosteen. He’s really cool. We’ve been friends for years.” Teddy clicked on Rosteen’s profile to show Lila the log of all of Teddy and Rosteen’s correspondence. “He’s a legend—he’s only a little older than us, but he’s a big deal on the Phantom forum. He’s an expert in cryptozoology, alien encounters, unsolved mysteries, and ghosts, of course.”

“Of course,” Caleb repeated.

Lila shot him a look, then turned to Teddy. “What did he say? Did he have any idea what could be causing my flickering?”

“Hold on, let me see … Oh, wow!” Teddy jumped out of his desk chair.

“What?” Caleb and Lila said at the same time.

“He wants to meet in real life!”

“Wait, he lives in Castle Hill?” Lila narrowed her eyes. “Isn’t that weird? Did you know that?”

“I didn’t know that! But that’s so cool.” Teddy kept reading Rosteen’s messages. They were coming in one after another. “He says he’s sorry he didn’t tell me he lived in town earlier. That his mom is really hyper about internet security. But he feels like he knows me enough now to trust to meet up. And because we are in such a jam.”

“Uh,” Caleb said. “I don’t mean to be rude, but doesn’t that sound a little sus? Like should we think about internet safety here?”

“Caleb,” Lila said with exaggerated patience. “I’m LITERALLY disappearing. Internet safety doesn’t seem like the top concern.”

“I’m just saying—probably not the best idea to meet some strange guy off the internet.” Caleb held up his hands. “But what do I know? I’m only in sixth grade.” Then he quickly added, “But I do do eighth-grade math.”

“We know,” Lila said. “Believe me, we know.”

Teddy couldn’t believe he might have the chance to meet Rosteen in real life. The Rosteen! His friend when he didn’t have any friends at school. Rosteen had made him feel less alone.

But what if Rosteen didn’t like him in real life? What if Teddy wasn’t cool enough for him?

“What?” Lila said.

“I think we should agree to meet him. Rosteen is an expert. He’s been on the boards even longer than me.”

“Does that make you an expert?” Caleb said.

When both Teddy and Lila shot Caleb an annoyed look, he raised up his hands again. “Geez. I’m just asking questions. Asking questions is a part of the scientific process, you know. It’s an important thing.”

“If Teddy trusts Rosteen, I’m going to trust him. Plus, we need all the help we can get,” Lila said.

Caleb let out a loud sigh. “Fine. Let’s meet this weird guy off the internet.”

“I’m going to tell him to meet us at Cuddy Park. Does that sound good?” Teddy asked.

Lila didn’t respond at first. He watched as her eyes glazed over. For a moment, he was worried she was going to flicker. But then she looked right at him. “How soon can he meet?”

It turned out Rosteen was free right then. Outside, the bright sky was gone, and a light rain had begun to fall. Lila zipped up a yellow raincoat. Teddy hadn’t brought a rain jacket or umbrella with him.

“Do you want to go back to the inn and borrow something from my parents?” Lila asked. “They bought so much rain gear when they decided we were moving. You know, Arizona doesn’t really have rain. And my dad always likes to be prepared, so he basically bought out REI.”

Teddy tilted his gaze up toward the sky. The rain was falling in a cool light mist. It didn’t bother him so much. “I’m okay. Plus, I have a rain jacket at home, you know?”

Lila squinted at him. “You sure?”

“About having a rain jacket?”

“No,” Lila said, shoving him playfully. “About walking to the park without any rain gear! I know I sound like my dad, but it’s good to be prepared.”

“I’ll be okay,” Teddy said.

Caleb had decided to stay behind for this mission; he was unsure about meeting a stranger off the internet. Which Teddy could understand—it was important to trust your instincts. But this was Rosteen. He wasn’t a stranger. He was Teddy’s friend!

The rain began to fall harder, but Teddy kept walking toward the park, gritting his teeth. He pulled up the hood of his sweatshirt and tried to ignore the cold dampness that was beginning to soak into the fabric.

By the time they reached the park, the rain had stopped, but the sky was still overcast. A murky and foreboding gray.

“Are you sure he’s going to be here?” Lila asked, glancing around the park. The park was flat, mostly muddy grass but spotted with the occasional oak tree. There was also a gravel path that wound around a small lake. And in the center of the park was a playground that had once been the best playground in town, but now was starting to be a bit run-down. The slide rusted, the swings old and creaky, the wood chips musty-smelling. Teddy still liked the seesaw, but he wasn’t about to hop on it when today was the day he was about to meet Rosteen.

Teddy nervously looked around the playground. Was the playground babyish? Would Rosteen be on the walking trail? He looked off in the distance at the walking trail, his stomach doing flips.

But then he spotted Rosteen. He didn’t know how he’d missed him before. But all of a sudden, there was a boy on the swing set, and Teddy just knew it was him.

“There,” Teddy said, pointing in the direction of the swing set, and then quickly shoving his hand in his pocket because his mom always said pointing was rude. When they got closer, Teddy raised his hand in greeting, and the boy’s eyes lit up with acknowledgment.

As they walked over to the boy, Teddy noticed Rosteen was dressed in bright neon-orange track pants and a colorful Hawaiian shirt. Over the Hawaiian shirt, he was wearing a denim jacket with tons of patches on it.

The outfit was different. But Teddy thought it was awesome. This boy was like him. A little weird. A little eccentric.

“Hi!” Teddy said. “It’s so great to finally meet you in person.”

“Teddy! My main man! It’s me, Rosteen. Though I’m known as Trusty Rusty in some circles.”

“Hi, Rosteen!” Lila said. “I’m Lila. I’m Teddy’s friend.”

“Ah, the one with the flickering?” Rosteen pumped his legs to swing higher.

“Yup,” Teddy said. “Lila, Rosteen and me have known each other for years. We once investigated the history of this—”

“Ah,” Rosteen said. He stopped the swing and theatrically hopped off. “Yes, Teddy and I go way back.” He slapped Teddy on the shoulder. “Teddy is a real awesome ghost hunter—totally bodacious—he doesn’t get deterred by anything. There are so many posers on the Phantom forum.”

Teddy raised his eyebrows. He didn’t think anyone on the Phantom Hunters was a poser. But he was also not-so-secretly pleased that Rosteen was complimenting him.

“Bodacious?” Lila repeated.

“Yeah!” Rosteen said. “Tubular! Like super cool.”

“Is that an Ohio term?”

Teddy laughed nervously. He really wanted Lila and Rusty to like each other.

“So,” Rusty said. He bowed with a flourish. “How can I help you two?”

“Well,” Teddy said. “Like I said on the forum—”

“Oh, yeah. No need to summarize.” Rusty walked closer to Lila. He sniffed the air around her. “You were pulled into the portal.”

Lila’s face paled. “How do you know that?”

“Eau de portal. The newest fragrance for the living challenged.”

Teddy’s insides froze. He looked up at the gray sky, watching for a storm. His skin pricked with the feeling that something terrible was coming.

“That’s SO GROSS!” Lila started hopping on one foot. “Get it off me, then! I don’t want to smell like the portal. Ew, ew, ew!”

“Ah, you have a flair for the dramatic, huh?” Rusty said with a laugh. “I respect that. I, myself, have a similar penchant.”

Lila tilted her head to the side and surveyed him, as if trying to determine whether he was making fun of her. “To be honest, I can be a bit dramatic. But in fairness, I feel like right now is a time when drama is justified. I’m quite literally flickering.”

“Correctemundo!” Rosteen snapped his fingers. “My dudette, you are correct. Drama is fully justified.”

Lila grabbed at the chain holding up the swing and held on to it. “How do you know so much about ghosts, anyway?”

“If you prefer that pedestrian word,” Rusty said, “I suppose we can use it.”

Teddy took a deep breath. He had so many questions. He also wished he were wearing a cooler T-shirt. Not that the one he was wearing wasn’t cool—Star Wars was universally great—but something more niche. Something that would signal to Rosteen he was also the real deal.

The wind whipped around them, making trees bend, leaves scattering onto the ground, cinnamon and amber puzzle pieces.

Lila put her hands on her hips. “You didn’t answer my question. How do you know so much, anyway?”

Rusty raised an eyebrow at Lila. Another theatrical gesture. “I’ve been, how should I say this, a connoisseur of the undead for many years.”

Teddy knew that ghosts were lumped in with the undead, though most people reserved that label for only vampires or zombies. He clocked this, trying to take quiet notes from Rusty. He knew they were here on official business, but he was geeking out a little. This was a chance to really level up his game.

“Have you ever heard of this happening?” Lila asked. “I mean, how do I get rid of it?” She held her hands out in front of her, studying them. They didn’t flicker, but Teddy held his breath, half expecting them to.

“It’s rare it is for a living person to get anywhere near a portal,” Rosteen said. “Tell me exactly what happened.”

The wind picked up speed at that moment. Teddy had the strange sense that they weren’t alone. He looked over his shoulder.

“Are you a channel?” he asked Rosteen. Secretly, he hoped Rusty wasn’t. That would mean that he had one thing over him, in terms of being a ghost expert.

Rosteen smiled knowingly. “You could say that. I don’t use that terminology, though.”

“I went halfway through the portal,” Lila said. “I got pulled. But Teddy—he pulled me back.”

“Epic,” Rosteen said.

“I pulled her back,” Teddy repeated, in case Rusty hadn’t caught that part.

Rosteen gave Teddy a look. He couldn’t tell if it was an impressed one or not.

“I mean, I did. But that’s what you do for friends, right?” Teddy said with a shrug, in case Rosteen thought he was bragging.

Rosteen didn’t answer. He turned to Lila. “But the ghost went all the way through the portal? The one you were vanquishing?”

“The Fire Maiden,” Teddy chimed in. “You, of course, know all about her. She’s a very famous ghost.”

Rosteen smiled a little. His teeth, Teddy noticed, were a bit small for his mouth, and sharp-looking.

“Of course I know who the Fire Maiden is.”

“Right,” Lila said. “We’ve already covered that both of you are enthusiasts, and this is all so interesting, but can you please tell us something helpful? Like, for example, how do I fix it?”

Rosteen stroked his chin.

“I don’t know if there is a way to ‘fix’ it,” Rosteen said finally.

The panic was back at the base of Teddy’s throat. “That can’t be right. There must be a way.”

Rosteen fiddled with the brass buttons on the side of his jean jacket. “I suppose you might be able to stop it if …” He trailed off. He looked up at the sky overhead, which was darkening.

Teddy noticed that Rosteen also hadn’t brought an umbrella.

“If …?” Lila prompted.

Rosteen looked right at Lila. “We need to defeat the ghost who did this to you. The one who pulled you into the portal. The one who is trying to pull you into the land of the undead.”

“We already did, though,” Teddy said. He bounced on his heels. “Remember I wrote all about it on the forum? You answered me AND gave me a thumbs-up.”

“Right. But the thing is …” Rosteen stared intently at Lila again. “If she’s flickering, that means that the Fire Maiden still has power. That she is still here. She’s trying to work through Lila, and to pull her into the world of the undead. She’s clearly getting stronger. The more you flicker, the stronger she is getting.”

“Wait!” Lila said, her voice was even higher pitched than before. More strained and stressed. She shook her hands out like there was a spider on them. “How do we get her away? How do we stop her from getting stronger?”

“We?” Rusty pointed at himself in a dramatic way.

“Yes, we,” Lila said, her voice laced with more urgency. “You said you could help.”

“No, no, no,” Rusty said quickly. He sat back down on the swing. He gave his legs a kick, pulling up into the air. “I said I thought I might know what was going on. And when I saw you, I knew I was right. You’ve been afflicted.”

“Afflicted,” Teddy repeated. The word felt sour and spiky in his mouth.

“Is it going to get worse?” Lila asked.

“I’m afraid it’s definitely going to get worse.” Rusty didn’t sound scared about this news at all, though. Which, honestly, kind of irked Teddy.

“Rosteen,” Teddy said. “Come on. You’re the smartest person on Phantom Hunters.”

At this, Rosteen stopped swinging. “Ah, you really think so?”

“Yeah. Really! I’ve learned so much from you, dude.”

Rosteen shrugged a bit, but he was still smiling wide. “Happy to share my wisdom, from one righteous dude to another.”

“Great,” Lila said. “So if you know a lot, please help us.”

“I’ll need to think.” He paused for a moment. And then he looked right at Teddy. “What are you guys doing tonight?”

“Well,” Lila said. “I’m having some friends over to the inn.”

Teddy looked at her. “You are?”

“You said you would come!”

And then Teddy remembered. It had been a rushed conversation. He didn’t really want to hang out with Mackenzie and the whole crew. And it also didn’t seem like they had the time to have a party. But Lila had begged him.

“Right.”

Rosteen raised his eyebrows. “I am glad you two are still finding time for fun.”

“We are serious ghost hunters,” Teddy said, a bit tersely. “Remember, we defeated the Fire Maiden. So do you have any ideas about what we should do? How we can stop the flickering?”

The sly smile had returned to Rosteen’s face. “Well, I think you will need to figure out what the Fire Maiden is planning. What she wants.”

“We already know what she wants,” Lila said. “To kill people.”

“Hm,” Rosteen said. “That seems a bit simple, though, yes?”

The wind around them continued to blow. Teddy watched as the trees swayed, bending perilously close to the ground.

“What do you mean?” Lila asked.

“Who does she want to kill and why?” Rosteen asked. “We need to understand her. That’s the thing about the undead. Understanding is the most important thing.”

Lila wrinkled her nose, an expression she frequently made when she was talking to Caleb. “No offense, but I’m not really interested in ‘understanding’ a murderous ghost. I just want to stop her. And I want to stop my flickering.”

“My dudette,” Rosteen said again.

“I’m not your dudette,” Lila snapped.

“What she means,” Teddy intervened, “is that we’re really grateful for your help. But we already know a bunch about the Fire Maiden. I mean, we’re the ones that vanquished her.”

“You seem to think you vanquished the Fire Maiden. But you didn’t really. Did you?” Rosteen narrowed his eyes in thought; they crinkled at the corners.

The wind was still picking up speed. Teddy watched as the swings rocked back and forth on their own. It gave his stomach a weird, swooping feeling. He shoved his hands into the pockets of his sweatshirt and shivered.

“I don’t understand,” Lila said.

“She’s trying to claim you,” Rosteen said. “That’s what’s causing the flickering. She’s literally haunting you, pulling you into the land of the undead. So you haven’t fully extinguished her.” He rocked back on his heels and crossed his arms. The wind howled. “You may have celebrated too early.”

That evening, Nadia was at swim practice, Dena was at a friend’s house working on a science project, and Teddy’s dad was playing pickup basketball with some friends at the community center, so it was just Teddy and his mom.

He found his mom in the sunroom. She was working on a watercolor. He watched as she carefully dipped her paintbrush into the water and then dragged it across the page. Light jazz music was oozing out of the speakers and his mom was wrapped in a wool shawl.

