"You think Finn Delacroix is haunting you?"

Hearing our mother ask the question out loud immediately makes me doubt myself as I hesitate. Having the words out in the open honestly does sound crazy. I share a quick look with Indigo, who gives me an encouraging nod.

"Yes," I admit at last as our mother frowns.

"And you've used a Ouija board to contact him?" our father supplies as he raises a slow, dark eyebrow.

I meet his eyes even though I know the eyebrow raise means that he doubts me.

"Yes."

"What did he say to you last?"

I pause.

I don't look at either of them, unable to bring myself to say what he had said to me no more than a few minutes ago.

I have to leave Boston.

"I...he didn't...he didn't make sense the time before," I hedge and risk a glance at my mother, "you know, when you found me with Tessa and Astrid."

"Kara, Ouija boards can be deceiving, any spiritual energy can manipulate it, ones with good intentions or bad, it doesn't matter," our mother interrupts, "what did 'he' say?"

"Gibberish," I look away, "Something about a blue cat and a dark room.
I hope deep down then that Indigo won't mention the fact that Tessa had also been possessed, likely by Finn but she stays quiet as our mother thinks over my words. I dare to sneak a peek at her to see that her lips are pressed into a flat line that doesn't give anything away.

Millions of possibilities run through my head and I wonder if she's able to See all of the outcomes.

But she said she couldn't See anything with you, surely she can't see anything now.

It's something I have to hope for yet I still wonder how she's being blocked.

At last, she nods.

"You'll need to perform a cleansing ritual, negative energy could still be lingering," she murmurs as she looks from me to my father.

"Okay," I agree.

I suddenly feel like a small child who needs her knee bandaged after a bad fall off of a bike. She dips her head and gets to her feet, my father moving to do the same but she fixes him with a stern look and shakes her head.

"Only Kara and I."

Indigo reaches over to squeeze my wrist before she lets go. I start for the basement door as my mother follows me closely. It's comforting to have her here, that somehow, she's going to be able to make all of the danger surrounding me go away.

But maybe she can.

I shiver as I descend the stairs, at last coming to the bottom step as the damp, cool air of the basement fills my lungs. I've gotten used to some things in the alchemy lab, but the crystal ball still makes me anxious. It flickers to life as we enter, like a lighting filled cloud is trapped inside of it as it flashes and swirls uneasily.

I get settled in a chair at the table without a word and fold my hands in my lap as I wait for my mother, my heart in my throat as it pounds too fast.

Various jars and vials are opened as she grabs bunches of herbs and a few chips of rock that she dumps into a stone bowl that she places next to the crystal ball. She takes a quartz pestle and begins to grind up the ingredients, her brow furrowed as she focuses on her work. Once it's ground to a fine powder, she touches the tip of her wand to the bowl and a blue flame crackles to life.

The smell of burning sage clouds the room as she wafts the smoke coming out of the bowl and carries it around the basement. A faint haze of grayish smoke begins to fill the basement as tendrils of it drift up toward the ceiling like loose cobwebs that twist and sink unpredictably.

I feel dizzy then, like one of the legs on my chair is uneven as I feel like I might fall out onto the floor. I sink deeper into my chair as I grip the edge of it, my fingernails digging into the ornate wood. I can hear my mother whispering to herself then as she walks the perimeter of the room but I can't make out what she's saying.

The light inside of the crystal ball seems to intensify, the churning clouds inside of it looking more like a miniature tornado as it continues to pick up speed. The dizzying sensation passes after what feels like forever as my mother's burning green eyes burrow into mine.

She's stopped what she's doing, her attention instead focusing on me as she watches me for a long moment.

Lightning zips across the wiring for the light fixtures above us, the tiny, silver tendrils crackling with energy that makes the hairs on my arms stand on end.

"Something is here with us," she says in a low voice that startles me.

She fixes me with a stern look, "Stay calm," she murmurs.

I don't move as I force my breathing to stay relaxed and even. I try to think back to all the times she comforted me as a child, how she always healed my wounds if I fell off my bike and skinned my knee.

I close my eyes and focus on the breaths I take and count in my head to myself. I can still hear the lightning crackling above me, the sound slowly beginning to fade as I imagine it fizzling out.

At last, there is silence.

"Open your eyes."

I do.

The crystal ball is no longer lit up, but is instead dark, the interior no longer churning with smoky clouds. There is a light feeling in the air, like the freshness after a thunderstorm when the clouds finally part to reveal the sun.

My mother doesn't say anything to me from where she now stands next to one of the bookshelves, the bowl still in her hands.

"I still can't See," she mutters after a long while of staring me down.

"What does that mean?"

"Someone may have placed a block over you and it's a strong one, but any negative energies from using the Ouija board is gone," she replies as her eyes narrow over the top of her glasses.

She sets the stone bowl down on the table as she watches me, her movements slow and careful. She reaches over and touches my shoulder then, the pressure gentle as she squeezes.

"How are you feeling?"

"Better," I say as I nod a few times, "thank you."

"We'll get this sorted out soon," she promises. "Be back by five, I want to take you by your therapist."