Phantoms Read online

  Dedication

  For Brad,

  the smartest guy I know

  and a fellow ghost fan

  Contents

  Cover

  Title Page

  Dedication

  Chapter 1Through the Mirror

  Chapter 2Gideon’s Ark

  Chapter 3Scavenger Hunt

  Chapter 4The Two Worlds

  Chapter 5Dr. Roqueni’s Announcement

  Chapter 6Two Phone Calls and Some Texts

  Chapter 7Shady Rest

  Chapter 8The Tour

  Chapter 9Learning the Ropes

  Chapter 10Visiting Hours

  Chapter 11Esmae

  Chapter 12The Legacy of Leland Knox

  Chapter 13The Landmark Inn

  Chapter 14Ice Cream and Revelations

  Chapter 15Cordelia and Benji Follow a Dot

  Chapter 16The Hidden Cell

  Chapter 17Betrayal

  Chapter 18Dr. Roqueni’s Return

  Chapter 19Heist

  Chapter 20The Purple House

  Chapter 21Graduation

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  Books by J. A. White

  Copyright

  About the Publisher

  1

  Through the Mirror

  Cordelia Liu settled into her usual spot and waited for a ghost to appear.

  All was silent and still. That would change in twenty minutes, when the buses arrived and unloaded their daily cargo of students, but for now Shadow School felt like her own private world. It was nice. Comforting. But not the way it used to be. Cordelia missed the thrill of figuring out a Brightkey, the pure bliss when she sent a spirit into its Bright.

  She missed being needed.

  Last year, her brilliant friend Agnes had built a machine called a dehaunter, which drew spirits to the mirror gallery and sent them into their Brights without Cordelia doing a single thing. She should have been thrilled. Yet instead of finding a new hobby that didn’t threaten her life on a regular basis, Cordelia kept returning to the gallery several mornings a week, hoping to see a ghost depart so she could capture its face in her sketchbook. She couldn’t help the spirits of Shadow School anymore, but at least she could memorialize them. It was better than nothing.

  Cordelia drew her knees to her chest and gazed at her surroundings. They had removed the black curtains that once covered the mirrors, exposing the impressive craftsmanship of their frames: wrought iron pounded into autumnal leaves, chestnut filigreed with scenes from a forgotten fairy tale, a circle of crushed sea glass. No two mirrors were alike, though all seemed to hint at a mysterious history best shared by candlelight. Cordelia supposed the same thing could be said about the girl reflected in their surfaces: a stubborn set to the chin, dark eyes aged by secrets far greater than any thirteen-year-old should know—and koala earrings, because koalas were adorable.

  The morning wasted away, ghostless. Cordelia removed a thermos of milk tea from her backpack and allowed its creamy sweetness to stave off the morning chill. Shadow School was cold in the winter, as could only be expected from a drafty old mansion, but the temperature drop in the mirror gallery was unusually extreme. Agnes believed that the continual opening and shutting of Bright portals wore away the “preternatural insulation” between the worlds, like an overused window with a cracked seal, and planned to design a series of experiments to test her hypothesis. Cordelia made sure to dress in layers.

  She was on her second cup of tea when a man floated into the gallery, his boots hovering inches above the floor.

  He didn’t seem to mind being pulled by the invisible force of the dehaunter. Indeed, there was a look of pleasant expectation on his face, as though he were a vacationer riding a moving walkway to his flight. Cordelia dug her sketchbook and pencil out of her backpack, nearly knocking over her thermos in the process, and flipped past a parade of ghosts before finding a blank page. She followed the new arrival across the gallery, already drawing. Early fifties or so. Bump in bridge of nose—broken at some point? Wisp of hair covering bald patch. Cordelia recorded a general outline of his face with a few rough lines, trying to memorize as many of the details as possible so she could finish the drawing later. The important thing was to work as quickly as possible. If the dehaunter was on its game today, she only had a minute or two.

  The ghost came to rest before an odd-shaped mirror whose frame had been fitted together from the bones of a large animal. Cordelia felt a tingling along the tips of her hair as the mirror turned black. This new surface had a liquid quality, like molten shadows. Not for the first time, Cordelia wondered what would happen if she stuck her hand into the portal, though she had no intention of doing so. Even her curiosity had its limits.