The whole scene was peaceful.

Teddy wished he could step inside it, forget about the Fire Maiden, forget about Lila’s flickering, forget about everything.

“Teddy,” his mom said cheerfully when she spotted him watching her from the corner of the sunroom. “Are you heading over to Lila’s party?”

He kept standing in the corner. He rocked back and forth on the balls of his feet. “Maybe … I’m not sure I should go.”

His mom frowned. “Honey, why not? It’ll be so good for you.”

He knew his mom really wanted him to go. Because him going signaled to her that he was doing well. That he was a normal kid with normal friends.

If only she knew …

“Lila is counting on you, Teddy,” his mom said. She set her paintbrush down and gave him a knowing look.

Teddy gulped. Did his mom somehow know about Lila and her flickering? Did she know about the Fire Maiden?

“She’s new to town and you were her first friend. It’s brave of her to throw a party. You need to show up and support her, okay?”

Teddy exhaled. Okay, his mom definitely didn’t know about the Fire Maiden. Part of him was glad because he knew she would totally freak out, but another part of him, a part he didn’t expect, felt disappointed.

He realized carrying this secret, this fear, was heavy.

He wished, in a way, he could share it with his mom.

But his mom was right. He needed to be there for Lila. Even if she didn’t have the full picture of why.

“You’re right, Mom,” he said. He thought about how brave Lila had been facing down the Fire Maiden, and how brave she was being now. If Lila could do that, then Teddy could handle some unfriendly seventh graders.

His mom smiled brightly, picked up her paintbrush, and dabbed it into the water cup again. “I’m always right. You’ll realize that someday.”

“Right, right,” he said, laughing a little. He grabbed his red windbreaker and got ready to head over to Lila’s. As he zipped it up, he thought about Rosteen’s cool denim jacket. He wondered where you got a jacket like that. And then he wondered if it would be too creepy of him to get one that was similar.

As he approached the inn, he felt his pulse quicken. Outside, Lila’s parents had draped spiderwebs over the bushes. They’d even hung up a sticky cutout of a ghost in one of the large living room windows.

Teddy shook his head. Ghosts were so hypothetical to people who weren’t channels.

As he neared the door, he thought about the last party he’d gone to with his classmates. Josh’s third-grade bowling party. It’d been a while. He took a deep breath and knocked on the inn’s front door. His knock made the seasonal wreath rattle.

Caleb opened the door when Teddy was mid-knock.

“Whoa!” Teddy said. “Hey.”

Meatball hopped up on Teddy’s legs, and Teddy held out his hands so that Meatball could lick them.

“Hey, buddy,” Teddy said, scratching Meatball behind his ears.

Inside, Lila’s parents had decorated the inn. There was a display of white pumpkins and a big glass bowl of candy that looked untouched. Teddy grabbed a Reese’s Cup. There was no way he was going to let the candy go to waste.

“You’re finally here! I thought you weren’t going to show up.” Caleb shook his head. “Lila is like a completely different person around these kids. She keeps agreeing with everything they say! She never agrees with what I say. What is going on?!”

You can still change your mind, Teddy thought. Then he took a deep breath and stepped into the inn. He could hear a popular song booming from a speaker upstairs. It wasn’t the type of music he thought Lila normally listened to.

“Are they all upstairs?”

“Yeah,” Caleb said. “They’re crammed into her room. If you ask me, that’s too many bodies in one space. Way too much carbon dioxide. To say nothing of middle school BO.”

“Thanks for that, Caleb,” Teddy said, giving him a smile. “I’ve got the picture.”

As Teddy headed toward the staircase, Caleb called after him. “Wait. You’re going to the crowded room? I thought we could play video games.”

Teddy leaned against the wooden banister. “I would love to, but …” He listened to the loud thumping bass and cringed. “Lila asked me to hang out with her and her … friends.”

“Fine,” Caleb said with a sigh.

“Come with me?”

Caleb wrinkled his nose. “Hard pass. But come find me if you want some space to breathe.”

“Deal,” Teddy said, and he climbed the steps. His feet felt heavy as he walked toward Lila’s room. He tentatively knocked on the door.

When the door opened, he saw Josh and Peter sitting on the edge of Lila’s bed. Mackenzie was standing by the window, holding white tapered candles. Aubrey was leaning against Lila’s closet door.

“Teddy!” Lila said. Her smile was bright. “You’re here!”

“The ghost expert is here,” Mackenzie said in her patented There’s no way of knowing whether I’m being sarcastic tone. “We can get started.”

Teddy stared at her in confusion. It was hard to think when the music was this loud. “Get started?”

Aubrey clapped her hands. “Yes, silly! With the ghost séance.”

Teddy whipped around to look at Lila. “Ghost séance?”

Lila gave him a sheepish shrug. “Can I talk to you in the hallway?”

“Ooh, are you going to get some special advice, Li?” Mackenzie called out. “You better share with us!”

“Yeah,” Josh said, laughing. “Teddy, I want a protection spell. I don’t want any ghost to get me!”

Teddy followed Lila out into the hallway.

“Um,” he said. “What is going on?”

“They want to do a séance.”

“Yeah, I heard that. Probably not a great idea, considering …” He stared at her hands. They weren’t flickering at the moment, but he remembered the fear he had felt the other day when he couldn’t find her. His heart crept up into his throat.

“But séances aren’t real, are they?” Lila put her hands on her hips. “It might be fun. Just … pretend.”

“Lila,” Teddy said, shaking his head. “I think séances can be real.”

“Well, they’ve done it before and nothing bad happened,” Lila argued.

“Have they done it in one of the most haunted buildings in America?” Teddy couldn’t help raising his voice. “Right below a portal to the afterlife?! How do you not understand that this is a very, very bad idea?”

“Come on!” Mackenzie shouted, stepping into the hallway. “What, are you afraid, Teddy?” She gave him a sharp smile. “I thought you loooooved ghosts.”

“I’m just … not sure it’s a good plan.”

“Oh, it’s fine!” Mackenzie held a candle in each hand and waved them. “I’ve done this before. We’ll go into the bathroom and—”

Aubrey burst out into the hallway. “Are you doing it without me?!”

“No, Aubs!” Mackenzie said. “Of course not. Peter! Josh! Come here!”

“This inn has lots of ghosts,” Teddy blurted out.

Josh had just walked into the hallway in time to hear Teddy say that.

“Uh, yeah, dude. That’s what we’ve heard. That’s why we’re here.” He grinned.

Teddy tried to make eye contact with Lila but she ignored him. Instead, she let out a nervous giggle. What was she thinking?

Mackenzie led the group to the hallway bathroom. Lila’s parents hadn’t remodeled it yet. It had tiled walls and a chipped tiled floor. The mirror was big and old, with an ornate gold frame that was rusting. There was a large bathtub, but not a shower. “Old bathroom,” Peter said, looking around.

“Oh yeah,” Lila said. “My parents are going to remodel it. The whole house is in super bad shape. My grandpa didn’t take the best care of it.”

In the fluorescent light of the bathroom, Teddy could see Lila blushing.

“Grandpa Clem was awesome,” Teddy said indignantly. He wasn’t going to let anyone say anything bad about him in his house.

“Oh, for sure,” Lila said. “Even though I never knew him.”

“You never knew your grandpa?” Josh frowned. “That’s sad. I have breakfast with my grandpa every Sunday.”

“Aw,” Mackenzie said, and she leaned her head against his shoulder. “That’s so cute!”

“Ew,” Peter said. “I came here for ghosts. Not cute.”

At this, Lila let out an awkwardly loud laugh.

Teddy gave her a confused look.

“Sorry!” she chirped. “Just excited!”

“Wow, okay, simmer down, Li,” Mackenzie said. “So here’s the rules. We’re going to light the candles. Peter, you brought the lighter, right?”

“I don’t know if lighting something in this super-old wooden house is the best idea,” Teddy said.

“Oh, look, guys, Smokey Bear is here with the fire safety rules,” Peter said, and everyone laughed. Even Lila.

“Fine,” Teddy said. “I don’t know a lot about séances. I’ve heard they’re fake, anyway.”

“Wanna bet?” Mackenzie flashed a challenging smile. “You have no idea what happened last time.”

His stomach swooped. He really did not want to bet. If a séance was going to work anywhere, it was probably here.

“So can I continue telling everyone the rules?” Mackenzie said.

“You are so bossy, Mac,” Peter said. “I think when you grow up, you’re going to be a school principal.”

“Shut up.” Mackenzie gave him a playful shove.

Something Teddy never understood about his classmates was how they all insulted one another, but this insulting was actually a good sign? It meant you belonged. He knew enough to know that being ignored was the worst. And that’s what they mostly did to him. But he wasn’t sure he would ever get used to insulting being a way to show affection.

“So,” Mackenzie said, clearing her throat. She hopped up on the toilet. “We’re going to light these candles. Then we’re going to turn off all the lights. And then—this part is important—”

“So everyone listen up!” Josh said, mimicking Mackenzie’s voice.

“Ugh, Josh!” Mackenzie said, but again she laughed, like she actually liked when he interrupted her.

Teddy found this all so confusing.

“But yes,” Mackenzie continued. “Listen up. We’re going to chant all together. And it’s important, really important, we do it at the same time. We’re going to say—‘Fire Maiden, Fire Maiden, Fire Maiden, show yourself!’”

“Wait!” Teddy said. “I don’t think—why Fire Maiden?” He was crunched against the rear part of the bathroom, the backs of his legs pressing against the tub. He wished he could move more to try to get a better look at Lila. There was no way she thought this was a good idea. Did she?

“Because, silly, she’s the most famous ghost here,” Aubrey said. “She’s who we always summon during séances.”

“Always?!” Teddy repeated, aghast. “Are you telling me—”

“Don’t you remember all the stories we would tell when we were little?” Josh asked, cutting him off.

“She’s, like, evil. From the circus fire. Remember?” Peter added.

“Okay!” Mackenzie said. “That’s enough of that. Lights out.”

And before Teddy could say anything else, the lights flipped off. The bathroom was pitch-black. He could barely see in front of his nose. His skin pricked. It wasn’t that he was afraid of the dark. It was just … he didn’t like it very much.

Then Mackenzie lit the candles. She held one, and handed the other to Josh.

“Now,” Mackenzie said. “We chant.”

“W-w-wait,” Teddy tried to chime in, but his protest was drowned out by their chanting. The one comfort was that he didn’t hear Lila’s voice participating in it.

“Fire Maiden, Fire Maiden, Fire Maiden, show yourself!” the kids all chanted.

They continued for a few moments, and Teddy relaxed. This was silly stuff. Amateur stuff. This wasn’t going to work in a million years. Real ghost hunters knew—

And then there was a spark from the bathroom’s electrical socket. And a flicker of the lights. They turned on and then off.

The faintest sound filled the room. It reminded Teddy of a music box, a high-pitched flute merging with groaning organ. Was everyone else hearing this? Was this real? The back of his neck tingled as the music grew louder, more distinctive.

It was circus music.

The tempo changed, no longer steady, but erratic. Like a clown tap-dancing.

“OH MY GOD!” Aubrey yelled. “WHAT WAS THAT?! ARE YOU HEARING THAT CREEPY MUSIC AND DID YOU SEE THE LIGHTS?!”

“These old houses have weird wiring, right?” Josh said. He sounded a lot less eager than he had a few moments earlier.

“Keep chanting!” Mackenzie ordered. “It’s working!”

And they did.

Another round.

“Fire Maiden, Fire Maiden, Fire Maiden, show yourself!”

All of a sudden, a cold burst of air flew through the bathroom. Like someone had opened a window. Except this bathroom didn’t have a window.

A waxy smelled filled the room. Hot and smoky. The circus music sped up again, louder this time, the crashing of cymbals. Large shadows appeared on the walls, flickering in and out, a soft cackling sound. The air felt almost as though it was shimmering, like a veil was being broken.

A large puff of smoke. Teddy coughed.

The mirror flashed.

And in the mirror, Teddy saw it.

Her.

The Fire Maiden.

Her skin was porcelain and gleaming. Her mouth wide open in a sinister smile, her red hair flowing behind her like flames.

But it was her eyes—her eyes that scared Teddy the most.

Big and burning, shining with chaotic delight.

And the sound of her laugh—cold and deranged, like she was going to get exactly what she wanted and no one could stop her.

The day was bitterly cold. The wind smacked against Teddy’s face as he laced his skates.

Ethan was already dressed and ready. His black puffer coat swallowed him up, his black snow pants equally voluminous. But despite the frigid temperature, the sun was bright, sparkling against the snow. It was so bright that Teddy had to squint at times. The whole world was a glittering majestic white.

“You ready?” Ethan asked.

“Almost.” Teddy’s fingers were stiff. He laced his skates as fast as he could.

Ethan looked out at the snow-dusted pond. Last night had been the first real freeze of the winter, a big snowfall. “You think it’s ready for the season?”

“Of course! Feel how cold it is.”

The pond was about a three-block walk from Teddy’s and Ethan’s houses. They’d planned to meet there when they’d learned they had the day off school because of the snow.

Once Teddy had his skates on, he darted onto the ice. The ice felt sturdy and steady beneath his feet. He wasn’t a great skater, but he loved the feeling of gliding, weightless and free. He wobbled around on the ice, waiting for Ethan to join him.

Ethan was a more cautious kid. He was Teddy’s best friend, but very different from him. While Teddy always got in trouble at school for speaking without raising his hand, Ethan had never broken a rule. Where Teddy had already watched The Shining an inexplicable number of times (his parents didn’t know this—Teddy, remember, didn’t care about rules), Ethan was not a fan of anything remotely scary.

“Come on!” Teddy shouted out to his friend. Snow was falling from the sky in gentle flakes. Teddy tilted his head back, catching one on his tongue. It was wet and cold, and he shivered with delight. He could feel the snowflakes sticking to his eyelashes.

Finally, Ethan stepped out onto the ice. He also wobbled, stretching his arms out toward Teddy.

Laughing, the boys began to skate. The sun glinted off the icy pond, and the snow continued to fall lightly. But then, as if out of nowhere, the weather began to turn.

The snow turned to a harsh, icy hail. It fell from the sky in heavy buckets. One moment, it had been sunny and bright, and the next, it was hazy, gray, and wet. The hail stung Teddy’s face, burning as it pecked against his skin.

“What is happening?” Teddy said, tilting his head to the sky. “We should go.” He started to skate back to the edge of the pond.

“Do you see that?” Ethan pointed off into the distance.

Teddy squinted through the icy hail. He didn’t see anything. He shook his head, but Ethan was already skating away.

“Ethan!” Teddy shouted. “Where are you going? We need to get off the ice.”

Ethan kept skating away. The hail came down even harder. It was becoming more difficult to see where Ethan was.

