Heroine Complex (Book 4): Haunted Heroine

by Kuhn, Sarah

  “Wait.” Aveda stood and started pacing again, her eyes flashing. “So does that mean . . . Tess said they were trying to figure out what, exactly, makes a ghost pass over. If the paranormal energy, those resonances, are all regrets—”

  “Then maybe the ghost passes over when they’re finally able to let go of those regrets—when their business is finally finished,” I said, a tiny surge of excitement running through me. “But we think only the courtyard ghost has passed over, correct? What was it about yelling at Shelby that helped the ghost feel like all its business was finally settled?” I shook my head, trying to make the puzzle assemble itself.

  Aveda stopped in her tracks and frowned into space, her gaze intense. “And let’s not forget—whatever shady shit Richard’s doing, it doesn’t end with his ghostly regrets being activated. You said you found the pages that were ripped out from the Quiet Room book in his cottage. And the email from Julie, reporting his terrible behavior.”

  “Yes,” I said, rubbing a hand over my face. I felt like all the pieces were there, but I couldn’t get them to cohere. “She was reporting him for his academic behavior, though—nothing to do with the ghost stuff. But given that she and Tess were investigating the ghost stuff . . . well, how can that be a coincidence?”

  “So back to your first idea,” Aveda said. “Let’s find Richard—the real Richard. He has a lot of explaining to do. Do you think he’s back in his cottage?”

  “No idea,” I said, stretching and forcing myself to start getting out of bed. “But I’m going to make him talk to me, even if I have to burn all his doorknobs off again.”

  “I don’t know if that’s a euphemism or what,” Aveda said, beaming at me with admiration. “But dirty desk sex has done wonders for your confidence. Look at you: you are glowing. For real this time.”

  “Thanks,” I said, returning her grin. “I really think I am.”

  * * *

  Richard still wasn’t home—but I had another idea. Aveda and I looked up Leonora Quinn in the campus directory and found that her cottage was just a few houses down from his.

  Given that we’d crashed her ghost crawl, encouraged Tess to stage a coup, and run off to chase an actual ghost and interfere in the world of the paranormal, I wasn’t sure she’d want to talk to us. But I was determined to try.

  “Oh, it’s you,” Leonora said, opening the door for us. She shot us a contemptuous look. Her rainbow mane of hair was a tangled mess and there were dark circles under her eyes. “What do you want?”

  “We’re so sorry to disturb you, Professor Quinn, but I’m afraid it’s urgent,” Aveda said. “Do you happen to know where Richard—Professor Covington—is?”

  “No,” she said, the suspicion receding a bit. “Why?”

  “When was the last time you saw him?” I said. “It could be important. And we know y’all are an item, so no need to artfully dodge on that front.”

  “We had a lovely breakfast together in the dining hall,” Leonora said, frowning at me. “Then I had to retire to my abode to grade papers. That was . . . well, it’s been at least an hour now.”

  “And you haven’t heard from him?” I said. “No texts or anything?”

  “We don’t text,” she harrumphed, looking down her nose at me. “We prefer to carry on our love affair in an old-fashioned manner—from an era where romance wasn’t dead. What is this about?”

  “I had an encounter with Richard last night,” I said, deciding to cut to the chase. “Only it wasn’t exactly Richard—it was a ghost of Richard. Haunting his office.”

  In an instant, Leonora’s surly attitude fell away. All the blood drained from her face, and she grabbed the doorframe for support, her breathing turning shaky and uneven.

  “Wh-what?” she said. “Are you sure? Perhaps it was Richard playing a little Halloween prank.” She frowned to herself, as if realizing there was no way that could possibly be right. “Except he hates pranks . . .” She shook her head, her eyes getting a glassy, far-away look.

  “Professor?” Aveda said, her voice polite but firm. “May we come in and discuss this further?”

  She frowned at us, her suspicion returning. “Why? And why are you still talking to me? Shouldn’t you be reporting this to the campus authorities?”

