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I didn’t think about where I was going from there. I just drove. And when I pulled into the campus parking lot closest to the library twenty minutes later, I wasn’t at all surprised. This place had become my home away from home in the last year.

Drawing in a deep breath, I approached the front doors, and my muscles already started relaxing as my breathing calmed.

Inside, I headed toward the basement and didn’t stop until I was standing in front of a pair of tables that had been pushed together to provide a hidden group study area. Except no one ever came down here.

Which made it the perfect place for me to glance around as I whispered, “Mom?”

I held my breath as I waited. There was always that one moment of dread I experienced after I summoned her while I waited for a reply. Had she moved on? Was she gone and never coming back?

A wash of cool air brushed against the back of my neck, and I closed my eyes briefly, relieved she was still around.

When I’d learned my mother was haunting the university library a year before, I’d been pissed.

She wasn’t supposed to be here, hanging around this earthly plane with no body to inhabit.

She should’ve moved on, gone to where she belonged, where she had eternal peace and paradise.

It had killed me even more to discover she’d stayed behind for me. Because I was her unfinished business.

I’d just wanted her to go.

After a year of being around her again, though, even in her ghost form, I hated the thought of losing her once again. I’d suffered through ten years without her, and now here she was, back in my life. So I decided if she didn’t mind not being a corporeal person, I didn’t either.

Around me, books started to slip off the shelves and float through the air, dangling from space as if they were being hauled around by an invisible string. They each set themselves gently on the table, one by one, until she had eight books lined up.

I’d learned my mother’s patterns by now, which worked just fine for us. I kind of dug figuring out the riddle of it.

Stepping forward, I sounded out the word Sunshine she’d spelled, and I sent up a soft smile of appreciation.

“Hey,” I murmured in greeting.

Sunshine was what she used to call me when she’d been alive. And “You Are My Sunshine” was one of the songs she would sing at bedtime.

She’d never been the most affectionate woman—her autism had prevented her from getting too emotional with me—but even my mother had known the basics of what she needed to do to relay how important I’d been to her. She was definitely better at showing her feelings than Ohrley was, that was for sure.

I still couldn’t believe that bastard had refused to tell me one single name. It stung.

As the bite of his betrayal sliced through me again, I gripped the back of one of the chairs in front of me and leaned over it, wondering if I was actually important to any of them. Or was I just the annoying pest they tolerated because I happened to end up in their group eleven years ago?

On the table, my mother cleared away her greeting and returned the first eight books to their respective spots on the shelves, only to replace them with a single tome titled Course-Based Undergraduate Research .

I heaved out a sigh and answered, “No, sorry. I’m not here for any studying today.”

I swear, my mother thrived on helping me find research materials for homework or just anything I was curious about. It was definitely her happy place. I debated briefly on just giving her a topic to go off and find some material about, but I pulled out a chair and slumped down instead.

“I just wanted to hang out with you if that’s okay,” I confessed. I needed to be near someone who cared. Even if she was no longer alive.

My chest tightened, and I wanted to tell her how much I missed her. How much I wished she were still here. Alive. But that would change nothing.

Bummed, I pulled up my phone and started a list in the notes app, typing down every person I could remember seeing at the party last night. Then I divided it into two columns, one for definitely no’s and one for maybe’s.

I was adding Makayla, Xander, Oaklynn, and Hope to the Definitely Not list when a text came through from Thane in the group chat.

We need a meeting ASAP.

“Motherfucker,” I muttered under my breath. Damn Parker had no doubt run to the leader of our group and whined about me dissing him.

Well, I didn’t want to talk. I was still feeling too salty about the whole situation, and I knew I wouldn’t be able to say anything productive right now.

As everyone else in the group chimed in with their agreement—traitors—I kept swiping up on the notifications that dropped down from the top of the screen, barely reading them before flicking them away again.

Until Thane named me directly.

Keene? You in?

I knew my safest bet was to just remain silent. All I had to do was keep my damn mouth shut until I cooled down. That was all.

Too bad silence was not in my wheelhouse.

I sent him the middle finger emoji.

When half a dozen replies from various sources flooded in, I turned the phone off and flung it aggressively onto the table in front of me. I spiked my hands through my hair and cursed under my breath.

In front of me, the last book floated away before another returned. This one was called Never Be Sick Again .

Great. Even my autistic mother who’d been unalive for the past eleven years could tell something was wrong with me. I needed to get my shit together.

“I’m fine,” I assured her. “Don’t worry. I’m not sick.”

A cold rush of air wafted over my head. I reached up and touched the area. “Thanks for caring, though.”

I shouldn’t have come here. There was no reason to alarm my mother, who could do absolutely nothing to help me. I didn’t even know what my damn problem was .

I was out of whack because of this mystery girl, that was all.

If I could just figure out who she was and why she wanted to hide from me, I wouldn’t feel so stir crazy right now.

I wouldn’t have flown off the handle and railed at Parker.

And I definitely wouldn’t have left the house without eating some damn breakfast first.

God, I was starving.

When my stomach growled, I pushed back my chair and stood. After collecting my phone and shoving it into my pocket, I told the air, “I’m going to take off now. I’ll be back later, okay?”

A chilly breeze shot up the side of my arm, the only farewell I was going to receive. “Okay.” I nodded and waved at nothing. “Bye.”

Turning, I started away from the study nook and found my way to the stairs before hiking up to the main level. Once on the first floor, I started toward the exit, only to notice Waverly working at the front desk.

She hadn’t been there when I’d come in. I would’ve noticed. I never paid attention to who was working the checkout counter, unless it was Waverly. For some reason, I was always aware of her when she was there.

Seeing her now settled my nerves. There was just something steady and constant about her presence. The reliable outline of her hair and her dark clothing reassured me that not everything was as crazy and wrong as it felt right now.

Needing to irritate her because that always put me in a better mood, I changed directions and started that way.