The sound of the ice cracking stilled Teddy’s heart.

“Ethan!” he called out. The hail was so hard he could barely see. It felt like the whole world was shaking. “Ethan!” he said again.

“I have to get there, Teddy!” Ethan shouted. “Don’t you see it? I’m going to get there.”

“Ethan!” Teddy screamed. “What are you talking about?”

But Ethan kept skating toward a gaping hole in the ice.

“There’s a tent over here!” Ethan said. “With hot chocolate and blankets. Come on, Teddy. We’ll be safe under here.”

“No, Ethan!” Teddy said. Teddy kept staring at the hole that appeared in the ice. He felt paralyzed by fear. He did not understand what Ethan was seeing. Or why Ethan wouldn’t skate back to the edge of the pond, to safety.

Teddy screamed and the world went black.

Teddy spent all night rocking back and forth in his bed. He was too scared to sleep. Too scared even to close his eyes. He glanced nervously out his window at the shadows caused by the trees swaying in the wind.

She was back. The Fire Maiden was back.

He knew she was.

He’d seen her in the mirror at Lila’s house.

And now she was terrorizing him with nightmares again.

Panic pulsed through his body. He lay in bed, too scared to go to sleep, too scared to get up. His mind wandered, thinking about that day on the ice.

He knew he was going to have to tell Lila and Caleb about Ethan. He couldn’t keep a secret this big from them anymore. Would they look at him differently? Would they no longer want to be friends?

Eventually, his room filled with enough watery light that he felt safe enough to hop out of bed. He massaged his temples, his head pounding with an ache from lack of sleep. And dread.

He was in no mood for a fun shirt today, so he wore a boring black one and the gray North Face fleece Nadia had gotten him last year when she thought if he had “regular” clothes, he might fit in better.

“Teddy!” his mom called after him when he walked through the kitchen. “Where are you going?”

“Hey, buddy,” his dad said. He was sitting at the kitchen island drinking coffee. “What’s going on?”

Teddy didn’t know where his sisters were. Probably off doing world-changing things. For a second, he thought that maybe he should tell Nadia about the Fire Maiden. She was good at everything. She might actually be helpful. But he quickly gave up on that thought. His sister would never believe him. And vanquishing ghosts had absolutely nothing to do with getting into college, so she probably would not be interested.

Teddy pulled open the back door. He didn’t answer his parents. He didn’t trust his voice. But he heard his dad running after him.

“Teddy! Wait up.”

Teddy turned around. He knew his fear must be written all over his face. He pulled the hood of his sweatshirt up over his ears.

“Where are you going?” his dad asked again, his forehead wrinkling with concern.

“Um,” Teddy said, swallowing. “Over to Lila’s.”

“This early?” His dad looked at his watch. “Is she even awake? It’s Sunday morning.”

Teddy racked his brain for something to say. “We have a big project for school.”

“Oh. That’s great. Are you working with Lila on it?”

Teddy nodded slowly. Dread filled his stomach, like he half expected the Fire Maiden to jump out and appear that very second.

“Did you have another bad dream?”

Teddy shook his head. He stared down at the grass. The sky overhead was a moody gray, the wind whipping lightly.

“Have you been thinking about Ethan a lot?” His father’s voice was gentle. When Teddy mustered the courage to look, he saw his dad’s face was open, but full of worry.

“Dad—” Teddy said.

“Look,” his dad said, a slight wince on his face. He was squinting even though there was no sunshine. “I know it’s not fun to talk about. I find it hard to talk about, too.” His dad stared down at the browning grass. “But I guess I just wanted you to know that I’m here. If you want to talk.”

Teddy’s heart squeezed. He knew it was hard for his dad to say that. He appreciated it. And he wished, he wished more than ever, that what he needed to talk about was Ethan. But it was so much more complicated than that now.

“Also,” his dad said with a laugh, filling in the silence. “I recorded this special that ran last night on the Loch Ness Monster. I was thinking we could watch it later together?” His dad scratched the back of his neck.

“Yeah, Dad,” Teddy said, forcing himself to smile. He was touched by the suggestion, especially since he knew there was no universe in which his dad was actually interested in the mystery of the Loch Ness Monster. “We should definitely watch it together.”

“Okay,” his dad said, clamping his hand on Teddy’s shoulder. “And you’re sure it’s okay to go to Lila’s house this early?”

Teddy glanced in the direction of the inn. “Yeah, I’m sure.”

His dad seemed unconvinced. But Teddy took off, running toward the inn. Once he got there, Caleb opened the door.

“You’re up early,” Caleb said.

“So are you.”

“I couldn’t sleep.” Caleb’s face was pale. His eyes ringed with red. Teddy was sure he looked similar.

“What were you guys thinking, doing a séance?”

Teddy looked down at his feet. He wanted to make excuses. He’d told Mackenzie to stop. But Caleb was right. He should’ve done more. “It was a big mistake. But we can’t change it now.”

“Her flickering is bad this morning,” Caleb said.

Teddy felt his own face drain of color. “What?”

“That’s why she’s tucked up in her room. Because every time she comes down to talk with our parents, she gets in trouble. They think she keeps running off! Not paying attention.”

“Maybe it’s not as bad as we think,” Teddy said desperately. “We don’t know that the Fire Maiden is back back. We just saw her reflection in the mirror. It doesn’t mean that she’s made her way back through the portal.”

“I don’t know,” Caleb said, shaking his head. “I’m really scared. Should we go see if Lila’s awake? I’m almost afraid to go look for her. What if she’s not there?”

Caleb seemed like he might cry. Teddy’s heart pinched.

“It’s going to be okay, Caleb,” Teddy said. He wasn’t sure he believed it, but he knew Caleb needed to hear that. “We’ll figure this out. We did it before and we can do it again.”

Caleb didn’t answer. They walked in silence to Lila’s room.

Teddy knocked on Lila’s door.

“Who is it?” she said hoarsely.

“Me,” Teddy said. “And Caleb. Can we come in?”

“Yeah,” Lila said, and Teddy opened the door.

She was sitting cross-legged on the floor of her room in her pajamas. Her notebook was spread open on her lap, her collection of gel pens neatly organized beside her.

“What are you working on?” Teddy asked gently.

When she turned to him, she disappeared for a second. Then she came back into view.

“I’m just drawing pictures. I kind of wanted to have some things to leave behind. In case I—”

“Lila!” Caleb squealed. He jumped up onto her bed and wrapped himself in the sheets. “Don’t say that! Teddy said the Fire Maiden might not even be back at all. Tell her, Teddy.”

Teddy looked away, unable to face the desperation in Caleb’s eyes. He seemed so young suddenly. It didn’t matter that he was in eighth-grade math. He was just a little kid. A little kid terrified of losing his big sister.

“I …” He trailed off, realizing he couldn’t tell Caleb what he wanted to hear. The face they’d seen in the mirror; the fact that Teddy’s nightmares had returned, worse than ever. There was no way to deny it. The Fire Maiden still had some kind of power in their world. “I think we have to face the facts,” he said quietly.

“What?” Caleb looked wounded. “But you said …”

“I’m sorry.” Teddy slumped against the wall. “I didn’t want to believe it, either. But … well, the thing is, I have these nightmares. And I’ve been having them for a long time. The only time they stopped is after the Fire Maiden went back through the portal. Which makes sense because we know she was torturing people with terrible dreams. But now I’m having them again, and I’m pretty sure that means …”

“She’s back,” Lila said flatly. “So that’s why I’m flickering?”

“I’m not sure.” Teddy shook his head. “I’m still trying to figure out the timeline. I think maybe the séances gave her some power to cross back over. Summoning a ghost gives it power. At least, that’s what the Phantoms say. That wasn’t our fault—we had no idea what Mackenzie and Aubrey were doing.”

“No.” Lila drew her knees up to her chest. “We just gave them the final boost they needed.”

“Maybe. I don’t know.”

“What are your nightmares about?” Caleb asked.

Teddy hesitated, then said, “You know, my friend. My old friend?”

Caleb shook his head.

“The one whose mom we asked for help at the library?”

“Oh yeah,” Lila said. “You never told me why you guys aren’t friends anymore.”

Teddy took another deep breath. His heart was skipping, wildly thumping in his chest. He didn’t know how he was going to get these words out, but he had to.

“We’re not friends anymore because he died. And it’s my fault.”

Lila’s eyes widened. The phrase she looked like she’d seen a ghost popped into Teddy’s head. But he knew that, at this point, seeing a ghost would seem a lot less shocking to Lila than learning what happened to Ethan.

Caleb’s mouth fell open, but then he composed himself and walked over to Teddy. He touched him lightly on the shoulder. “I’m really sorry that your friend died. I’m sure it wasn’t your fault, though.”

Teddy shook his head. “No. It was my fault. I asked Ethan to go ice skating, and the ice ended up cracking and—”

Lila put her flickering hands over her mouth.

“See?” Teddy said. “It’s awful. I’m awful.”

“No, Teddy,” Lila said. She stood up. For the first time all morning, she didn’t flicker. “I’m just horrified that you saw it happen. That must’ve been terrible. But you didn’t make it happen. It was an accident.”

Teddy had felt like a storm cloud all day, but suddenly, at hearing those words, he felt like some sunlight was leaking through.

“I appreciate that. I really do. But it was my fault. I was there, and I didn’t do enough to save him. And I just—I don’t want the same thing to happen to you. We have to figure this out. Because we have to—”

“We will,” Caleb said. “We will.”

Lila nodded in agreement. “We will.”

Teddy felt strength rise in him. They were going to do this. They were going to defeat the Fire Maiden. “I think the first thing we need to figure out is what she wants.”

Lila went back to drawing in her journal. Teddy knew that she liked to doodle when she was thinking. It helped her brain focus. “Well, we know she’s targeting descendants of the circus fire, right? It seems like she wants to eliminate anyone whose family was involved in the circus.”

Caleb bounced a ball against the wall of Lila’s room.

“Caleb!” Lila said. “You’ll mess up the new paint!”

“Geez, don’t be so dramatic.”

“Don’t tell me I’m dramatic,” Lila said with a grumble, but she ended up letting it go, and Caleb kept bouncing the ball.

“So,” Teddy said, trying to refocus the conversation. “We know she wants revenge on her fellow circus performers. And she’s taking revenge to a whole other level by tracking down their descendants. So … we need to banish her again.”

“But I think—” Caleb started to talk.

“What?” Teddy and Lila both said.

“Do you think she could be looking for more descendants to kill?” Caleb asked, his voice hushed, like he was afraid of the answer to his question. “Is that what’s making her more powerful?”

“I think you’re right!” Lila said. She sprang to her feet.

“Geez, I didn’t think you’d be so peppy about talking about a murderous ghost who wants to kill people.” Caleb bounced his ball against the wall again and caught it.

“No,” Lila said. “I’m obviously not excited about murder, but …” She tapped her fingers against her chin and did a little twirl. It was a signature dramatic move. It made Teddy happy to see it. She was still here. The Fire Maiden hadn’t taken her.

At least not yet.

“But …?” Caleb prompted.

“But if we know what her plan is, we can stop her. We can banish her.”

“So how do we find out what her plan is?” Teddy asked.

“I think we should go back to that place … the place by the graveyard,” Lila said.

“The archives office?”

“Yup. That. And maybe we can get an idea of who else in Castle Hill might be a descendant of someone who died in the circus fire,” Lila explained.

“Statistically,” Caleb began, and Teddy and Lila both gave him a look.

“No, seriously—statistically, it’s very probable that at least a few people in town are descended from the victims. But also, that seems really hard to figure out. Like imagine all the names we would have to wade through and check. There has to be a better way.”

The outside wind made the glass of Lila’s window rattle. Teddy watched as the branches of the oak tree danced in the strong breeze. He knew it probably wasn’t the Fire Maiden, but still his stomach dropped. She could be anywhere, at any time. Watching. Waiting.

He thought for a moment. “Should we ask Rosteen?”

“Hm,” Lila said. “He might have ideas. But I’m not sure how he would know who is a descendant.”

“Maybe we could check Grandpa Clem’s office?” Caleb suggested. “He has all those newspaper clippings and stuff.”

Lila frowned. “I think Mom and Dad were going to clear that out.”

“They haven’t done it, though,” Caleb said. “It’s one of the rooms that is still listed on their to-do list. I check every day.”

“I guess it can’t hurt.”

Just then, a burst of cold air rushed through the room. It slammed Lila’s bedroom door shut. The outlet near her desk spit a few sparks, and then her computer restarted.

The kids looked at one another. Caleb’s face was drained of color. Teddy was sure he looked similar. But when he glanced at Lila, she didn’t seem afraid. She had a look of determination on her face. Of defiance.

It made him want to be brave.

He would be brave.

“Okay,” he said. “Clearly, we don’t have time to waste. Let’s get to work.”

Teddy hadn’t been inside the office since Grandpa Clem died. He’d spent so many afternoons sinking into the dark green velvet couch, sometimes with Grandpa Clem beside him, sometimes with Grandpa Clem shuffling around behind the large mahogany desk that was always cluttered with papers and some special crystals he had collected over the years. There was also a framed photograph of Clem and Ruth, Grandpa Clem’s wife, and one of Lila’s father.

Additionally, there were photographs of Lila and Teddy from when they were much younger. Teddy wasn’t sure how Grandpa Clem had gotten them—he’d never thought to ask. He’d been estranged from his son, their father, for many years.

Walking straight over to the large mahogany desk, Lila began to shuffle through the papers. Teddy was surprised that the desk looked mostly like he remembered. A cacophony of notes and research. The crystals, slightly gleaming in the office’s dusty light.

“There are so many documents,” Lila said as she continued to sift through the papers. “I don’t know how we’re going to go through all of this. Like what is this?” She held up a notepad. There was a drawing on it, and a bunch of words hastily written in Grandpa Clem’s messy handwriting.

“Hey!” Caleb said. “Grandpa and me have the same handwriting. Maybe it’s genetic.”

Teddy felt too tense to find anything funny. He hovered around the edge of the office and ran his hand over the couch’s arm, flicking away the dust.

Then he walked over to the windows. He pulled open the heavy curtains, letting in more light. The day outside was gray and windy. But the room still felt better with more light.

“Mom and Dad are really going to have to get moving on this room if they want to have it done in time for the party,” Caleb said.

Teddy raised his eyebrows. “Party?”

“Yeah.” He could hear in Lila’s tone that she wasn’t that stoked about it. “They want to have a party on Halloween. To celebrate the reopening of the inn.”

“That actually sounds really fun.” Until Lila and Caleb had arrived, Teddy had always felt more comfortable around adults than other kids.

“Right?” Caleb said. “I keep telling Mom and Dad they should totally market the ghost angle of this place. The fact that they’re throwing a Halloween party makes me think they might finally be listening to me.”