  “Oh, for . . .” Aveda took a deep breath and closed her eyes, concentrating. Her glamour melted away. “I’m Aveda Jupiter,” she said. “And this is Evie Tanaka.” I closed my eyes and let my glamour fall away too. “And we are actually here investigating all the recent ghostly happenings, at the request of the college. So we need you to tell us everything you know.”

  “Oh . . . I see.” Leonora’s gaze was now trained on me, sizing me up. She didn’t seem particularly surprised at this revelation. “You better come in, then.” She held the door open and motioned for us to follow her into her cottage.

  Leonora’s cottage was the same layout as Richard’s, and much more spartan than I’d expected. I guessed I’d been imagining wall-to-wall clutter, maybe a bunch of ghost memorabilia?

  “Sit down,” Leonora commanded, gesturing to her generic beige couch. “And tell me exactly what you saw.”

  I exchanged a look with Aveda. There was still something off about this woman, something I inherently didn’t trust. Maybe it was because she’d treated Tess and the other students in the society so horribly. But she did know a lot about ghost shit at the college, and it seemed like she already had an idea of what this Richard business was all about. I took a deep breath and relayed only what I thought were the most essential facts—that I’d gone to Richard’s office and conversed with what appeared to be a ghost version of him. I left out the parts where I’d broken into his home, his office, and his laptop, and that he’d used his ghostly time with me to say a bunch of stuff that had caused me to have a total breakdown.

  “Oh . . .” Leonora nodded as I finished my story, her face growing paler by the minute. “Oh, dear. This means something very bad has happened. Very bad, indeed.”

  “What’s that?” Aveda said through gritted teeth, barely containing her impatience.

  Leonora sat back in her chair, staring into space. “Richard was up to some very dark things,” she finally said, drawing each word out slowly. “It all started when he . . . saw you.” She nodded at me.

  “I haven’t seen him since I dropped out,” I said, my brow furrowing. “I mean, not until a week ago.”

  “I mean he saw you in the media,” Leonora said, spitting out “media” like it was a dirty word. “He became obsessed. All he talked about was how you were off saving the world now, how you’d become this incredible woman—you’d finally fulfilled your potential, you were great. But for some reason, you’d married a ‘vacuous piece of arm candy’ who could not hope to be your intellectual equal.”

  “What a self-important ass,” Aveda muttered. “Nate has an embarrassing amount of advanced degrees—way more than Richard ever will.”

  “Yes, well.” Leonora gave us a tight smile. “As we all know, appearances can be deceiving. His obsession reached a point where all he could think of was winning you back, Evelyn.”

  “And you were okay with that?” Aveda said, drumming her fingers on the beige couch’s arm. “Why didn’t you dump his ass?”

  “Love is a mysterious thing,” Leonora said with a dramatic sigh. “I told him he was welcome to pursue you, if that’s what he really wanted. But until you showed any kind of reciprocation, I didn’t want he and I to part.”

  “So you were just going to wait around until—if—he got Evie out of his system?” Aveda snorted. “Sounds like a healthy relationship.”

  “Okay, so he got weirdly obsessed with me,” I said, trying to follow the story. “How did that lead to him messing with this ghost shit?”

  “He started researching all the demons you and Ms. Jupiter are always battling,” Leonora said. “And he thought
some kind of supernatural spectacle could surely lure you back. You two make it your mission to save the world from such things, so it seemed to him like the most obvious route. So . . .” She frowned again, her eyes going unfocused as she called up the memories. “He started to research how demon portals work—or at least how they’ve worked in the past. He studied every paper he could get his hands on, every bit of research demonology scholars have put out—he even managed to access some highly classified documents containing information not readily available to the general public.”

  “Wait a minute.” I leaned forward in my seat, wanting to make sure I’d heard right. “Are you telling me Richard figured out how to open a demon portal?!”

  “Not exactly,” Leonora said. “But somehow he learned how to access bits of demon energy leaking into our world—and he used that energy to activate the campus ghosts who have haunted Morgan for decades.”

