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    Calla really isn’t anxious to go into the woods alone. She’s been there before, and it’s a creepy spot. The locals claim Inspiration Stump and its surroundings are a highly charged vortex of spiritual energy, and judging by her own reaction to the place, Calla suspects they’re right.
    “Why not.” Evangeline shrugs and looks down at her chubby build, even more roly-poly than usual in her down jacket. “I could use some extra exercise. Let’s go.”
    As they walk along, she resumes the saga of Russell Lancione and his unrequited crush on her, claiming not to care but spending an awful lot of time analyzing everything he’s said and done.
    Calla hates to cut her off, but they’ve reached the turn-off for Leolyn Wood, and as a conversational rule, Evangeline rarely pauses for air.
    “Hey, let’s walk through there!” Calla exclaims, as though she just thought of it.
    Evangeline breaks off in the middle of a sentence. “What?”
    “The woods. Let’s go that way.”
    “That’s a dead end. Why do you want to go in there?”
    “It’s just so . . . peaceful.” Calla is getting sick of keeping up the act, but she still isn’t ready to tell Evangeline the whole story. For all she knows, the map in the book, which is stashed in her backpack, is utterly meaningless.
    But if not . . .
    “We can’t go in there right now,” Evangeline says simply, shaking her head.
    “It’s okay, then, you go home, and I’ll see you lat—”
    “No.” Evangeline grabs Calla’s coat sleeve. “I mean, we can’t go in there. Not that I don’t want to. Not that I do, though.”
    “Why can’t we?”
    “Didn’t you ever see the sign?”
    “What sign?”
    “Here . . . come on.” Evangeline leads the way to the edge of the grove and points at, sure enough, a sign.
    D O N OT E NTER L EOLYN W OODS IN HIGH W INDS
    “What? That’s crazy,” Calla declares, even as she gazes overhead at the ominously swaying, creaking trees, their gnarled branches bony fingers grasping at the purple-gray heavens.
    “Maybe, but it’s just as crazy to ignore it, don’t you think?”
    “I don’t know. I guess.”
    “Anyway”—Evangeline flashes her a smile—“I guarantee you Blue Slayton’s not hanging in the woods on a day like today. In fact, I’m sure he knows you’re about to walk past Jeremy’s house, and I bet he comes outside looking for you.”
    “Why do you think that?”
    “Because, duh. He’s one of the most powerful psychics around here. Like his father.”
    Calla considers that. She hasn’t exactly seen evidence of Blue’s abilities since she’s met him . . . but that doesn’t mean Evangeline’s claim isn’t true.
    “Come on, let’s go.” Evangeline hugs herself and stamps her feet a little. “I’m freezing.”
    Calla considers ignoring the warning sign and Evangeline, anxious to see what—if anything—lies in the spot marked by the map.
    Then that nagging sense of uneasiness gets the better of her.
    Another time.
    Maybe she’ll even get Jacy to go with her.
    Though, now that she thinks about it, she’s barely had a chance to talk to him lately. Today when she tried in the cafeteria, he seemed almost cold. But that was probably because he was reading, and she was interrupting.
    Then again . . .
    The more she thinks about it, the more obvious it seems that he’s been avoiding her lately.
    But why?
    “Calla, you’ll never believe this . . . guess what?” Evangeline breathlessly greets her on the telephone later.
    In the midst of clearing the dinner dishes with her grandmother, Calla grins. Evangeline often begins her calls with that phrase, and her news is rarely anything anyone else would consider earth shattering.
    “I can’t even imagine,” she tells Evangeline dryly, “so you’ll have to tell me.”
    “My aunt is going to take us shopping at the mall tomorrow after school!”
    “Really?” Calla perks up. “Wow, that would be—oh, wait. I can’t. I forgot to tell you this