“Caleb, can you please focus?” Lila was crouched by the desk. She was frantically opening the drawers, pulling out more notebooks, flipping through them, and tossing them aside. “If the Fire Maiden does have her sights on someone else, we’re running out of time to stop her.”

Caleb fiddled with his iPad. “I was just setting up some music. Work is always better with music. Did you know it’s a proven scientific fact that your brain concentrates better when listening to—”

“Caleb!”

“Okay, okay. I’m just going to put on some Bach. It’ll make all of us like ten times smarter,” Caleb said. “I promise.”

Teddy walked over to Lila by the desk.

“Find anything?” he asked.

“Nope,” she said.

Caleb was on the opposite side of the desk. He was pulling out notebook after notebook, too. “Geez, how many notebooks did Grandpa have?”

“He must’ve listened to a lot of Bach,” Lila teased.

It felt like hours that the kids sat in Grandpa Clem’s office. Teddy read page after page from various notebooks. Sometimes, he would get super sucked into the notes, even if they weren’t about what the kids were searching for. Grandpa Clem seemed to have had a lot of interests, mostly regarding local paranormal legends and various theories about the afterlife.

“Uh, guys,” Caleb finally said. “I think I might’ve found something.”

Caleb pulled out what looked like a large album. It had a faded green cloth cover. He opened it. “It’s filled with old photographs and notes.”

Caleb moved toward the center of the room so Teddy and Lila could gather around him. Together, they paged through the album. “It’s another article about the fire,” Lila said. “But I don’t think we saw this one in the library.”

“Look.” Teddy pointed at a large group photo of the performers—some of whom he recognized, like the contortionist and the lion tamer. Others were unfamiliar. “Grandpa Clem marked this up with notes, but it’s hard to read.”

Caleb leaned in for a closer look. “No known descendants,” he read. “That’s what it says next to the woman holding the baton—Pollyanna Jackson. But then if you move over to the lion tamer guy …”

Lila and Teddy crouched down to examine a man dressed in a three-piece suit with a top hat. He had a jaunty mustache and was holding a whip in his right hand. LION TAMER, ROBERTO SANTIAGO.

“No way,” Caleb whispered. “Could that be …”

“Mr. Santiago’s relative,” Lila said softly. Caleb flipped back over to the group photo. “Do we recognize any of the other names? Some of the performers survived, right?”

Teddy scanned the names. He recognized some, or he thought he did, but nothing was clicking in the way Santiago did. But then he saw it. “Wait a sec,” Teddy said, his heart starting to pound. His gaze landed on another photo—this one of a woman standing high up on a trapeze wire. The photograph was black-and-white, but he could still make out certain details, like that she was wearing a feather headpiece and a dark-colored leotard. The photo was captioned MADELINE MARFSON.

Marfson.

“Oh my god,” Teddy blurted out.

“Teddy, what is it?” Lila asked.

“Marfson.” Teddy pointed at the name, his hand shaking.

“That’s … that’s Ethan’s last name …”

Cold fear pounded through Teddy just as it did during his nightmares, but even worse. Was Ethan a descendant of someone who’d died in the circus fire? Was the Fire Maiden going to target Ethan’s family? He sat down on the velvet couch, putting his hands on his knees, taking some deep breaths, the way his mom had taught him to do the year after the accident had happened.

He felt Lila sit down beside him.

“Are you okay, Teddy?”

“I just don’t understand what this means,” he said.

“Isn’t this how she gains power?” Caleb asked, his voice smaller and more tentative than normal. “By, um, killing people? Isn’t that why she caused all those people to have terrible nightmares over the summer?”

“I think so,” Lila said. “Like poor Mr. Santiago. But there’s something else going on here. She seems to be targeting the descendants of the people she believed wronged her, even if they had nothing to do with the circus. Even if they were born more than a hundred years later.” She paused and cleared her throat. “There’s another last name I recognize.”

“Whose?” Teddy asked.

“Pearson. As in, Mackenzie Pearson.”

“Whoa,” Caleb said. “It says he survived the fire.”

Teddy frowned. “I mean, Pearson is a pretty common name, isn’t it?”

“Hold on.” Caleb flipped the clipping over. “There’s more writing on the back, look. I think Grandpa Clem wrote a list of descendants. See, all the names under Paul Pearson?”

“Oh my god,” Lila whispered. “There she is. See?” Near the bottom of the list was the name Mackenzie Pearson.

“That girl in your class?” Caleb said. “That’s not good.”

“Nope,” Lila agreed. Teddy shivered. It wasn’t like Mackenzie was his favorite person on earth. But he definitely didn’t want her to … die. He didn’t want anyone to die. The Fire Maiden had wrought enough chaos. They needed to stop her.

“We need to save Mackenzie,” Lila said. She shut the album with force. “We need to figure out what the Fire Maiden is planning. And stop her. We’ve stopped her before.”

As Lila spoke, Teddy watched her face flicker. It didn’t last long, but it was there. A slow disappearing, a vanishing into the ether.

“Lila,” Teddy said slowly. “We need to save you, too.”

For the next week, Teddy felt afraid to go to sleep. He had a feeling that the moment he shut his eyes, he would be back on that frozen pond, helplessly watching Ethan fall.

So instead, he had burrowed into his cozy place, the Phantom Hunters forum. It was alight with messages. Everyone was speculating about the Fire Maiden being back. Teddy felt a pang of nostalgia for the days when he would’ve joined in the excitement, when the Fire Maiden’s return would’ve been something to excitedly speculate about, instead of something that he knew in his bones was true. And threatening.

Late into the night, he chatted with friends. But especially Rosteen.

I just can’t believe she’s back, Teddy messaged after a few days of discussion. Do you think it was really the séance?

Séances can be powerful. You should know that, Rosteen replied, and Teddy felt a bit chagrined. His face burned when he read that. He should’ve been more careful. But they were here now. He was going to make up for his lack of action during the séance.

But it’s okay, Rosteen typed before Teddy had answered. There are ways to stop her.

How? Teddy quickly asked, his fingers pounding on his keyboard.

Smashing Pumpkins pulsed in his ears. He was wearing his headphones again. There was also something comforting about being cocooned in the world of moody music. He bounced his knees under his desk.

Want to meet up? Rosteen wrote.

Teddy felt a jump of excitement. Rusty wanted to hang out again! That meant he had liked Teddy. Or at the very least, he hadn’t found Teddy to be profoundly uncool.

For sure, Teddy wrote. When?

Teddy watched the message box flicker. He could tell Rosteen was typing. He held his breath.

How about now?

Teddy rubbed his eyes. He was sure he had misread the message. Now?! It was past one a.m.

Isn’t it too late? Won’t your parents get mad? Teddy wrote back.

Naw, Rosteen typed. I can sneak out pretty easily. What about you?

Teddy listened to the quiet noises of his house. The low hiss of the radiator, the occasional thump of the water pipes. He hadn’t heard footsteps for hours. Everyone was asleep. But he also knew his parents would totally flip if they woke up and he wasn’t in the house.

I don’t know … Teddy wrote.

Oh, come on. It’ll be fun. Plus, I have a good idea. Don’t you want to know it?

Teddy swallowed. He really did want to know it. He thought about his inaction from the other night. This was his chance to make up for it. This was his chance to be brave.

Okay, he responded. Where should I meet you?

Terrace Park? Rosteen answered.

They had met at Cuddy Park last time. Terrace Park was a bit of a farther walk from Teddy’s house, but doable. And if he was stealthy enough, he could grab his bike from the garage.

Okay. See you there in thirty minutes?

Rosteen gave a thumbs-up to the comment and Teddy stood from his desk. He stretched his arms over his head. His neck felt tight and his whole body was jittery. As quietly as he could, he moved to his closet to rummage for a jacket.

Most of his jackets were boring. But he didn’t want boring. He needed something with pizazz. He thought of Rosteen’s awesome outfit from the other day. He eventually settled on an old windbreaker. It wasn’t exactly unique, but at least it was a bright blue. That seemed to have more personality than a black hoodie.

Teddy crept down the stairs. At every sound, he would pause, hold his breath. And then, when neither his parents nor his sisters materialized, he would keep moving. Once he’d made it to the door that opened to the garage, he reached out, slowly turning the knob.

It let out a slight creak.

He held his breath again, a cold sweat forming on his forehead.

As gently as he could, he pulled the door shut behind him. Now he was alone in the darkened garage. He moved swiftly, grabbing his bike. He knew the garage door was going to be the hardest part. It would make noise when it opened no matter what he did.

He squeezed his eyes shut and hoped for the best, pushing the garage door opener. The door rattled open. Teddy hopped on his bike and began pedaling.

The streets were mostly dark, occasionally lit by the low glow of a lamp. The sky overhead was cloudy, the moonlight gauzy. Inhaling, he sucked in the crisp autumn air, which smelled of damp and decaying leaves.

He pedaled and pedaled. Every sound—the crunch of a stick, the rev of a car’s engine in the distant, the skitter of a squirrel—made him shiver. Every sound, he knew, could be the Fire Maiden. She was out there. Waiting. Planning her next move.

Finally, he made it to the small pebbled path that led into Terrace Park. Terrace Park was smaller than Cuddy Park. There was no playground, only a small walking path that hugged the edge of a hill. People came here because of the views. Terrace Park sat on the highest hill in town, and when Teddy reached the summit, he was breathless.

He hopped off his bike and propped it up against a bench. He walked to the overlook and stared down at the sleeping town below. The moon drifted aimlessly overhead, masked by thick clouds.

Looking to the right and then to the left, he didn’t see Rosteen. He fished his phone out of his pocket and checked the time: 2:13 a.m. His heart thudded. He wondered if Rosteen had changed his mind. The soft hoot of an owl made Teddy jump. He wasn’t sure he’d ever been up this late by himself. He wasn’t used to the outside sounds of the night.

“Hey, dude!”

Teddy jumped again. He placed his hand over his heart. “Hey! You scared me.” Teddy felt his face warm. He didn’t want Rosteen to think he was a chicken. But Rosteen had appeared seemingly out of nowhere.

Teddy squinted at Rosteen. “Where did you come from, anyway? I was looking all around for you.”

“Just got here,” Rosteen said, beaming. He was wearing the same outfit he had had on the other day. Which seemed a little weird. But maybe it was Rosteen’s favorite? It was a super cool outfit, after all. The Hawaiian shirt and denim jacket sure made a statement. “You got to be observant, dude.”

“So what’s your plan?” Teddy asked. Up high in the sky, he saw the blinking light of a plane. He wondered where that plane was heading. He was kind of jealous of the passengers on it. They were escaping. Leaving. Headed somewhere where the Fire Maiden wasn’t.

But then he felt guilty for that thought.

He needed to stay. He needed to help his friends defeat the Fire Maiden. They were counting on him.

“Right to business, huh?” Rosteen walked in a jaunty way along the overlook. He hopped up on the stone wall. It made Teddy’s stomach flip.

“You should probably be careful walking on that. You don’t want to fall.”

Rosteen flashed him a toothy smile. His teeth were so white they almost glowed in the dark. Teddy wondered what kind of toothpaste he used.

“So you’re certain this Mackenzie girl is a descendant of someone who was there at the circus fire?” Rosteen asked.

“Well, I don’t know if I would say certain. I don’t know if I feel certain about anything,” Teddy began.

“Okay, okay, you know what I mean. We feel good about that piece of information?” Rosteen hopped down off the stone wall. Teddy exhaled. He was glad Rosteen was back on level ground.

“Yeah,” Teddy said. “We think someone—maybe a direct relative of hers—was a member of the circus. And that they survived the fire.”

Rosteen snorted.

“What?” Teddy said.

“That’s not great.”

“What’s not great?”

The wind rustled a nearby tree, making its bare limbs shake. The sound made Teddy shiver. He looked around the park again. He didn’t see anyone else.

“The Fire Maiden will definitely want to kill that person. There’s no one she dislikes more than people who are descended from people who survived,” Rosteen said. “That’s for sure.”

Teddy breathed out. The air around them smelled slightly of smoke. But he didn’t see any sign of fire. He kept looking over his shoulder, though.

“Relax, bud. She’s not here,” Rosteen said. “We would know if she was here.”

Teddy gave a slight nod. “But she could appear at any moment.”

Rosteen shrugged. That idea didn’t seem to scare him at all. “Totally. But don’t you want to hear my plan for how you stop her?”

“I definitely do. I mean, we need to save Mackenzie. But more importantly, Lila. I don’t mean more importantly, I don’t mean to rank people, but her flickering is getting worse, and we know that the more victims the Maiden claims, the more powerful she becomes.”

Rosteen continued to look amused. He quirked his eyebrows. “Haven’t you known Lila for like seventeen days?”

Teddy frowned. “I met her at the beginning of the summer. And sometimes with friends, you just know.” Teddy thought of all the messages he’d exchanged with Rosteen over the years. “Like with you. You know?”

He watched as Rosteen’s expression changed. It softened for a moment. There was a flash of something, but it quickly passed. And Rosteen went back to his theatrical smile. “Thanks, Teddy Bear. That is very nice. But okay—listen up. The Fire Maiden is about to get a lot stronger.”

“Why?” Teddy couldn’t keep his voice from shaking. “Because she’s about to kill again?”

Rosteen raised one finger in the air. It was pale and almost glowed in the darkness. “It’s almost Halloween. And on Halloween, lots of people get jittery. They feel freaked out with all the kooky and the ooky. And as you know—”

“The Fire Maiden feeds on fear,” Teddy said slowly, the horror dawning on him. He hadn’t counted on her getting stronger. “Lila’s parents are throwing a party at the inn on Halloween night.”

Rosteen scrunched up his face. “That is not a good idea.”

“I guess you’re right. I hadn’t really thought about that.”

“I mean, Halloween parties are so … played out. You’d think people would get more original after all this time.”

“Huh?”

“Ah, nothing. I just disdain the unoriginal. But you aren’t unoriginal, are you?”

The wind blew again. This time, a stronger gust. Teddy zipped up his jacket further. “Nope. I’m … original.”

He felt like he had lost control of the conversation.

“But how do we help Lila? And Mackenzie?”

“We?”

“Yes!” Teddy said. “You want to help, right? I mean, you’re my friend. And by proxy, that makes you Lila’s friend. And even though I’m not friends with Mackenzie, Lila kind of is, which makes Mackenzie my proxy friend and—”

“Okay, okay, my dude. Here’s how it goes. The Fire Maiden, she’s getting stronger. And she’s going to get stronger on Halloween. But we can stop her.” Rosteen clapped his hands together. “What you need to do is, you need to find her grave.”

A chill rolled down Teddy’s back. “Her grave? Where is it?”

“In town. She died here. As you know.”

“Yes, but where is she buried?”

