The walk to my house didn't take long, but with every step, I got angrier and angrier. This is what happened when you get involved with regular kids. Stupid kids, who summoned a ghost and probably were going to get killed by it. And that was fine. That's what happened when people messed with stuff that was way over their heads. So sue me for trying to step in and use, oh, I don't know, a thousand years of bloodline and experience and training to keep them safe. Let them wear their tinfoil hats. And let Dex-

The tears nearly spilled over then, but I stopped just outside my front door and took a deep breath. No. I wasn't going to cry over him.

Them. Whatever.

Mom's car was parked in the driveway, so I called out for her when I went inside.

"In here," she answered from the kitchen.

I walked down the hall, and was surprised to find Maya standing next to the sink with Mom.

"What are you-" I started to say, but before I could get out any more, Mom turned to me. She wasn't smiling, but her eyes were practically shining. "It's Finn," she said. "We got a lead on Finn."

CHAPTER 30

"What?" was all I could say.

Moving quickly, Mom grabbed her jacket from a kitchen chair. "A girl just a few counties over disappeared last week. Same as Finley. Got involved with a coven of dark witches and vanished."

"Oh," I said, trying to keep the disappointment out of my voice. The news was great, better than anything we'd gotten so far. But it didn't seem like much. For some reason, when Mom said she had a lead, I thought it would mean...more. That we could have Finley back tonight.

I suddenly wanted that more than anything in the world. Finn and I had fought, and maybe we'd never painted our nails together, but she hadn't lied to me. She hadn't summoned ghosts and then called me a freak.

"Anyway, Maya is going to stay here with you until I get back. Should be later tonight, maybe early tomorrow morning."

"I don't need a babysitter," I said, but Mom waved that off.

"Not now, Izzy. With everything that's been going on, I'd rather you didn't stay here alone."

"Besides," Maya said, moving to the stove, where she was boiling something that smelled like rosemary and death, "we'll have a big time. I can braid your hair, teach you a few incantations..."

I gave the least enthusiastic "Yay" of all time.

"As soon as I get back, we'll deal with your hedge witch friend, and then we can get home," Mom said, startling me.

I whirled around to face Mom. "You know? How?"

Flipping her hair over the collar of her coat, Mom glanced out toward the hall. "Torin is not always completely useless."

No, but he was completely slimy and untrustworthy. "He shouldn't have told you," I insisted. "This is my case, and I'm handling it."

"It was your case when it was a run-of-the-mill haunting. Or figuring out what kind of Prodigium that boy was. Which you never did, apparently."

"I was working on it," I told her, but Mom frowned.

"It's time to put an end to this entire case, Iz, and you're too involved. As soon as I get back, we're finishing it. Besides, it's getting dangerous."

"It hasn't been that dangerous," I said, conveniently ignoring the whole pyromaniac hedgehog thing.

But Mom shook her head. "You're done. If we can't put a stop to this haunting now, it's only going to get worse. The more afraid people get, the stronger that ghost will become, and the stronger she becomes, the more people she can hurt. If we're not careful, this will become a cycle that pretty much can't be stopped."

"How will you stop Mary?" I asked Mom, and her eyes slide from mine.

"Stay here with Maya, and when I get back, we'll fix this."

"You'll fix this, you mean," I muttered.

Normally, that would've gotten me a sharp "Isolde!" and a remark about talking back. But to my surprise, this time, Mom just crossed the kitchen and laid her palm against my cheek. "You've done great here. You've proven yourself, and I am proud of you. But it's time to walk away now."

The last time Mom had touched my face I'd been ten years old and she'd thought I had a fever. That must've been why I just nodded and said, "Okay."

Mom dropped her hand with a little smile. "Good."

Turning to Maya, she lifted a canvas bag off the table. "I'll call from the road."

"Bring her home, Ash," Maya said, stirring her concoction.

"I'm going to try," Mom replied, and with one last look at me, she was gone.

As soon as the front door closed, Maya opened a cabinet and began pulling out a couple of bowls. "You want some?" she asked, gesturing to the stove.

"Um...no. I've got something to do."

Before she could offer me anything else-eye of newt tea, bird's feet stew-I took off to the guest room.

Once the door was shut behind me I marched over to Torin's mirror, smacking the frame as hard as I could. He stumbled, falling against the bed. "What in the world are you doing?"

"Don't." I pointed at him. "I wanted to figure out what to do about Romy on my own. I trusted you."

"And I was only trying to help," he insisted. "You could've been hurt, and for what? A trio of ungrateful children? They turned on you, didn't they." It wasn't a question.

His words stung, but I tried not to let it show. "They didn't turn on me. They had every reason to suspect I was a freak because hey, news flash, I am a freak. It doesn't make them ungrateful. It makes them...smart."

Torin frowned. "Isolde-"

I reached out and covered his mirror, suddenly tired and sadder than I'd thought possible.

