Ivy nodded. She could imagine Kelseyʹs astonishment if they told her that Tristan had come back as an angel to protect her from Gregory and that Beth had been the first to communicate with him.

Ivy and Beth would never hear the end of it. ʺTheyʹre just fooling around.ʺ

It doesnʹt bother you?ʺ Beth searched Ivyʹs face, her forehead creased with concern.

When they first met two winters earlier, Ivy had thought Beth looked like a sweet‐faced owl. Bethʹs face was thinner now, and her layers of leathery light brown hair had grown out and been styled in a sleek dun‐length cut but her blue eyes were still as large and round as an owlʹs, especially when she worried.

Several months back. Ivy had seen through her friendʹs sales pitch for spending the summer on Cape Cod. Beth and Kelseyʹs aunt recently divorced, can her inn on a tight budget In exchange for their work. Aunt Cindy, as they all were asked to call her, offered them a modest salary and a place 10 five just minutes from the ocean, a bay, salt marshes, bike trails. . According to Beth, It was the perfect way to spend their last summer together before college. But it was a summer away from Connecticut that Beth had most wanted for Ivy, Will, and herselfIvy knew that. Her best friend was determined to get them away from the dark memories of last summer.

ʺAre you coming or not?ʺ Kelsey called back to them.

ʺThe more we say no, the more theyʹll insist,ʺ Ivy whispered to Beth. ʺJust play along.ʺ ʺComing,ʺ Beth replied to her cousin. They entered the shingled cottage, which had two rooms on the first floor, a living room and, directly behind it, a kitchen with a large hearth, where Kelsey was waiting for them. Ivy and Beth cleared the kitchen table, while Dhanya retrieved the Ouija board from under her bed upstairs. Kelsey searched the cupboards and drawers for candles.