“Now that’s the tricky part. No one has ever been able to find it. Over the years, enthusiasts, people like me and you”—Rosteen snapped his fingers—“they’ve searched and searched. But they’ve never found it. But if you find it, you’ll be able to dilute her power.”

Teddy crossed his arms over his chest and rubbed them with his hands. Out in the distance, he saw all the houses in Castle Hill. They seemed so small from up here. He imagined all the people sleeping. He wondered how many were having nightmares. “How?”

“You need to cover her grave with sage and lavender. And maybe Saint-John’s-wort, too. That will neutralize her. And you should definitely do it after sunset on Halloween. That’s when the spell will be most powerful.”

Teddy’s heart raced. This was a plan. This was something he could do. “Really? Are you sure? That seems rather … I mean, wouldn’t I have heard about this before? Not that I’m doubting you. It’s just—”

“Remember,” Rosteen said, holding up his finger again. “You’ll have to find her grave. But if you manage to do it, if you succeed in getting the herbs on her grave, you’ll keep her stuck in the afterlife. Her powers will diminish. And Lila will come back to the world of the living. Which is what everyone wants, right? To be alive? I mean, what we want for Lila. To stay in this world.”

“Okay,” Teddy said, trying to process what Rosteen was saying. “But where do we get the herbs?”

Something flickered across Rosteen’s face. Teddy thought it looked like sadness. But it was gone as quickly as it came. “There’s a woman in town. She lives on Walnut Street.” Rosteen stopped speaking for a moment. He looked off in the distance and then turned his attention back to Teddy. “Sorry. I was trying to remember the address.” Rosteen laughed, but it didn’t sound natural. “It’s Forty-One Walnut Street. It’s a small blue house. The woman who lives there, she’s really nice. She has a beautiful garden with all the herbs you’ll need. And she loves when kids come to visit. Trust me.”

He smiled broadly at Teddy.

“Okay,” Teddy said again. “I think we can manage that.” He tilted his head up toward the sky. The moon was edging out from behind the clouds. It seemed like a sign.

They were going to defeat the Fire Maiden.

Teddy had always loved Halloween. It was his favorite holiday. His family assumed it was because he liked spooky stuff. And that was partially true. But the truer thing was that ever since Ethan’s accident, Teddy had felt afraid.

He was afraid to be in his room alone at night. He was afraid of his nightmares. As the years had passed since Ethan’s death, the fear abated a bit, but it was always there, crawling, waiting, just under the surface.

But Halloween—Halloween was a day when everyone was afraid. They sought out fear. That meant on Halloween, Teddy felt like he belonged.

He also loved candy.

But this year as the holiday approached, Halloween wasn’t landing the same for him.

He’d suffered through another night of restless sleep. Thankfully, he’d only woken up panting, in a cold sweat, and so he hadn’t woken his parents. But still, his head ached from lack of sleep, and his chest was tight from his heart racing.

So when he came downstairs three days before Halloween and found the kitchen decorated—the refrigerator draped with spiderwebs, tiny pumpkins on the kitchen island, a ghost cutout propped in the bay window—he wasn’t able to muster his usual enthusiasm.

“I loaded up on the Reese’s pumpkins,” his mom said. “I know they’re your favorite!” She put some on a plate in front of Teddy.

He knew his mom must be really worried if she was serving him candy for breakfast. As crummy as he felt, he wasn’t going to turn down this opportunity. He greedily gobbled up the candy and then grabbed his backpack.

“I’m going to head to school early today.”

His dad stepped into the kitchen. He poured himself a mug of coffee. Raising his eyebrows, he said, “Still working on that project?”

Teddy nodded. His throat was tight. He didn’t trust his voice.

“We’re so glad that it seems like it’s captured your interest.” His mom walked to stand beside his dad. His dad draped his arm around her.

Nadia burst into the kitchen. “You’re going to school early, Teddy?”

“Yup,” Teddy said. He eyed the Halloween candy bowl. He wondered if he could push his luck to get another Reese’s pumpkin. He reached out to grab one. His mom watched him and smiled.

He smiled back. There wasn’t a lot to smile about what with Lila’s flickering and the return of the Fire Maiden and the fact that he couldn’t stop thinking about Ethan’s death, but at least there was peanut butter and chocolate.

“I can give you a ride,” Nadia said. “I have to be at the high school early today, too.”

His mom clapped her hands together excitedly. She did this when she got too enthusiastic. Sometimes Teddy thought he wasn’t like anyone in his family, but his mom shared his high doses of enthusiasm.

Nadia and Teddy said bye to their parents and headed out. On the ride, Nadia was quiet. She was playing a mix of moody songs. Teddy was surprised this was Nadia’s music choice. He wasn’t sure what he expected—what kind of music said I get perfect grades and am going to be highly successful in life? He wasn’t sure. But he didn’t think it was people singing about being brokenhearted.

When they got to the middle school, Teddy stepped out of the car. He was about to walk away when Nadia said, “Hey, Teddy?”

“Yeah?”

“You okay?”

She looked at him for a long time. He could feel her stare—it was almost like it was crawling underneath his skin.

He nodded stiffly.

“Because if you’re not,” she said, and he heard something in her voice. A slight quiver. Nadia’s voice never quivered. His heart squeezed.

“If you’re not,” she continued, “I want you to know I’m here if you need me. I know I tease you a lot, but I love you even more. Okay?”

Teddy’s eyes felt wet. He looked away. He nodded again. There was so much he wanted to say, but he knew he wasn’t going to manage, so he just said, “Thanks, Nadia.”

She nodded back at him. “See you tonight.”

Once Teddy was sure Nadia had driven off, he took a turn, walking away from the school. He and Lila had plans. They were going to 41 Walnut Street to get the herbs, and then they would walk over to the cemetery to search for the Fire Maiden’s grave. They only had three days to find it or else, according to Rosteen, Halloween would make the Maiden too powerful to stop.

The morning air was damp. There was a light, almost ethereal mist hanging over everything. Walnut Street was only a four-block walk from the middle school, and Teddy pushed himself to jog, so he was able to get there quickly.

Which was why he was surprised that Lila was already there when he arrived. She was standing in front of the small blue house. There were white shutters beside the windows, and a white mailbox in the front yard where 41 was written in tiny, neat block letters.

The garden out front was impressive. But as Teddy looked around, he saw that most of the plants looked wizened, done for the season. A current of panic rose in him. He didn’t know much about plants or herbs, but he hoped this woman would be able to help just as Rosteen had promised.

“Should we knock?” Lila asked.

Teddy stared at the rounded wooden door, his heart drumming in his ears. He wasn’t sure why he was so nervous. There was something about this house that felt … familiar. Maybe not familiar. But … he didn’t have the word for it.

He gulped down his nerves. “Yeah. That’s a good idea.”

Lila strutted right up to the front door and knocked confidently. Teddy followed her, his feet feeling heavy, almost like a warning not to go.

When the door opened, an elderly woman wearing a floral-patterned shirt was standing there. She had white curls that were pinned back with a glittery butterfly clip, which seemed out of place, but also somehow right.

“Why hello there!” the woman said. “To what do I owe this pleasure?”

Lila looked to Teddy. Teddy blinked. “Well,” he said. “Our friend … Rosteen.”

The woman’s face changed. It was still warm, but her eyes grew misty. “Did you say Rosteen?”

Teddy nodded.

The woman’s whole face broke into a huge smile, but her eyes were still wet. Teddy didn’t understand why she was so emotional. Rosteen had said she liked kids. But she must really like Rosteen.

“Of course! Of course! And what did he say … exactly?”

“He sent us to you—”

“Oh yes! How wonderful! Would you like to come in and have some lemonade?” She pulled the door open even wider.

“Actually,” Lila said. “He sent us here to get some herbs. He said you have a wonderful garden?”

“Ah!” The woman practically jumped, which was alarming given her age. Teddy felt an urge to reach out and make sure she could steady herself. But she landed with ease. “What are you looking for?”

Teddy looked at Lila.

“Lavender?” Lila said.

“And sage, maybe? And Saint-John’s-wort?” Teddy added.

“Of course! I have some drying in the shed out back. Will that work? Or do you need them fresh?”

Teddy looked at Lila again.

“Maybe both?” Lila offered. Her voice sounded weak, but she wasn’t flickering. At least not right now. He tried to be thankful for that, but his heart was still pounding.

“I have small batches of those growing under a heat lamp in the shed as well. Come, come, come!” She beckoned them to follow her out the front door.

They followed a cobblestone path around the the back garden which was even more magnificent than the front. Full of bushes and plants that Teddy did not have the names for. It looked like something you would see in a magazine.

“Have you always liked gardening?” Lila asked as they followed the woman to a small white pine shed. She opened the door and let them in. Inside, it smelled earthy and fresh. Like spring.

“Why, yes, but gardening has really been my salvation,” the woman said. She bent over a potted plant, snipping at it with gardening shears. “You see, I’ve had …” Then she waved the scissors in the air, letting out a light laugh.

Teddy watched the scissors nervously.

“What’s your name, by the way?” he asked.

“Sorry. He doesn’t mean to be rude—” Lila interjected.

“Not rude at all! I’m Debra. And yes, I’ve always liked gardening. And I’ve found it has helped me get through some tough times.”

The kids nodded like they understood. Teddy thought about his headphones and the comfort of his room and the Phantoms. It wasn’t gardening, but he could understand leaning into something.

The woman put the herb clippings into a small brown bag. She handed it over to Teddy.

“Thank you both so much for stopping by. It’s always a treat to have some young people around.”

Teddy smiled at her. “Thank you for these herbs. They’re going to be such a big help.”

She raised one of her gray eyebrows. “Are you kids cooking up something special?”

Before Teddy could say anything, Lila volunteered, “A science project, actually.”

“Wonderful!” Debra beamed. “Could I ask you a favor?”

“Um, sure,” Teddy said, exchanging a look with Lila.

A dreamy smile spread across Debra’s face. “Will you tell Rosteen to stop by when he gets a chance? I’m not always able to—” She twisted the shears in her hand. “Well, he knows I’m not always able to host him, but I love when he comes by, anyway. Tell him, I miss him so!”

Teddy was confused. She wasn’t always able to host Rosteen?

“We’ll do that,” Lila chimed in. “And thank you again so much!”

Once the kids had left 41 Walnut Street and were headed to the cemetery, Lila said, “So that was really weird.”

“I guess it makes sense. Rosteen is a bit eccentric. And so his friend …”

“That old woman is his friend?”

“You know what I mean,” Teddy said. “At least we have the herbs.”

“True,” Lila said.

They walked the rest of the way in silence. Both of them clearly thinking about the mission ahead. Both of them absorbed in their own separate fears about the Fire Maiden.

The graveyard was misty, covered by fog when they arrived. As they wove their way down the pebbled path into the cemetery, the mist made Lila look more ghost than human. Teddy’s heart lurched.

All around them, tombstones jutted out of the ground like jagged teeth. They were all different sizes, and in various states of disrepair. Some were clearly tended to, cleaned off and polished regularly, while others were chipped, covered with overgrown ivy and splattered with mud. Forgotten. Teddy swallowed hard and kept following Lila, who told him what her research had revealed.

“I was reading the map of the cemetery, and it said that the unmarked graves from a long time ago are over here. There are only a couple, apparently. But the town archivists still aren’t sure who is buried in them. I’m assuming one of them has to be … her.”

The mist was floating heavily in the air, making everything smell like wet stone and damp leaves. When Teddy stepped on a stick, making it snap, he jumped.

“We’re okay, Teddy,” Lila said. “We’re safe here.”

But he watched as her right hand flickered in and out of view, and he felt like they were anything but okay.

“There’s no way we’re alone,” Teddy whispered. “Have you seen any …?”

“Ghosts? You know you can say the word,” Lila said. “It doesn’t make them appear. What’s gotten into you?”

Teddy felt his cheeks heat up. “I’m just worried about you.”

“I know. But we have a plan now. We place the herbs on the grave on Halloween night, and everything gets better.” The mist was obscuring Lila’s face, clouding it, but Teddy thought he saw her smile.

They passed by a very large tombstone. There was a raven perched on top of it. Teddy had never been so close to a raven before. He expected it to take off as they approached, but it stayed still. Watching him intently with its beady yellow eyes. Teddy felt as though the whole cemetery was holding its breath, waiting.

But for what?

Lila studied the array of graves. Teddy joined her.

“Some of them have things written on them,” Lila said. “So they aren’t completely unmarked.”

“What about this one?” Teddy said. It was a flat grave marker covered with vines and dead leaves. He pushed the dead leaves off the grave. They were cool and damp against his hands.

“I’m not sure, but—” Lila began, but then she started to flicker. At first, it was just her upper body, fading in and out of view.

“Lila!” Teddy said, panic rising within him.

Slowly, it was as if the mist engulfed her, her body evaporating into the damp air. Teddy looked around.

She was gone.

The world tilted on its axis, the fog growing thick, so thick it felt like velvet pressed against her face. She gasped for air, the darkness engulfing her. And then it broke into a misty shimmer.

All around her, shadows loomed, floating below her and above her. She turned, searching for a way out. When she raised her hands, all she felt was damp cold.

“Teddy?” she called out.

But she knew he couldn’t hear her.

She wasn’t in his world anymore.

She walked slowly, not trusting the ground beneath her feet. It felt springy, like it was made of foam instead of dirt. There was a sound floating in the air, a chiming, like a spoon delicately tapping against glass. A soft smell filled her nostrils—decaying flowers, heady and floral, but past their prime.

As she walked, the world began to change. The shadows shifted from unrecognizable black shapes to faces—to people.

To ghosts.

She searched their faces, but they were blank. Their eyes uninterested in her, their mouths drawn.

But then, she saw a face.

A face that she recognized.

“Lila!”

There was no answer. The cemetery was eerily quiet. The lone squawk of the raven made Teddy jump, and then the air went back to being still, silent. He reached for Lila’s backpack, which lay discarded on the ground. Unzipping it, he searched frantically for the herbs. He pulled out a fistful of lavender and draped it over the unmarked grave.

He could feel his heart drumming in his chest. This has to work, this has to work, he kept thinking, a chant, a wish, a prayer.

The mist draped and curled around the headstones. A wind rustled through, making the ivy shake and bend. The bare limbs of the trees in the distance waved in the sky like skeleton arms. The sky a slate-gray color, obscured by heavy, ominous-looking clouds.

He dug deeper into Lila’s backpack. He pulled out a fat stick of sage. It was brittle and dry in his hands, filling his nostrils with its earthy scent. He tossed it onto the ground.

Come on, he thought. This has to work!

“Teddy,” a voice said. It was so quiet and faint, he thought he was imagining it.

But then it got stronger.

“Teddy,” the voice said again.

He stared into the thick mist. Slowly, Lila reappeared. She was still flickering, but he could see her. He could see her!

“Lila!” he said, sprinting toward her.