After trudging up the stairs I spent the rest of the afternoon putting my few belongings back in the duffel bag, and watching the last few episodes of Ivy Springs, season three. But somehow, even Everton and Leslie finally getting together (and riding off in a hot air balloon, which may have been even weirder than the episode where Leslie dreamed she and Everton were on the Titanic) still couldn't cheer me up. Once it was dark, I decided to go down to the kitchen and talk to Maya. Hopefully, she was done cooking.

She was humming when I walked in and puttering with the sad little basil plant Mom had bought at Walmart. It had been sitting, pathetic and abandoned, on our windowsill for a while.

"No bird's feet, I'm guessing?" Maya asked as I walked in.

"Fresh out," I told her. Now that the kitchen no longer smelled like Evil Magic, I thought I might try to cook some dinner. Maybe carbs would cheer me up where Ivy Springs had failed. As I pulled out a box of macaroni and cheese, Maya gave a cheerful smile.

"No matter," she said, heading for the fruit bowl in the middle of the table. I'd just done the grocery shopping a few days ago, so there were several apples and a couple of bananas in there. My pasta forgotten, I watched as Maya picked up two apples and one banana and laid them on either side of the basil plant. Muttering something under her breath, she held on to the little pot of basil, and the leaves began to turn green and bright. But as they did, the apples and banana shriveled, going brown.

Once the basil was as perky as it could possibly be, Maya reached up and took off one of the several silver hoops in her ears. "That's...bizarre," I said at last.

"Hedge magic!" she trilled with a little shrug.

I scowled. Real magic, hedge magic, all of it apparently led to the same place: with everything crappy and awful. But it wasn't just that. Something was bothering me. It made sense that Romy was the one summoning ghosts, whether she'd meant to or not, but there was still this little niggling doubt in the back of my mind. Romy was a terrible liar, but she'd looked genuinely confused and hurt in her bedroom today. And there hadn't been any guilt in her face when I'd shown her the heart charm, just puzzlement.

"Maya," I said as she continued to cluck over the plant, "let's say you have a hedge witch summoning ghosts, and the one she's summoned is all big and scary and dangerous."

Maya turned back to me, her eyes sad. "Honey, most of the time, you can just get a witch to send the ghost back herself."

Breathing a sigh of relief, I sat the box of pasta on the counter. "That's what I'd been thinking-"

"But," Maya interrupted. "This is not a normal case. The ghost is too powerful. By this point, the only way to stop that ghost is to sever the connection with the witch who did the summoning. Hedge witch, 'real' witch, it doesn't matter. Stop the witch, you stop the ghost."

I tore open the box of macaroni even though I was far from hungry anymore. "And by stop, you mean..."

"Kill, yes." She touched one of the charms around her neck. "It's unfortunate, but that's the way of it."

My feet were bare, and when I looked down I saw my bright red toenails. A lump rose in my throat. "She made a mistake. She did a dumb thing, but she shouldn't have to pay for it with her life. There has to be some other way."

When I glanced up, Maya was wringing her hands. "What?"

"It's just..." she broke off, huffing out a breath. "Oh, your mama would kill me if she knew I was even whispering about this, but...there's maybe one way. To sever the connection without severing your friend's jugular."

I pushed the box of macaroni away. "Yeah, I'm going to need to hear about that."

"But it's dangerous and potentially unstable, and is really one of those tricks best left to those Pro-whatchamacallit witches."

Leaning forward, I pressed my hands on the counter. "Maya, whatever it is, I'll try it."

She filled me in on what exactly the ritual would require-and do-and while by the end of it, my heart was pounding and my eyes were huge, I agreed that it sounded a lot better than letting my mom run Romy through with a dagger.

"Okay," I said, pointing at Maya. "You go get the supplies you need, I'll call Romy and get her over here."

But when I dialed Romy's cell there was no answer. She was probably avoiding me, and I couldn't blame her. Luckily, I had her house number too, and I dialed that.

Romy's mom answered, and when I said who I was, she sounded surprised. "Oh! Izzy. I thought for sure you'd be out with the rest of them."

My heart lodged somewhere in my throat. "The rest of who?"

"The club. Romy said you'd called a special meeting tonight."

"Oh, right," I said, even as my grip threatened to shatter the phone. "I totally spaced. Could you remind me where it is?"

There was a pause, and then Romy's mom sighed and said, "God, Izzy, you are going to think I am the worst mother, but I honestly don't remember." She gave a little laugh. "Such is life with triplets, I guess."

I did my best to laugh back, but I couldn't get off the phone fast enough. Hanging up with her, I hesitated only the briefest second before dialing another number.

It picked up on the first ring. "Izzy?"

"Dex," I said, but before I could get anything else out, he rushed in.

"Izzy, I'm so sorry about what happened this afternoon. You know I-"

"DEX!" I said again, and mercifully, he stopped babbling. "Are you with Romy and Anderson?"

I could hear him sigh. "No. After you left, I may have quit the club. Very dramatically, I should add, complete with-"