Mary turns to Alice in the front seat of the Jeep. “So you agree that Niki and Blair are involved now, right? That your friends were unmistakably right, and that you, no matter how much it pains you, were wrong.”

Alice rolls her eyes and drives away from the curb. “They’re involved in some way. I’ll give you that. Doesn’t prove they’re masterminding anything.”

Susannah touches her bottom lip. “They could be working with someone.”

“Also, I know you guys said that he’s not a Descendant, but don’t you find it weird that Wardwell was involved in pushing a dance theme?” I ask. “Not only did he support it, he convinced the history department to teach it. Seems extreme.”

Alice pulls up to the curb in front of my house.

“I was just thinking about that,” Susannah says. “Especially after how you said he told you about the dog collar.”

I open the Jeep door and get out. My dad’s car isn’t in the driveway. “If Niki and Blair are connected, doesn’t it make sense that he could be, too?”

Alice walks next to me up my brick driveway. “At this point, I don’t know what I know.”

Mary’s face scrunches up. “Weeell, he does have a weird story.”

“Also true,” Susannah says.

I open my door for the girls and lock it behind us.

Mary stops in the foyer and looks at me. “This is what happened. Wardwell was some hotshot museum director and moved to Salem ten years ago or so. He immediately started dating his now ex-wife, and they got married super fast. She thought he was a Descendant because of his last name, but two years later it came out that he actually had no relation to the Trials. It was this big scandal, and it destroyed their relationship. They divorced, and that’s when he became a teacher at our school.”

“You’re saying he pretended to be a Descendant? And that his wife actually cared that he wasn’t?”

Mary nods. “It was all really dramatic.”

“Could he have a grudge against Descendants because of it?” I ask.

“I’ve never noticed that from him,” Susannah says. “But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t. He is a history teacher who used to be a museum director. Plus, his love for the Titanic is obvious.”

“And he’s in our school; he has access to all the people we have access to,” I say.

“My instinct is still to say no, but I just said that about Niki. And as Mary so wonderfully pointed out, I was wrong,” Alice says.

I pause. “Oh, shit. You know what? He came to my house once. A long time ago. Vivian said he was repairing my window….He could’ve seen Myra and Henry’s painting then and known who they were.”

“Then we definitely need to look into him,” Susannah says.

“It’s way more risky than sifting through Niki’s room,” Mary says.

“Not necessarily,” I say, even though I hate that I’m suggesting this. “I could ask Elijah.”

They all look at me.

Susannah turns for the stairs. “Okay, then. We’re gonna head upstairs and start researching Myra and Henry.” The girls follow her, with Mary stealing glances at me over her shoulder.

I rub my hands over my face. How am I going to start this conversation after I told him I didn’t want his help?

I walk into the living room, mumbling to myself, and stop so fast I almost trip. Elijah’s already there, standing next to the fireplace with his hands behind his back.

For a second I just stare at him. “So you were listening to our conversation?”

“There is no need to make this more difficult,” he says.

“Me make this difficult?” I fake-laugh.

“I will do it,” he says. “Investigate Wardwell.”

“Fine.”

He turns so that he’s facing me. “We can have this conversation as an argument if you so choose, but it is not the most effective option for someone so concerned about time.”

“Says the person who stole our spell ingredients last night.”

His expression is calm. “If you did not charge ahead recklessly, I would not have to interfere.”

I have an overwhelming desire to shake my fist at him, undeniably proving his point that I’m the difficult one.

“I have been looking for Myra,” he says.

I pause. “You have?”

“But I have not found her.”

“What does that mean exactly?” I ask.

“Spirits who do not pass on tend to stay near their homes. But when I looked for your relation Myra, she was not in New York City. I know she traveled when she was alive, but unfortunately I cannot seem to locate any journals or letters that tell me where she frequented. I do not have any good leads as to where she might be. And then there are the other passengers—”

“What other passengers?”

“I have been looking for all the Titanic passengers. Not just Myra.”

“Oh.” So he was helping, even though I told him not to?

“Oftentimes with tragedies like this, spirits feel unresolved about how things ended. Many of them stay here like I did, finding it difficult to pass on. Even the passengers who did not die in the shipwreck could potentially feel bound to the Titanic. Large-scale traumas sometimes affect the afterlife of the entire group. I do not know why,” Elijah says.

“You’re really blowing the concept that when you die, things suddenly make sense,” I say.

“Yes, well. I imagine that when I do pass on, everything will become clearer.” There is an emotion in his voice that I can’t quite place.

“After everything that happened in the woods, you had the opportunity to pass on. Didn’t you? Your sister came to get you. Am I missing something here?”

“As in life, death is not always simple or easy,” he says, his eyes asking for me to understand.

There is something so sad and genuine about his voice that I suddenly have the desire to reach out to him. I frown. What’s wrong with me?

Elijah must see something in my expression, because he breaks eye contact and clears his throat. “As I was saying, I have been to the passengers’ homes and their towns. But I have not found any of them.”

I sigh, happy to move on to easier subjects like death warnings and unexplainable missing spirits. “Maybe some of them liked to travel the way Myra did? Maybe they’re just not hanging around in obvious places. Or maybe most of them passed on.”

“Unlikely,” he says. “With a tragedy on the scale of the Titanic, I should have found at least a hundred by now. I have even asked other spirits in the passengers’ hometowns. None of the passengers have been seen in months. Some of them have not been seen in decades.”

“I don’t understand. Where could they all have gone? And why am I seeing Ada, but you can’t find any other spirits? That doesn’t make sense.”

Elijah’s eyebrows furrow. He takes a seat in an armchair. “That is what worries me. From the way you describe her, Ada always speaks in the present, as though she does not remember that she is dead. I have seen many deluded spirits in the past three hundred years, but none believed they were still living. They knew they were dead.”

“So then what’s going on with Ada?” I sit down on the fluffy couch. “Could she be under a spell?”

Elijah leans forward. “I have been asking myself that very question.”

“And if you can’t find Myra, why shouldn’t we try Alice’s suggestion?”

“Forcing a spirit to appear is one of the worst things you could possibly do. The only thing we have is our freedom of choice. If the spell went wrong, you could wind up with a very angry spirit, one who would consequently tell you nothing. Spirits are not missing socks. They are people.”

I stiffen. “I never thought of Myra as a missing sock, and you know that. But even you can’t find her, and she’s one of the only leads we have right now. And considering how little we understand, that’s saying a lot. There must be something we could do to try to get in touch with her.”

Elijah’s quiet for a moment. “You could try speaking to her the way you speak to me.”

“By saying her name?”

“Indeed.”

He blinks out.