“I was there,” she said, her voice still weak and hushed. “Beyond the veil. But it was different this time. It wasn’t all mist and shadows. I … I was with the ghosts.”

She fell to her knees. Teddy lowered himself to the ground next to her, wrapping an arm around her shoulders to steady her. “Which ghosts? Who’d you see?”

“It was hard to tell at first. There were all kinds of shapes and voices. But then one in particular became clearer. Timothy.”

“Timothy Marlowe? The one who died on the Titanic?”

Lila nodded. “At first, it was kind of nice to see him again. He didn’t seem sad or lost anymore. Whatever the Phantoms told him about his brother George, it really helped him find peace.”

“That’s … that’s great,” Teddy said, thinking that Lila couldn’t look less peaceful. Her eyes were full of fear, shock, and something else he didn’t really have the words to describe. Something he hoped he’d never have the words to describe. “Then what happened?”

“He said there was something he needed to tell me. And he told me … he told me that in the afterlife, he’s befriended members of the Titanic crew. And one of them told him that the night the Titanic crashed into the iceberg, he was paralyzed by a vision of fire. His whole family was trapped inside their apartment, flames licking at the doors, no way to escape. And that’s why he didn’t see the iceberg. He was fully transported into this nightmare, completely somewhere else, not paying attention when he was at the helm.”

“It was her,” Teddy breathed. “The Fire Maiden was there that night. She caused the nightmare. The ship sank because of her!”

“Yes!” Lila said. “It’s hard to believe, but I think so. She must’ve wanted to kill someone on the ship and didn’t care how many innocent people died in the process.”

Teddy felt his brain whirring at top speed to make sense of this. The Fire Maiden had caused one of the greatest maritime disasters in history. Her desire for vengeance had led to the deaths of more than a thousand people, including kids like Timothy. It was too horrible to process.

“Did you talk to the others? Mary and Bridget?”

Lila shook her head. “No, but I’m pretty sure I understand how she works. The Fire Maiden creates these visions, these terrifying nightmares, and it lures people to create disasters. It leads them to their own deaths!”

“Like with Mr. Santiago,” Teddy said, his brain dizzy with multiple thoughts. “And … oh my god …”

His memory snapped into focus, yanking him back to that day on the ice. He could see it all so vividly. The way Ethan had seen something. The way he had skated toward it as if in a trance.

Teddy felt the cold rush of wind. The icy hail from that afternoon. He heard Ethan’s piercing scream, the way his body had slipped beneath the unyielding ice, swallowed up by the freezing water.

“Ethan’s name was on that list. Do you think …”

“Yes,” Lila said. “I think she created a vision that lured Ethan to his death. It wasn’t your fault, Teddy.”

Teddy felt something crack inside him. There was a tightness in his throat, his eyes clouding with tears. He tried to hold it in, but it was no use. He began heaving with heavy, uncontrollable sobs.

Lila reached out with her flickering hand. She grabbed his shoulder, pulling him to her. “It’s okay, Teddy. There was nothing you could’ve done.”

“No,” Teddy said. “I could’ve stopped her. But I’m going to stop her this time.”

“We’re going to stop her,” Lila corrected him gently. “The Trionic.”

“Yes,” Teddy said, wiping away his tears with the back of his hand. “The Trionic.” He glanced at Lila. Every time she flickered, his heart pinched. “Ethan would’ve liked you.”

“I’m sure I would’ve liked him. I wish I could’ve had the chance to meet him.” Lila grimaced. “Though …”

“Don’t say it,” Teddy said fiercely.

“Timothy did say he thinks I’m close.” Lila hung her head.

“Close?”

“To being pulled into their world. To becoming a ghost.”

“That’s not going to happen,” Teddy said, his voice still strong and determined. He looked at the unmarked grave. “I put the herbs there. But it doesn’t seem to have done anything, has it?”

When he looked back at Lila, he saw that her flickering wasn’t better. If anything, it was worse.

“That wasn’t hers. We have to keep looking.”

As if someone was listening to them, the moment Lila spoke, the sky overhead cracked open. Heavy rain gushed down. A large crash of thunder rumbled the entire graveyard. As the wind whipped the rain, making it smack against their faces, Teddy said, “We should go back to school. We’ve already missed first bell. Let’s come back here after we’ve done some more research. We’ll find her grave.”

Lila nodded, but with the rain and the heavy mist, she was hard to see. His stomach flipped every time she disappeared from view, even when it was only a second.

Stay, Teddy thought. Hold on. We’re going to figure it out.

They didn’t figure it out.

Lila, Caleb, and Teddy spent the next day looking for information anywhere they could think of. Caleb even faked being sick so he could stay home and poke around Grandpa Clem’s office, while Lila and Teddy used the school library to search for old maps of the cemetery, and birth and death records.

“I mean, it makes sense,” Lila said, leaning back in her chair with a sigh. “She was a murderer. It’s not like they were going to give her some fancy burial.”

After school, they headed back to the inn where Lila’s parents were busy preparing for the Halloween party the next day. Lila’s dad sighed from the ladder he was using to affix fake spiderwebs to the ceiling of the living room. “This feels unfair. We spent all summer taking down real spiderwebs,” he said as the kids came in.

“Fine,” Lila’s mom said, wandering in from the kitchen. She wore an apron and had a smear of orange frosting on her cheek. “You frost 500 cupcakes and I’ll do the decorations.”

“You know, you don’t have to have a party,” Lila said. She and Teddy exchanged worried looks. They both knew it was probably a bad idea to bring people near the portal on Halloween. “Or you can, like, do it on Zoom! Virtual party!”

“We’ve already invited the whole town,” her mom said wearily. “It’s way too late for that.”

“You don’t want to expose people to Caleb’s germs if he’s sick,” Teddy tried.

Lila’s dad chuckled. “Yeah, I think he’s feeling better. He’s spent all day poking around my dad’s office. He said he’s looking for costume inspiration.”

“We’ll go help him,” Lila said quickly. “Come on, Teddy.”

They found Caleb slumped in a chair in Grandpa Clem’s office. His eyes had a glazed look. “I’ve looked everywhere. All his files. I even climbed onto the roof to connect to the neighbor’s Wi-Fi.”

Lila leaned against the desk and sighed. “Thank you for trying.”

“It’s not over yet!” Teddy said, trying to sound upbeat. “We still have one more day to find her grave and neutralize her powers before Halloween night.”

“Maybe …” Lila trailed off.

“Teddy’s right,” Caleb said. “We can’t give up.”

“I don’t know,” Lila said. “Maybe it’s time for me to just, you know, accept it.”

“Accept what?” Caleb sounded suddenly very young.

“That I’ve been claimed, or whatever. Maybe it’s stupid to try to fight it.”

“No,” Teddy said fiercely. “Don’t talk that way.”

Lila shrugged. “The flickering is getting worse. Do I want to waste whatever time I have left on a wild goose chase? Or should I just use it doing stuff that makes me happy? Things I won’t be able to do … after.”

“Stop it,” Caleb said in a small voice. “Don’t talk like that.”

“I should probably think about what I want on my grave. Here lies Lila. Daughter, Friend, Macaroni-lover.”

Caleb leapt to his feet. “I’m going back onto the roof. There has to be some record of where the Fire Maiden was buried.”

“Wait a second,” Teddy said. “You know that wasn’t her real name, right? I assumed you were searching for Spitfire, like we were.”

“Spitfire?” Caleb repeated.

“That was her stage name,” Lila said. “Remember? She was Spitfire and her brother was Pistol Grim?”

“But her last name was Medina, right?”

“No, genius. That was an anagram, remember?” The Fire Maiden’s ghost had appeared to them in the form of “Miss Medina” before they realized who they were really talking to.

“Anagram …” Caleb repeated. “What was her last name, then?”

“Grimsbane,” Teddy said.

Caleb grabbed a piece of paper and began scribbling. “What did that weird headstone say again? The one about barf ?”

“Um.…” Teddy closed his eyes. “Here lies Eleanor. Ignite. Impress. Barf.”

Caleb looked up. “Guess what Ignite. Impress. Barf is an anagram for?

“What?” Lila asked.

“Spitfire Grimsbane.”

The next day, the school was abuzz with Halloween. Some of the lockers were decorated with skulls and spiderwebs, and everywhere Teddy looked, there was someone in a costume. Superheroes, animals, and the occasional white bedsheet ghost.

“Did you know people were going to dress up?” Lila asked. “I didn’t think that was allowed once you got to middle school.”

Teddy shrugged. “Castle Hill is a town that loves Halloween.”

Lila lingered by her locker.

“What is it?” Teddy said.

“I kind of wish …” Lila shook her head. “Never mind. It’s silly.”

“No, tell me.”

The fluorescent lights of the hallway were bright, but Teddy could still hear the storm raging outside. The patter of rain pounded against the roof, echoing through the school.

“If I’d known this would be my last Halloween, I definitely would’ve planned an amazing costume.”

“Lila—” Teddy said, drawing in a breath. “You’re going to be fine. We’re going to stop her. We know how to find her grave, and the herbs will neutralize her. Whatever she’s planning, she won’t be able to pull it off.”

“I’m worried about Mackenzie, too,” Lila said. She shook her head. For a moment, she disappeared entirely from view.

Teddy’s pulse raced. “Lila!”

“What?”

He didn’t have the heart to tell her she had disappeared again. He didn’t want to freak her out any more.

“We’ll keep an eye on Mackenzie. She’s coming to your parents’ party, right?”

Lila shuffled her feet. The hallway was emptying of kids. The next period was starting. Teddy knew they had to get to class, but school seemed so unimportant, given the current circumstances. “I wish my parents weren’t throwing that party. It seems like a mistake.”

Teddy pulled on the straps of his backpack. “We can worry about the party later. Everything will be fine.”

“I wonder what she’s planning to do to Mackenzie …” Lila’s eyes went wide. “I keep thinking about what Timothy said. About the visions. What if—”

“Don’t go there. Rosteen said this was the way to stop her,” Teddy said.

“And you trust him?”

“Of course! He’s one of the—if not the—smartest person on Phantom Hunters. He is a total ghost expert.”

“Okay,” Lila said softly. “It’s a good plan.” She stared down at the ground. Then she repeated, “It’s a good plan.”

“It is,” Teddy said, trying to reassure her, even if he felt shaky inside, too.

The storm outside hadn’t let up. There was another loud crash of thunder.

“This thunderstorm seems to be lasting a long time,” Lila said. “I think it’s her. I can feel her …”

“Do you think she’d try anything at school?” Teddy asked.

“Who knows?” Lila said. She disappeared for a moment. Teddy held his breath, exhaling when she slowly materialized again.

“I’ll see you this afternoon,” he said firmly. “And then—”

“I know,” Lila said, chewing on her lip. She stared at him for a moment and then turned on her heel, heading to class. When she finally walked away, he lingered in the hallway until she had disappeared behind the classroom door.

The whole day felt like it was moving at a glacial speed. Teddy watched the clock throughout all his classes. Even the classes where the teachers had given up trying to get anything done on Halloween and had put on some video. He couldn’t focus at all.

“Hey,” Josh said, leaning over his desk while a Halloween special about chemistry was projected on the whiteboard during science. “You going to the thing at the inn tonight? It should be fun.”

Teddy nodded tensely.

“What are you dressing up as?”

Teddy hadn’t even considered a costume. Which was so unlike him. Usually, he went all out for Halloween. He looked down at his shirt. He’d worn a vampire one. He was feeling more into vampires since they still seemed theoretical, as opposed to ghosts.

“I’m not sure …”

“Dude! You’ve got to figure it out. I’m going to be Jim Tressel.”

When Teddy didn’t say anything, Josh filled in, “You know, the former coach of the Buckeyes.”

“Right,” Teddy said, staring out the window at the storm.

Finally, it was the afternoon, and he was able to meet up with Lila. She looked pale, flickering in and out of view, but she was there. And that was all that mattered for now.

The storm had broken, but the air was cool and damp as they walked back toward the graveyard. Lila was quiet. Much more quiet than usual. Teddy wanted her to talk because then he would know she was still there.

“Are you looking forward to the party?” he tried.

“Teddy,” she said. “Are you serious?”

“Sorry,” he said sheepishly. “I just—”

“I know,” Lila said. “I know.”

In the distance, the large curved arch that marked the graveyard came into view. Once, it had been bronze, but now it was faded, covered with a patina of green. The sun was already setting, casting a low glow over the tombstones.

Teddy and Lila headed toward the archives building, to the grave they now believed belonged to the Fire Maiden. Aka Spitfire Grimsbane.

As they made their way down the path, Teddy spotted the woman from this morning.

“Lila,” he whispered. “Is that Debra?”

She was kneeling beside a headstone. Her hands clasped in prayer, her eyes shut. She was murmuring to herself.

“It is,” Lila said, and a slight shiver ran down Teddy’s spine. He wondered if they should say something, but she seemed occupied with her own grief.

“Should we—” Teddy hesitated.

Lila glanced at Debra again. Teddy strained to read the headstone, but he couldn’t make out the text.

“Maybe it’s her husband’s grave?” Lila whispered back. “I don’t think we should interrupt.”

“Okay,” Teddy said. He swallowed and then asked, “Do you still have the herbs?”

“Nope, I flushed them down the toilet during lunch.” She turned to him, smiling goofily. “Sorry. It just felt like we needed to lighten the moment.”

Teddy smiled at Lila. He was so lucky she was his friend. He wasn’t going to let the Fire Maiden take her away.

They reached the overgrown section of the graveyard. The air smelled like rain and smoke, and the wind was whipping, rustling the bare branches of the trees. “Here it is,” Teddy said as they approached the headstone they’d once found funny. One that now felt like anything but a joke. “Let’s get started.”

“Lila!” a voice called out, breaking their concentration. “Teddy!!”

When Teddy turned around, he saw Caleb running toward them. Caleb’s face was flushed red and he was having difficulty catching his breath.

“I ran here,” Caleb said between gasps of air. “Because the herbs aren’t going to work. It’s a load of hogwash. I don’t know why Rosteen lied. But he did.”

Teddy stood up. He dusted off his hands. The air whipped around him, harsh and bracing. “That can’t be right. Rosteen wouldn’t lie. He’s an … I mean, he’s an expert.”

Caleb gave Teddy a knowing look. “The fact that he’s an expert is why I’m certain he lied. He gave you bad information on purpose. I did some research of my own. And I poked around on the Phantoms forum. Everyone was pretty much universally in agreement that the idea of putting herbs on the grave to neutralize an evil spirit is hogwash.”

Lila was still kneeling beside the grave. She looked pale, more translucent somehow. Teddy’s heart thudded inside his chest.

“We should go look at that grave Debra was visiting,” Lila said, her voice stony.

“What?” Teddy said. “Why?”

“Come on,” Lila said. “I just … I have a feeling.”