  “The demonic energy fusing with the paranormal,” I murmured. More confirmation that Tess’s and Julie’s theorizing had been correct.

  Tess had also said Julie was on the verge of something big, the reason the hauntings had changed—maybe she had been on the verge of discovering who was behind it all?

  “We’ve been hearing about a student,” I said, trying to broach the subject to Leonora without revealing too much. “Someone who was researching the most recent hauntings—”

  “You must mean Julie Vũ.” Leonora flashed me a brittle smile. “Too tenacious for her own good, that one. Like a dog with a bone, she just won’t let things go. I was already worried about Richard experimenting with the paranormal—it’s not something we should take lightly—”

  “Then why didn’t you stop him?” Aveda asked, frowning at Leonora.

  “I tried,” Leonora wailed, wringing her hands. “But he was determined, and his obsession with you was so great.” She nodded at me. “I thought maybe once he got you out of his system, he’d forget about the ghosts, too. Since the whole point of activating them was to get you here.”

  “But Julie suspected he was behind it,” I said slowly, the pieces coming together in my head. I remembered Tess saying that Julie had somehow gotten access to classified demon research documents—and Leonora had just revealed that Richard had, too. Had Richard stolen them from Julie? Or was it the other way around? “And she was . . . what? Trying to get proof? But there was more to it than that, wasn’t there . . .” I flashed back to the report I’d seen on Richard’s laptop. I still didn’t want to reveal too much to Leonora, but she had so much knowledge of what Richard had been up to these past few months—maybe she knew about this as well. “I know she’d filed a report on him with the college authorities, something about him not providing a proper learning environment?”

  “That’s right.” Leonora nodded. “Julie objected to his methods, the way he taught—which, frankly, is probably a bit dated for the modern student body. They don’t care much for his middle-aged man classics.” She shook her head, smiling fondly. I tried to hide my revulsion. “But I believe most students merely see him as an annoyance they can outgrow. Julie took it a step further. She thought he was harmful—especially after she began to suspect he was messing with paranormal forces.”

  “I agree with her,” I said, thinking back to the way he’d taught Dusk, how he’d treated Pippa. “But did the college pay attention to the complaint? I know Richard’s parents give them a big donation every year.”

  “That’s just it,” Leonora said. “Provost Glennon is used to covering up Richard’s . . . ah . . . lack of competence in certain areas. So she figured this was business as usual. She wasn’t expecting . . .” Leonora hesitated, the muscles in her jaw working. “She wasn’t expecting Julie Vũ to keep pushing. To try to get him fired. She filed report after report, she was putting together a piece for the school paper and threatening to go to the local media about cover-ups at Morgan . . .” Leonora shook her head. “Richard may have . . . leaned on Provost Glennon a bit,” Leonora continued. “Told her he’d make Julie and her threats go away if the provost would help him get you back here to investigate the ghostly incidents.”

  “So he used a ghost to attack Julie?” Aveda said, her eyes sparking with fury. “I told you, Evie, every time I learn something new about this man, he just gets worse and worse.”

  “Provost Glennon isn’t looking too great in this equation either,” I muttered. I turned back to Leonora. “Why didn’t you report anything, say something? You must have suspected what Richard was doing, especially after Julie was injured.”

  “I didn’t know for sure he was responsible!” Leonora said, her eyes filling with tears. “And I wanted to protect my students, my charges—that’s what I consider my primary responsibility. That’s why I banned Julie and then Tess from the society. I knew if they kept going, they’d only get hurt.” She buried her face in her hands, her body shaking with sobs. “I’ve failed so badly here, and now something’s happened to Richard—”

  “What do you think happened to him?” I said, holding myself back from saying the rest out loud. If what Aveda and I had theorized was true—then his “ghost” had been created by demonic energy fusing with his regrets over me.

  “It’s impossible to say,” Leonora said, wiping away tears. “But a Richard ghost is not part of Morgan’s known coterie of spirits—that would be a new ghost. So I am very concerned that his messing about with the paranormal finally got out of hand.”

