I gestured with my free hand. “Sure. After you.” As we walked up the stairs, they groaned under our combined weight. I pulled Ridley up to the front door, still not quite sure if the stairs were going to support us or not.

I knocked, but there was no response. I reached up and felt for the moon. The door swung open, slowly—

Ridley seemed tentative. And as we crossed the threshold, I could almost feel the house settle, as if the climate inside had changed, almost imperceptibly.

“Hello, Mother.”

A round woman, bustling to lay gourds and golden leaves along the mantel, startled and dropped a small white pumpkin. It exploded onto the ground. She grabbed onto the mantel to steady herself. She looked odd, like she was wearing a dress from a hundred years ago. “Julia! I mean Ridley. What are you doing here? I must be confused. I thought, I thought…”

I knew something was wrong. This didn’t seem like your average mother-daughter hello.

“Jules? Is that you?” A younger version of Ridley, maybe ten, came walking into the front hall with Boo Radley, who was now wearing a sparkly blue cape over his back. Dressing up the family wolf, as if nothing unusual was going on. Everything about the girl was like light; she had blond hair and radiant blue eyes, as if they had little flecks of the sky on a sunny afternoon in them. The girl smiled, and then frowned. “They said you’d gone away.”

Boo started to growl.

Ridley opened her arms, waiting for the little girl to rush into them, but the girl didn’t move. So Ridley held her hands out and uncurled each one. A red lollipop appeared in the first and, not to be outdone, a little gray mouse wearing a sparkly blue cape that matched Boo’s sniffed the air in her other hand—like a cheap carnival trick.

The little girl stepped forward, tentatively, as if her sister had the power to pull her across the room, without so much as a touch, like the moon and the tides. I had felt it myself.

When Ridley spoke, her voice was thick and husky like honey. “Come now, Ryan. Mamma was just pulling your tail to see if it squeaked. I haven’t gone anywhere. Not really. Would your favorite big sister ever leave you?”

Ryan grinned and ran toward Ridley, jumping up, as if she was about to leap into her open arms. Boo barked. For a moment, Ryan hung suspended in mid-air, like one of those cartoon characters that accidentally jumps of a cliff and just hangs there for a few seconds, before they fall. Then, she fell, hitting the floor abruptly, as if she had smacked into an invisible wall. The lights inside the house grew brighter, all at once, as if the house was a stage, and the lighting was changing to signal the end of an act. In the light, Ridley’s features cast harsh shadows.

The light changed things. Ridley held a hand up to her eyes, calling out to the house. “Oh please, Uncle Macon. Is that really necessary?”

Boo leaped forward, positioning himself between Ryan and Ridley. Growling, the dog pressed closer and closer, the hair on his back standing on end, making him look even more like a wolf. Apparently Ridley’s charms were lost on Boo.

Ridley looped her arm back through mine tightly, and laugh-growled, or something like that. It wasn’t a friendly sound. I tried to keep it together, but my throat felt like it was stuffed with wet socks.

Keeping one hand on my arm, she raised her other hand over her head and threw it up toward the ceiling. “Well, if you’re going to be rude.” Every light in the house went dark. The whole house seemed to short out.

Macon’s voice calmly floated down from the top of the dim shadows. “Ridley, my dear, what a surprise. We weren’t expecting you.”

Not expecting her? What was he talking about?

“I wouldn’t miss the Gathering for anything in the world, and look, I brought a guest. Or, I guess you could say, I’m his guest.”

Macon walked down the staircase, without taking his eyes off Ridley. I was watching two lions circle each other, and I was standing in the middle. Ridley had played me, and I had gone along with it, like a sucker, like the red sucker she was sucking on right now.

“I don’t think that’s the best idea. I’m sure you’re expected elsewhere.”

She pulled the lollipop out of her mouth with a pop. “Like I said, I wouldn’t miss this for the world. Besides, you wouldn’t want me to drive Ethan all the way home. What ever would we talk about?”

I wanted to suggest we leave, but I couldn’t get the words out. Everyone just stood there in the main hall, staring at each other. Ridley leaned against one of the pillars.

Macon broke the silence. “Why don’t you show Ethan to the dining room? I’m sure you remember where it is.”

“But Macon—” The woman I guessed was Aunt Del looked panicked, and again, confused, like she didn’t quite know what was going on.

“It’s all right, Delphine.” I could see in Macon’s face he was working things out, jumping from step to step, ahead of the step we were all on. Without knowing what I had stumbled into, it was actually comforting to know he was there.

The last place I wanted to go was the dining room. I wanted to bolt out of there, but I couldn’t make it happen. Ridley wouldn’t let go of my arm, and as long as she was touching me, I felt like I was on autopilot. She led me into the formal dining room where I had offended Macon the first time. I looked at Ridley, clinging to my arm. This offense was far worse.

The room was lit by hundreds of tiny black votive candles, and strands of black glass beads hung from the chandelier. There was an enormous wreath, made entirely of black feathers, on the door leading into the kitchen. The table was set with silver and pearl-white plates, which were actually made of pearl, for all I knew.