He followed Lila around the curving pebbled path. Caleb jogged beside him.

“Who’s Debra?” Caleb asked.

“She’s the woman who—” Teddy began to explain, but then he heard Lila shriek.

“I KNEW IT! LOOK!” she screamed, pointing at the headstone where Debra had left flowers and some plastic-wrapped comic books.

Teddy’s whole insides froze as he read the name up close.

ROSTEEN MILANI.

“This can’t be right,” Teddy said, shaking his head as a shiver ran through him. “No way. There has to be some other explanation.”

“I’m afraid there’s not,” a familiar voice said.

Teddy spun around and saw Rosteen. Dressed in his Hawaiian shirt and denim jacket.

“That’s why you always wear the same thing,” Teddy said softly.

Rosteen nodded, his face filled with sadness, too.

“But why?” Lila said. “Why would you hide that from us? If anyone would understand, it’s us.”

“Probably because he’s a sketch stranger from the internet,” Caleb said. “I hate to say I told you so, but you don’t have to be a math genius to—”

“Caleb, cut it out,” Lila snapped. She faced Rosteen. Her face was reddening with anger. “I don’t understand. Why would you lie about the herbs?”

“She didn’t want you at the inn tonight. She told me I needed to … keep you away?”

Lila inhaled sharply. “Are you helping her?!”

Rosteen nodded tentatively and Teddy felt his insides collapse. This couldn’t be happening.

“No,” Teddy said.

“I’m so sorry,” Rosteen said, staring down at the ground. “But you have to let me explain.”

“I don’t think you can,” Teddy said. He couldn’t bear to look in Rosteen’s direction. This was his fault. He had trusted him. And now, he’d put his friends in danger.

“She promised she would bring me back to life. If I helped her. And you met my mom. You saw how great she is—” Rosteen’s voice cracked a little.

“Your mom,” Teddy said softly as the pieces clicked into place. “Debra …”

“She misses me. I would do anything to make her happy again,” Rosteen said.

“Even betray your friends?” Teddy asked quietly.

Rosteen nodded. “I’m so sorry.”

“We don’t forgive you,” Caleb said.

“Look,” Rosteen said. “I understand why you guys are upset—”

“Do you?” Lila said. “I’m going to fade away forever. Soon. We trusted you! We thought you were going to save me!” Lila’s voice cracked, and she looked away.

“No,” Teddy said firmly. “That’s not going to happen.”

“We’re out of options!” Caleb’s voice was shrill. “That traitor sent us on a wild goose chase, and now Lila’s going to be sucked through the portal forever. And that’s only going to make the Fire Maiden stronger!”

“No,” Teddy said again. “We’ll figure this out. We’ll go back to the inn.”

“You can’t go to the inn,” Rosteen said. “Please. For your safety. Please run away.”

“No,” Lila said. “We’re not abandoning our friends. We can’t let the Maiden claim Mackenzie.”

The sky overhead let out a rumble. The kids looked at one another.

“We need to hurry back,” Caleb said, and Lila and Teddy nodded.

Rosteen shouted at them, warning them not to go, but they didn’t listen, and soon, rain began to fall, drowning out the sound of his voice. As the rain fell harder, Teddy took off his sweatshirt.

“What are you doing?!” Lila said, raising her voice so he could hear her over the rain.

“Putting this over you.”

“Teddy, I don’t think the rain is what’s causing my flickering.”

“I know, but just in case.”

“I’m not a witch!” Lila said.

Overhead, the sky continued to look threatening. And just as they were leaving the cemetery, a bolt of lightning hit the cemetery’s arch. A loud crashing sound, sparks flying up in the air.

“Let’s go,” Teddy said, picking up the pace.

“I’m running as fast as I can,” Caleb said.

“She’s here,” Lila said. “I can feel it. She’s here.”

When they reached the inn, the party was already underway. Lila’s parents had spared no expense. The inn was decorated, a black-and-orange banner draped over the stairway’s banister, plastic skeletons dangling in the hallway, a large cauldron filled with dry ice in the foyer.

They had moved a long wooden buffet table into the foyer, too, which was filled with various snacks. A bowl of onion dip, small cheese tarts, a crudité tray, a giant plate of spider-shaped cookies, and a large jug of pumpkin juice. And the inn’s new stereo system was being shown off with Halloween tunes pumping through the whole house.

The house was crowded with adults. Teddy didn’t see his parents, but he did see Mrs. Loomis, their homeroom teacher, chatting away with Mr. Higgins, who owned the local bakery. Teddy scanned around, looking for fellow classmates, but didn’t see any. He was about to ask Lila where she thought the other kids were when Lila’s mom spotted them.

Her face fell as she took in their soaked clothes. Teddy looked down at his muddy shoes. His loafers were covered in brown gunk.

“I’m so sorry, Mrs. Clement. I’ll take these off right now,” he said quickly.

“Where were you?!” she said, rushing over. “I’ve been so worried, Lila.”

“We had something for school,” Lila mumbled. She also wasn’t a good liar. She and Teddy had that in common.

Her mom looked unconvinced. “Well, go upstairs and change. And then come back down. I want to introduce you to some people.” She lowered her voice. “Remember, we’re trying to make a good impression.”

As Teddy, Lila, and Caleb made their way up the stairs, Rosteen materialized.

“What are you doing here?” Teddy asked. “Haven’t you done enough damage?”

“I’m worried about you guys,” Rosteen said. “I want to make sure you stay safe.”

“Oh,” Lila said. “Now you’re worried about us?”

“I understand why you’re angry, I really do. And I’m so sorry. But don’t you understand? The Fire Maiden said she’d bring me back to life if I helped you. I want my mom to be able to see me again …” He hung his head. “I miss her so much. Can’t you understand that?”

Teddy listened to the sounds of the Halloween party. He couldn’t believe there were guests downstairs having a fun time, when up here, he was learning that one of his only friends in the world was a ghost. A ghost that had lied to him.

“Of course we understand,” Lila said, softening. “Watching your mom … that must be so tough. But I don’t want to die, either. I don’t want to leave my family.”

“I’m so sorry,” Rosteen said. “But I think it might be too late for that. The Fire Maiden is getting more powerful. It’s Halloween. People are afraid. She feeds on fear. And your friends …” Rosteen’s face looked stricken. “They’re summoning her as we speak. That was the deal I made with the Maiden. I was supposed to come up with an excuse to keep you away from the inn so you couldn’t stop the séance.”

“No!” Teddy said. “They can’t do another séance! You have to help us! How do we stop her?”

Downstairs, Meatball was barking, and people were laughing. There was the sound of a glass breaking, and murmured apologies, and then a lot more laughter. Teddy shook his head. The party attendees really had no clue.

“There is no way to stop her. She’s inevitable,” Rosteen said. His eyes turned to the window. “She’ll be here any moment. Please run away. Please save yourselves. I’m begging you!”

“Teddy, Caleb,” Lila said. “We have to get to the portal room.”

“It’s too late,” Rosteen called out as the kids rushed from the room. “She’s already coming. Run! Save yourselves!”

Teddy wasn’t sure he had ever climbed the steps to the portal room as quickly as he did now. And he was still many paces behind Lila. He could hear Caleb puffing behind him.

When they reached the portal room, Lila was already hovering in front of the door. It was closed.

“Are you sure they’re in there?” Teddy whispered. “How would they even know how to find the hidden stairs?”

But then Teddy heard the chanting.

“Fire Maiden, Fire Maiden, Fire Maiden … show yourself!”

“No!” Lila screamed, her voice high and strangled. She pulled open the door. “Stop!”

When she opened the door, she revealed Mackenzie, Aubrey, Josh, and Peter standing together in a circle. They were all dressed in costume. Mackenzie, a black cat, was wearing a black leotard, a twirly black skirt, and black cat ears. She had rubbed something silver and glittery all over her eyes. Aubrey was some type of princess—wearing a pink gown, her hair pulled back in a thick braid, a tiara on her head. Both Josh and Peter were in football jerseys, black smudges under their eyes.

But Teddy didn’t spend a lot of time taking in the costumes; he zeroed in on what Mackenzie was holding. Two white tapered candles. The candles were lit, a light ribbon of smoke unspooling in the air. The Fire Maiden must’ve lured the kids to the hidden portal room with one of her visions.

Teddy swallowed. He couldn’t believe Mackenzie would be so reckless. She’s after you, he wanted to yell, but he didn’t. Instead, he stood there in the doorway, his knees shaking.

“She’s almost here,” another voice said.

Teddy turned and saw Rosteen behind him.

“Can’t you feel it?” Rosteen said.

“Please stop,” Lila pleaded with Mackenzie.

Mackenzie turned to her. “Oh, Li! There you are! Come join in our Halloween fun.” Mackenzie narrowed her eyes, taking in Lila’s appearance. “Hey! Where’s your costume? This is your parents’ party! The invitation said to dress festive.”

Lila’s clothes were muddy and soaked with rain, her hair matted from the wind. She looked anything but Halloween festive.

“Mackenzie … it’s not funny …” Lila said. Her voice was no longer strong. She was flickering in and out of view.

“Whoa,” Mackenzie said, bobbling the candle she was holding. “Did Lila just … disappear? I know she wanted us to stop, but it feels a little abrupt to just leave.”

“Yeah,” Peter chimed in. “Dude, that’s weird.”

Teddy looked all around, a cold sweat building on his forehead. He didn’t see Lila anywhere.

“Teddy,” Caleb said, pulling on his arm. “Where did she go?”

The air around them was warm and buttery, the smells of the food downstairs floating upward. The noise from the party downstairs was also floating into the upper reaches of the inn. Teddy’s ears filled with the sounds of adults laughing and chatting, plates clanking as people helped themselves to more snacks. His stomach churned. They didn’t know anything was wrong.

They didn’t know what was about to happen.

He felt like time was sticky and slow. He didn’t know if it had only been seconds or minutes since Lila disappeared.

“Are you coming in here?” Mackenzie asked Teddy. “Or are you afraid, too?”

Aubrey puckered her lips. She gave Caleb a sympathetic pout. “Mac, I think you’re scaring the kid.”

Josh tilted his head back and laughed. “Buddy, you live here, right? You know we’re just kidding. Though … last time. Man. Did that really happen?” He pretended to shiver, which made Aubrey and Mackenzie laugh.

Teddy watched as the candles swayed in Mackenzie’s hands. The last thing they needed was for a fire to start.

“Mackenzie,” he tried again.

“She’s not going to listen to you,” Rosteen said. “Please, please get out of here.” His voice was shaky. “I’m begging you, Teddy. I don’t want something bad to happen to you. I really do care about you guys.”

“I don’t want to talk to you.” Teddy turned his back to Rosteen and tried to get Mackenzie’s attention again.

“Jeez, Teddy,” Peter said, looking genuinely upset. “You don’t have to be mean. I get if you were scared last time. I was kind of scared, too. But it was fun. Wasn’t it? That’s the point! It’s Halloween. Live a little!”

Peter was hovering right by the mirror. Teddy got the strange sensation that Peter might fall into it. Then he remembered that the Fire Maiden wanted Mackenzie.

“I wasn’t talking to you,” Teddy mumbled.

“They can’t see Rosteen,” Caleb whispered.

“What did the kid say?” Josh asked.

Teddy’s head hurt. He couldn’t keep his attention on one thing. He knew that he needed to act. But where was Lila? How could he get her to come back?

“Mackenzie,” Teddy said, and he could hear his voice shaking. “Get away from the mirror.”

Mackenzie tilted her head back, laughing. She inched closer to the mirror. She stared at her reflection, holding a candle in each hand. The smoke from the candles ribboned up into the angled ceiling of the portal room.

“Fire Maiden, Fire Maiden, Fire Maiden, show yourself !” she chanted.

And before Teddy could yell stop, the lights cut out.

There was a loud screeching sound, like a train braking on rusted tracks.

A powerful gust of cold, bracing wind.

And a burst of flames.

At first, Teddy was too afraid to move. He felt the heat of the flames licking his face. All around him was velvety blackness.

He didn’t see Mackenzie. Or Caleb. Or Aubrey.

He couldn’t see anyone.

He was completely alone.

The smell of ash. And snow. Stinging smoke and wet mush.

And then the world felt like it tipped on its axis, flipping him upside down. When he landed, he was back on that icy pond.

Ethan was skating in front of him.

“Ethan!” Teddy said. “Get to safety!”

“What are you talking about?” Ethan did a carefree loopity-loop on the ice. He was a much stronger skater than Teddy.

Teddy remembered that he had felt jealous of that.

“Something bad is going to happen,” Teddy said.

He felt helpless. He knew he was trapped here. That this wasn’t real. But it felt so real.

Was it real?

Overhead, the sky began to darken.

“A storm is coming,” Teddy said. He tried again: “We have to get to safety!”

“No, Teddy,” Ethan said. But when he spun around, Teddy saw it wasn’t Ethan anymore.

It was the Fire Maiden.

Her red hair flowed behind her. Her eyes glowed with a cold gleam.

“You can’t save him,” she said. And then she disappeared from view. Her image replaced with Ethan’s again.

“It will always be your fault,” her voice said.

Teddy fell to his knees. He knew he needed to find a way out of this memory. Out of his nightmare.

He needed to find his way back to Lila.

Maybe he couldn’t save Ethan, but he could still save her.

“Lila!” he shouted.

Ethan gave him a funny look. The sky opened up. Thick hail began to pour down.

It’s not real, Teddy told himself.

It’s not real.

He tried to hang on to that knowledge.

But as he watched Ethan skate toward the opening in the ice, his chest seized.

“Ethan!” he screamed. “Come back!”

“No!” Ethan said. “Teddy, get away! Don’t you see the fire? Run away!”

Teddy looked around. “Ethan, there’s no fire. It’s in your head!”

“Ahhh!” Ethan screamed. “Teddy!! Help!”

“It’s in your head,” Teddy repeated. To Ethan. And to himself.

The hail pelted across his cheeks. He dipped his head down, his cheeks stinging. The cold had become harsh and bracing. It had felt so good on the pond when it was sunny, but now his bones ached.

Lila, he reminded himself. Lila. Find Lila.

“Lila!” he shouted again.

The scene around him became increasingly upsetting. Ethan was skating right toward the hole. Teddy knew what would happen.

But it’s already happened, he told himself.

You can’t change it.

But you can change this.

“Lila!” he repeated.

Slowly, the hail and the ice and the pond began to drift away. It was like a slide being clicked over, the way they did at the eye doctor. His heart thudded in his ears. He wasn’t sure what was happening. He didn’t know if he would be trapped in this vision forever.

He’d never had this sensation. Of knowing it wasn’t real, but feeling like any moment, he could be pulled back into it. That the nightmare could wrap its hands around his neck, slowly strangling his awareness.

Teddy kept his eyes squeezed shut.

