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streamed down my cheeks.
    “So, now you know.” I sounded angry, but I was scared. I had never said this much to anyone.
    “Hmm,” he said. He puffed out smoke, blinking, quiet. “Okay, then. A question.”
    I watched the smoke come out of his mouth, imagining Celia leaving my body and my life in the same way. Praying it had happened. Wondering about the timing of this conversation.
    “Ask,” I said reluctantly.
    “Shouldn’t you two—or you four—be on Oprah ? Because she’d pay a lot for this. And your family is destitute.”
    My mouth dropped open, and he grinned at me. We both started laughing. Big, rolling belly laughs. I gathered up handfuls of my hair and smoothed them away from my forehead as I kicked my feet and cracked up, not like the night of the lockdown, but for pretty much the same reason. Then I gestured him over and made him give me a cigarette too, and I coughed all over him after he lit it. I had never been a social smoker.
    “I see things,” I told him in a rush. “All the time. I see Celia’s reflection in mirrors and in water. I have her nightmares. On Valentine’s Day, I was convinced Troy had become possessed by David Abernathy. I thought he had lured me to the operating theater to perform a real, actual lobotomy on me.”
    He made a face. “Oh, my God. No wonder you’ve lost so much weight.”
    “Yeah. But I think she may have left me, and now I’m telling you all this stuff—” I stopped. “And I’m scared.”
    “No wonder.” He flicked ash on my omelet plate. “Being possessed. Well, that’s really something.”
    “Yeah.”
    “I’m so sorry.” And he was. Big, evil, scary Miles was sorry for me. I was boggled.
    We smoked together. I felt a rush from the nicotine and from finally telling someone. I kept bracing myself for Celia’s reaction. But as far as I could tell, she had left the building.
    “No wonder you’re hiding out,” he said. “Smoking while being treated for pneumonia.”
    I hadn’t thought of that. “I think it’s over for me. Not sure.”
    “But not Mandy.” He knit his brows together. “I mean, look at how she’s acting.”
    My eyes were watering from the cigarette smoke. It really was a filthy habit. “I hate to break this to you, Miles, but Mandy was evil before she became possessed. She’s a mean girl.”
    “You can take it.”
    “Why should I have to? She’s a bully. But you probably find that attractive.”
    “While you want us to use our powers only for good,” he said, making a pouty face. “I need you to help me. I mean, why did she do it? Seek out getting possessed?”
    I wasn’t sure I could go there, even though he probably wouldn’t be fazed. But it was a fair question.
    “Curiosity?” I hedged. It was a lie. Mandy had made a pact with Belle so that she could take care of Miles, be with Miles. At least that was what I had heard her tell Belle. Why didn’t I just tell him that?
    Because maybe . . . that wasn’t true, or was true no longer. Mandy had been curious. And now she and Belle were the most powerful girls on campus.
    “My sister.” He shook his head.
    “Go process it on your own time,” I said, putting out my cigarette. My lungs were blazing. Smoking had been a stupid idea.
    “Right.” He got up, patted my cheek, hesitated, then bent over and kissed me. Lightly, but deliberately. He tasted like ashes.
    “Yum,” he whispered.
    Then he left.

SIX
    I WAITED FOR Celia to punish me for breaking silence. Miraculously, I did homework to keep myself from going crazy while I waited. I got an incredible amount done, when I had expected just the opposite.
    That night, I had trouble looking in the mirror, afraid Celia would be glaring back at me. I fought falling asleep, terrified of what she might put me through. I just couldn’t go back into her grave, out in the forest where the dead girls screamed.
    There was no shot from Ms. Simonet, but she did give me two small blue pills. I wanted to hide them under my