“I think we might be the only kids in our grade not at this party,” Derek said.

For a frightening moment, Maria couldn’t breathe. The sight of everyone she knew having such a good time without her struck her like a punch in the stomach when she wasn’t ready. She had known in her head that Claire didn’t like her, and it had been easy to say that she didn’t care. But this felt like a real, physical pain — one she couldn’t control with words. What had she done to deserve this? Nothing, that’s what. Claire was a mean girl, end of story.

“You okay?” Derek asked.

“Sure,” Maria said, breathing in, then out, the way Grandma Esme had taught her to do during yoga. “I’m getting more and more excited to see the surprise.”

But when Maria scanned the crowd for Claire, she found her standing off to one side, not smiling or talking to anyone in particular. She actually looked a little nervous, as if after working so hard to plan the perfect party, Claire had no energy left to enjoy the party itself. The playlist she’d made echoed over four speakers surrounding the mass of guests. It looked like people were having a hard time hearing one another.

“Honestly, it doesn’t seem all that fun,” Derek said, echoing her thoughts. It was almost revenge enough to know that Claire’s perfect party wasn’t so perfect after all. But only almost. Because Maria had a feeling that come Monday, Claire would somehow remember that the party had been amazing — that Maria had missed out on the time of her life — and she would bully everyone else into remembering the same thing.

No, Maria needed to bring Claire off her fairy-princess pedestal, so that she’d never be able to bully her the same way again. She needed to do something that no one would be able to forget.

After at least ten minutes of watching the party unfold, during which Derek kept looking anxiously at the clock on his phone and asking Maria when the surprise was going to happen, Maria finally saw Claire’s mom coming out of the house, carrying a birthday cake with thirteen candles lit on top.

The crowd parted to let Mrs. McCormick through, and after the music was brought to an abrupt stop, the whole party joined in on a loud rendition of “Happy Birthday to You.” Maria could almost feel the force of their voices on her skin, and it made her want to hurry, to stop the singing. She clasped her hands together, twisting the spider ring around her finger. She spoke to the spiders in a frenzy, under her breath — asking, then begging, for them to come and help her.

Mrs. McCormick reached the table that held the rest of the food and set the cake down next to Claire. Smiling thinly, Claire moved her hair behind one ear and bent over the cake.

The party sang for Claire. Wishing her a happy birthday.

Then three things happened all at once:

The seventh-grade chorus hit the last to you like a train crash, a cacophony of notes and at least three animal noises from the sillier boys in their school.

Claire took a deep breath and prepared to blow out her candles.

And a brown mass of spiders skittered quickly up the table onto the cake and Claire’s dress.

Chaos erupted. Claire screamed like Maria had never heard anyone scream before. Other people screamed, too, some because they were in the front and could see what was going on, the rest because they couldn’t see at all and were afraid of what must be happening just out of sight.

Through all the shouting, Maria could hear the steady undercurrent of another sound, distinct and distinctly not human. It was the spiders talking. They sounded eager, proud.

“No way,” Derek said, no longer bothering to be quiet. “Maria, how did you know — oh my gosh, Maria!”

Derek grabbed her by the shoulders and shook. The force of his grip registered as if from a dream. She blinked and tried to focus on him, realizing that her vision had gone blurry.

“Maria, your eyes were black,” Derek said. He sounded more angry than scared.

“That’s crazy,” Maria said, but she was hardly paying attention to him. She walked around to the side of the pool house — she couldn’t see well enough through the windows.

The screaming had stopped. Claire was lying faceup on the glass floor, and for a second, Maria’s heart stopped. She couldn’t be …

But no. Maria distinctly heard Mark Spitzer say the word “fainted,” and Mrs. McCormick only looked mildly worried as she shook Claire’s shoulders. Maybe this had even happened before, some other time when Claire had seen a spider. At least, that’s what Maria was telling herself now, so she wouldn’t feel so panicked.

“You did that,” Derek said. “Claire’s brother wasn’t even outside.”

Maria’s attention snapped back to her friend, and she realized that he wasn’t just angry — he was furious.

“What are you talking about?” Maria said. “I didn’t have anything to do with it.” Her voice was so confident in this deception, it made her a little queasy.

“It’s the ring. Somehow you used that ring and you made that happen. Your eyes were totally black and you were — you were whispering. Talking to them.”

“Come on, Derek. You don’t really believe that.”

“You’re right,” he said icily. “I can’t believe you just dragged me all the way here so I could watch you ruin someone’s party. And I can’t believe that now you’re trying to lie to me about it.”

Maria felt tears collecting at the corners of her eyes. Derek had never talked to her this way, and it made all the bad things that had happened in the past week even worse. Or maybe it was just that all the hurt of the week hadn’t fully caught up to her yet, but the shock of her best friend yelling at her made the reality impossible to ignore.

“No, Derek, listen —” she said, but he’d already turned around.

“Find your own way home,” he said, stomping away. “Maybe your spiders will help you.”

The spiders are your friends. Do not abuse their friendship.

Tonight, the spiders weren’t the only ones whose friendship Maria had abused. She hadn’t meant to let things get this far. Or, no, she had meant to — she’d just wanted a happier outcome.

Go away, she thought, seeing that a number of the spiders, her spiders, still lingered around Claire and the cake. Now.

She waited behind the pool house long enough to see that they obeyed her, and to see that Claire was waking up. Instantly, people crowded around her to ask if she was okay. Maria couldn’t believe it: Even her humiliation was a cause for sympathy, another reason to worship her. If Maria had passed out at her own birthday party, people would be laughing behind her back — and to her face — for weeks.

Before anyone could see her, Maria hurried back down the gravel path through the woods. She didn’t need the spiders to tell her where to go, but they appeared to lead the way anyway, scurrying in and out of her feet as she ran. She made sure not to step on any of them, even though it would have been so easy to. They were what Maria deserved. They were her only friends now.

Maria was so distracted staring at her feet, she didn’t notice the man in the black silk suit until she ran right into him.

She landed on her back. Quickly, she scrambled backward on the palms of her hands and tried to get a good look at the man in front of her.

With trembling lips and a face like a frightened rabbit’s, he seemed to be even more surprised than she was.

Maria realized that she had seen this man before, at her grandmother’s funeral. He’d been the one who’d disappeared in a cloud of shadow. There in one blink, gone the next.

He did it again now — poof, like magic — and the shock was so great it left Maria stunned. She had no idea how this man kept vanishing, but she was starting to have a pretty good idea of who he might be.