“Lila!” he screamed again. “Caleb!”

And then, after what might have been seconds, what might have been hours, what might have been days, Teddy heard a voice answering him.

“Teddy?”

It was Lila.

They were upstairs at the inn, right by the portal room. When Teddy looked around, he saw that his other classmates were catatonic with fear. Josh had gone white and completely still, save his chattering teeth. Mackenzie’s hands were tossed over her head, and her mouth was open in a soundless scream. Next to her, Caleb was swaying back and forth, muttering to himself.

“They’re trapped,” Lila said. “They’re trapped in their own visions.”

And then Lila faded out of view again.

Lila!” Teddy raced toward the portal room’s mirror. “Show yourself!” he demanded. “We defeated you once, we’ll defeat you again!”

“Don’t taunt her!” another voice said. “I’m begging you.”

It was Rosteen.

“What are you still doing here?” Teddy narrowed his eyes in anger. “Lila’s disappearing … and … you wasted our time! We might’ve been able to help her if you hadn’t …”

Teddy’s anger seared through him. It made his brain hot, unable to process thoughts. The portal room was still dark. The lights of the inn hadn’t come back on. His heart hammered again when he realized he didn’t know where the Fire Maiden was at that exact moment.

“Where is she?” Teddy whispered.

“Who do you mean?”

“You know who I mean!” Teddy shouted.

“Lila is suspended,” Rosteen said. “But soon, she will fully belong to the world of the dead. The world of the dead has claimed her. And the world of the dead always gets what it claims. Please, Teddy. If you guys want any chance, you need to leave. You need to run away. I’m begging you. I don’t want you to get hurt.”

Teddy’s brain was still hot. He had a million ideas at once. A million fears. He wasn’t sure which direction to move in, which word to speak.

But he knew he couldn’t stay still.

He couldn’t do nothing.

He had made that mistake before.

“She’s gaining more power by the second,” Rosteen said, sounding desperate. “She has everyone here at this party in her grasp. They are all experiencing terrible visions. But that is fuel for her. She is eating off it. It is giving her all the power she needs for her next moves.”

Teddy gulped. He didn’t even want to ask what those next moves were.

He glanced helplessly in Mackenzie’s direction. She was whispering to herself, “Get away, get away. You are so creepy. Please! Please don’t hurt me!”

The sound of Mackenzie’s panicked whisper made Teddy’s heart seize.

“Mackenzie,” he said. “It’s not real. Please, Mackenzie! Wake up!”

Mackenzie kept whispering. She was hunched over, scratching at her arm, her eyes rolling back into her head.

Teddy looked right at Rosteen. “How do I stop this? How do I help Lila? Please. Just give me something.”

He could feel pressure building behind his eyes. He tried to blink away the tears, but they came, anyway. “I’ll do anything, Rosteen. I need to save her. Is there a way to get the Fire Maiden to take me instead?”

Something flickered across Rosteen’s face. He glanced at the mirror and then back at Teddy.

“Do I need to do something with the mirror? I’ll do anything. Please. Tell me,” Teddy said. His tears were salty. He tried to clear his throat, but it was no use. More tears came. He felt small and sad.

Helpless.

“Okay,” Rosteen sighed. “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I think I have come up with a way to help our friend Lila.”

Teddy stared at Rosteen suspiciously. “Is this another trick?”

The wind was howling outside. The inn’s windows rattled. Teddy felt the urge to duck for cover, but he stayed standing. He would not hide.

“I’ve had what I can only refer to as a change of heart. You know, if my heart were still beating.”

“I don’t understand,” Teddy said at the exact moment thunder crashed outside.

“I guess … I learned something from you, Teddy. You’re my friend. And friends do things for friends.”

Teddy blinked at him, his vision still blurry from the earlier tears. He wiped his face again.

“I’m going to go now. Before I change my mind. Just know, like, I’d solve a mystery with you any day. Your bravery made me want to be brave. And this is like a pretty freaking brave thing I’m about to do. I just want you to know that. And let other people know that, okay? You gotta spread the word about me. That’s my one request. I want everyone to be talking about it.” He snapped his fingers. He let out a dramatic exhale. “I know it’s weird that I still do that. Since I don’t really breathe anymore. But old habits die hard. Sometimes it’s fun to do things, just to do them. Jeez, I’m blabbing a lot, aren’t I?”

Teddy was still staring at Rosteen. He wasn’t sure what was happening. Was he in another illusion of the Fire Maiden’s?

“Rosteen,” Teddy said.

“I have another request. Please go to my mom. Tell her I was brave. Tell her I miss her. Will you? Will you take care of her? Please visit her often. I don’t want her to be lonely. Please let her show you her garden.” Rosteen’s voice cracked. He wiped away a tear. “Please, Teddy. That’s all I’m asking. Keep her company. I can’t bear the thought of her being alone.”

“Rosteen,” Teddy said again, his mind whirling.

“No need to thank me. Just please take care of my mom. And it would also be great if you said something nice about me on the Phantoms board. I really do love those guys.”

“Rosteen—” Teddy tried again, still attempting to make sense of what was happening.

“The world of the dead just needs a soul. For balance. If I go, it will release its claim on Lila. It won’t defeat the Fire Maiden for good. But it will keep her at bay. At least for a moment. But most importantly, it will stop Lila from being claimed. Do you understand?”

“Not—” Teddy was saying, but before he could get out his sentence, Rosteen stepped toward the mirror.

Teddy reached out to grab Rosteen’s shoulder, but he ducked away.

“Teddy,” Rosteen said. “Please. Don’t stop me. I might change my mind.”

“I want you to change your mind,” Teddy said, his voice shaking. “There has to be another way.”

Rosteen shook his head sadly. “I don’t think there is.”

“But—where is Lila?”

Teddy looked all around. Mackenzie was stumbling toward the mirror. She was still scratching at her arm, her eyes were wild and unfocused.

“If I don’t,” Rosteen said. “Lila will be gone forever. And Mackenzie. Come on, Teddy. Let me go.”

Teddy shook his head again. Rosteen was his friend. He was tired of losing friends. The pressure behind his eyes built again. “No. Let’s stop the Fire Maiden together.”

Rosteen gave Teddy a sad look. “Do you promise?”

“Promise?” Teddy’s throat felt tight. His spine tingled when Mackenzie let out a howl. He looked nervously in her direction. “Rosteen, what is happening? How can I help her? How can I make Lila come back?”

Rosteen put his hands on Teddy’s shoulders. “Look at me.”

Teddy stared at Rosteen’s face. His stomach churned with a mix of emotions. He was mad at Rosteen. So mad at him for deceiving them. But Rosteen was also his friend. Could he really let him do this to save Lila? Give up his one shot at returning to the world of the living? To his mom?

“Promise you’ll visit my mom?”

“Rusty,” Teddy said softly.

“Promise?” Rosteen said. His voice was hard. More serious than Teddy had ever heard it.

“I promise,” Teddy said.

“Okay,” Rosteen said. He gave Teddy a small nod. “Take care of yourself. You’re a good friend, Teddy.”

Rosteen walked toward the mirror.

“No!” Teddy said. “Wait. There has to be another way.”

Rosteen shook his head sadly. “There isn’t. But please, visit my mom. And, Teddy?”

“Yeah?”

“Remember me.”

And with that, Rosteen stepped into the mirror. Disappearing from view.

Almost as instantly, Lila reappeared.

Her face was pale white, but she wasn’t flickering. She was solid. She was here!

“Teddy!” She flung herself into his arms, half sobbing, half laughing with relief. Then she stepped back and wiped her face with the back of her hand. “Sorry! Probably dramatic, right?”

Teddy grinned. “I don’t think dramatic enough for what just unfolded!”

“Whoa!” another voice said. “That was the weirdest thing ever. I, like, fell asleep?”

It was Mackenzie. Her cat ears were crooked on her head and her eye makeup was smudged.

Aubrey chimed in, agreeing that she had also had the world’s craziest nightmare. Her braid was messy now, like she’d been fighting with someone.

Both Josh and Peter looked dazed, the black paint from under their eyes spread on their noses, some even on their fingers.

“Did your parents set that up?” Peter asked Lila. “That was so dope!”

“Um,” Lila said, looking at Teddy.

“You know—they did,” Teddy said. “Pretty cool marketing, right?” He forced himself to smile. “Speaking of that, Lila and me need to go check with them about how their simulation went.”

Teddy grabbed Caleb’s arm, signaling for him to follow Lila and him. As they walked down the stairs, they heard the other kids excitedly chattering about their nightmares. Teddy’s heart raced in his chest. He was glad they could believe it was imaginary, even if he knew the truth.

The whole walk down the stairs, he kept staring at Lila.

“What?” she finally said.

He raised his eyebrows. “Really? That’s what you have to say.”

“I don’t understand what happened.” She looked down at her hands. “But I’m back.”

They returned to the main portion of the house and slipped into Lila’s room. Lila plopped down on her bed. Teddy sat at her desk chair. Caleb stayed standing.

“I saw—” Caleb began. His voice broke. Tears ran down his face.

“Oh, Caleb,” Lila said, rushing over to him. She wrapped him in a tight hug. “It’s okay. We’re okay.”

Caleb nodded, but he let out another sob. “I just don’t understand how.”

“Teddy saved us,” Lila said.

Teddy swiveled in the office chair. “Um, not exactly.”

Lila snapped her attention to Teddy. “What do you mean?”

“Rosteen sacrificed himself for you.”

“Rosteen?!” Caleb said.

“Rosteen?” Lila echoed, wrinkling her nose. “But he tricked us.”

“He tricked us because …” Teddy looked down at the carpet. He thought about all the messages he had exchanged with Rosteen over the years. How giddy he would feel when he got an alert that Rosteen had answered him, or given a thumbs-up to one of his comments. Rosteen had made him feel less alone when he had felt desperately lonely.

“He wanted to live,” Teddy said. “You can understand that, right?”

Lila nodded. “Of course.”

“He did something really brave,” Teddy said. “He did it because he said we were his friends. And he decided in the end that you do brave things for your friends.”

All of them were quiet for a while. Lila kept staring at her no-longer-flickering hands. Teddy’s eyes also darted to Lila’s non-flickering hands, and out the window, where the storm had stopped, the smell of leftover rain, heavy and wet, coming in through the window. Caleb was quietly staring up at the ceiling, making a low humming noise, when finally he said something.

“I think this means Rosteen is an honorary member of the Trionic,” Caleb said.

“Caleb,” Teddy said. “His one wish was for me to post about his heroic act on the Phantom Hunters.”

Caleb’s eyes lit up. “Can I help you do that?”

“Yeah,” Teddy said. “But let’s go downstairs first and check on everyone.”

As the kids headed downstairs, Teddy held his breath, waiting for another ghost to appear.

But no one did.

Downstairs was a complete mess. The buffet table had been flipped over. There was onion dip splattered all over the hardwood floors. Plastic forks littered the ground, as did balled-up napkins.

The room was loud and noisy. Everyone was shouting over one another. Recounting the gritty details of their personal nightmares.

Lila’s mom was twirling around like a tornado.

“I don’t understand what happened!” she said.

“Me either!” Lila’s dad said from an armchair, looking completely stunned.

All around, the other adults were babbling excitedly.

“Mom,” Lila hissed, pulling on her arm. “Tell them it was intentional. Holograms. To make the inn seem cool.”

Lila’s mom’s face twisted up. “What?”

“Actually,” Lila’s dad said. “That’s not a bad idea.”

“Are you kidding?” Lila’s mom whispered back.

But Lila’s dad stood up from the armchair. He cleared his throat. “Greetings, everyone! Thank you so much for coming to our Halloween soiree.”

Teddy listened as Mr. Clement apologized if anyone was too freaked out but played it all off as a Halloween treat. The crowd erupted with applause.

“Wow,” Lila whispered to Teddy. “I think people are into it? What great publicity for the inn.”

Teddy smiled at her. “Means you’re staying in town.”

She gave him a playful shove. “Of course I’m staying.”

But they both knew what he really meant.

She was here.

She hadn’t disappeared.

The dessert table mercifully somehow hadn’t been knocked over. Teddy found Caleb beside it, shoveling cookies onto one of the plates that hadn’t fallen on the ground.

Lila grabbed a pumpkin-shaped cookie, and Teddy hesitated before grabbing the ghost-shaped one.

“You sure about that?” Lila said with a smirk.

“Might as well,” Teddy said, laughing a little, as he bit off the ghost’s head.

The kids took their cookies and walked out to the inn’s front stoop. The sky was dark and misty. The smell of rain still hung in the air. The wind was calm now, though. Only a light breeze.

“Rosteen said she would be back,” Teddy said, slowly chewing his cookie.

Lila wiped crumbs away from her mouth. “I don’t feel her anymore, do you?”

Teddy looked up at the dark night sky. “Not right now. But …”

“What?” Lila said.

“But the problem is the Fire Maiden was summoned. She still has power.”

“I know,” Lila said seriously. “But I think I need one night off to recover. You know, after coming back from the land of the dead.” She took another bite of cookie and closed her eyes, savoring it. “I wasn’t ready to give this up.”

Teddy nodded. He did. But his stomach still felt like it was on a roller coaster. Only this time, the coaster was still chugging up the hill. He knew the fall was coming. He just didn’t know when.

He looked up at the night sky. He thought of Ethan. He thought of Rosteen.

And he tried not to think about the Fire Maiden.

Many thanks to—

Brenda Bowen, as always.

The whole wonderful team at Scholastic, including Mallory Kass, David Levithan, Jalen Garcia-Hall, Mary Kate Garmire, Erin Berger, Rachel Feld, Brooke Shearouse, Sydney Niegos, Sasha Quinton, Ellie Berger, and Jackie De Leo.

Gavin Brown and the entire tech team who have worked on translating the world of the book into a multimodal gaming experience.

Erin Entrada Kelly for writing such a dynamite first book and welcoming me into this project.

All my friends and family, grateful for each and every one of you. Greg, Lillian, and Juniper—love, love, love x infinity.

Jasmine Warga is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of numerous books for young readers, including A Rover’s Story and Other Words for Home, a Newbery Honor book.

Text copyright © 2026 by Scholastic Inc.

Illustrations by Naomi Franquiz © 2026 Scholastic Inc.

All rights reserved. Published by Scholastic Press, an imprint of Scholastic Inc., Publishers since 1920. SCHOLASTIC, SCHOLASTIC PRESS, and associated logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Scholastic Inc.

The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, used to train any artificial intelligence technologies, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher. For information regarding permission, write to Scholastic Inc., Attention: Permissions Department, 557 Broadway, New York, NY 10012.

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data available
e-ISBN 978-1-5461-6285-8

First edition, January 2026

Author photo by Lillian Warga

Cover art by Alex Eckman-Lawn, © 2026 Scholastic Inc.

Cover design by Stephanie Yang