  “Let’s keep trying to find human Richard,” Aveda said to me. “And maybe we can get Rose’s team to do an extra scan of the office.”

  “Sounds good,” I said, getting to my feet. “Leonora, thank you for sharing all of this with us—it was very helpful. I think it might be best if you stick around, don’t plan on going anywhere for the next few days. Just in case something else happens or we have more questions.”

  “I’m definitely staying for tonight’s big Halloween Courtyard Bash,” she said, wiping tears away. “It’s an honored tradition, and my students are so excited about it. But after that . . . well, I think I need to resign from my position here at the college. I didn’t protect my charges the way I wanted to, and now . . .” She swept a hand out, unable to complete her sentence.

  I nodded at her, not sure what to say. I settled for “take care.”

  But looking at her haunted, regretful expression, I knew that was far from enough.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

  “WELL, IF RICHARD’S not a ghost already, I’m sure going to make him one,” I growled, stomping away from Leonora’s cottage. “I can’t believe he fucked around with ghosts and sent Julie to the hospital. And that the only reason he hasn’t been fired yet is that the college has been covering his ass all these years, thanks to a generous donation from Mommy and Daddy. When I find him, I . . . I will . . .” I trailed off, blowing out a long breath. Rage was threatening to consume me again, a hot blaze through my chest.

  “Evie.” Aveda put a hand on my shoulder and I stopped in my tracks, forcing myself to breathe. We’d re-glamoured ourselves, so Angelica’s face stared back at me as I turned to look at her.

  “Yes, I know,” I spat out. “I am mad for me, too, don’t worry—I’m mad for everyone that man has wronged.”

  “No, I mean . . . I was going to congratulate you on the rage,” Aveda said, her mouth tipping into a smile. “You’re really letting it flow.”

  “I am, aren’t I?” I said, drawing myself up tall. Now I really felt like I was glowing. “Let’s catch this fucker. I have so many questions. Like how do the reverse portals fit into all of this, was that also something Richard figured out how to do while he was studying demons and playing around with ghosts? Did he kidnap Pippa? God . . .”

  I took another deep breath, trying to make sense of it all. But I didn’t attempt to calm the rage. It felt good now, flowing through my veins, powering me forward. Scared Mouse Evie was now Pissed-Off Su
perheroine Evie and I liked that.

  “Where should we look for him?” Aveda said, her brows drawing together. “How else can we—”

  “Hey, guys.”

  We both yelped and whirled around to see Shelby Tran—who had somehow managed to sneak up on us during all of this very important Pissed-Off Superheroine discussion.

  “Hi, Shelby,” I said, trying to regain my composure. “Um, what’s up?”

  “I . . .” Her eyes shifted to Leonora’s cottage. “I was, um, looking for you.”

  “That’s . . . nice?” Aveda said, looking at her quizzically. “Why?”

  “I, um . . .” Her eyes shifted to the cottage again.

  What was going on with her? Had she been coming to see Leonora? That didn’t seem likely, given how odd and chilly their interaction had been at the ghost-hunting society meeting. But why had she come here if she was looking for us?

  “Shelby, we love you, but we’re kind of in the middle of some important TA business, honey,” I said gently. “What’s going on?”

  “I . . .” Shelby forced her eyes away from Leonora’s cottage, looking at the ground. “I need a costume.”

  We both blinked at her, not sure how to respond.

  “A Halloween costume,” she clarified. “For the Courtyard Bash tonight. And I need someone to help me find one.”

  “We’d love to,” Aveda said, studying her intently. “But now might not be the best time—”

  “I need to talk to you,” Shelby said more insistently, her head snapping up so she could look at us. Her eyes were more intense than usual, something like fear brewing in their depths. She took a step closer to us. “Off campus,” she hissed. “Away from . . . all of this.”

  Aveda and I exchanged a look—Shelby’s demeanor was unnerving me. She didn’t just seem upset, she seemed desperate. Like she knew something really, really bad was going to happen if she didn’t get that Halloween costume.