  “There’s nothing to be afraid of,” Cordelia said, giving the ghost a supportive smile. “You’ll be out of here before you know it.”

  The man ignored her, his attention riveted to the mirror as it cycled through possible Brights, searching for the perfect fit. Sky-high Christmas tree surrounded by carolers? Lake house, blue sky, hammock? Blur of race cars, revving engines, squealing tires?

  Out of habit, Cordelia found herself examining the dead man in an attempt to figure out his Brightkey. Before the dehaunter, this was how she had freed the ghosts—by finding the one special object that would unlock their Bright. Each ghost’s appearance was designed to give her all the clues she needed. A sauce-splattered T-shirt, for example, might indicate the need for an apron, a napkin, or perhaps one last slice of pizza. The Brightkey for a girl wearing a red cloak might be a book of fairy tales or a basket of bread.

  Cordelia had loved solving these little mysteries.

  That was over now.

  There were no clues to be found in the man before her, nothing special about his appearance at all. This had become the norm since the dehaunter took over. Cordelia supposed it made sense. Shadow School did everything for a reason, and now that the dehaunter was doing such a stupendous job, her help was no longer required.

  It made her feel more useless than ever.

  She heard the approach of clacking heels and turned to see Dr. Roqueni, the principal of Shadow School, enter the mirror gallery. With her slacks, blazer, and silk blouse, she looked more like a CEO than the principal of a New Hampshire public school. The teal frames of her glasses matched her outfit perfectly.

  Dr. Roqueni eyed the ghost uneasily as she crossed the room, giving it a wide berth.

  “You shouldn’t stand so close,” she said.

  “He’s harmless.”

  “He seems harmless. You can’t trust them.”

  Cordelia took a diplomatic step back. Dr. Roqueni had grown skittish around the ghosts since being possessed last year, and Cordelia didn’t want to upset her.

  The principal looked down at the drawing pad.

  “There are other things to sketch, you know. Trees. Mountains. The living.”

  Cordelia shrugged.

  “Mr. Keene was just talking the other day about how talented you are,” Dr. Roqueni continued. “He says he offered to help you build a portfolio so you can skip to the advanced courses when you start high school next year. He’s disappointed you haven’t taken him up on it.”

  “I’ll talk to him soon.”

  “Only so much ‘soon’ left. It’s already January. Graduation will be here before you know it. You have a gift, Cordelia. Don’t waste it.”

  “Yeah,” Cordelia replied with a meaningful look at the ghost. “The last thing I’d want to do is waste any of my natural gifts.”

  A smile broke across the ghost’s face as the mirror finally settled on a Bright he liked: a college campus with ivy-covered stone buildings and groups of students going from class to class. The ghost stepped through the porta
l. Cordelia had just enough time to see him stride away, a young man now, with a bookbag over one shoulder, and then the campus was replaced by her reflection. The mirror was just a mirror again.

  Dr. Roqueni’s shoulders relaxed.

  “Have to run,” Cordelia said, flipping her sketchbook shut. “Field trip today. Speaking of which—I did some research. Did you know that Gideon’s Ark is haunted?”

  “Of course I did. By a totally harmless ghost who hasn’t been seen in over a year. That’s the only reason I okayed the field trip in the first place. Plus it’s a fascinating place. Strange, but fascinating.”

  “Maybe I’ll see the ghost,” Cordelia said.

  Dr. Roqueni gave a long sigh.

  “We’ve been over this a thousand times,” she said. “Your Sight only works inside Shadow School.”

  “You just said yourself that the ghost hasn’t been seen in over a year. Which means, at some point, someone saw him.”

  “A momentary glimpse. A tear in the fabric. Not true Sight.”

  “It’s not impossible, though. Elijah Shadow could see ghosts anywhere.”

  “He was a rare exception. If you could see ghosts everywhere you went, don’t you think you would have noticed by now?”

  “Maybe not. Ghosts aren’t exactly ‘everywhere.’”

  She had certainly looked hard enough, though. For the past six months, Cordelia had pestered her parents into taking her to every haunted landmark in the area. The Mount Washington Hotel. The Three Chimneys Inn. Cordelia had even dragged them to multiple ghost tours in Boston and Salem.

  She loved her parents, and spending time with them had been fun. But she hadn’t seen a single ghost.

  “You’ve already done enough,” Dr. Roqueni said. “These spirits will never be trapped again. Isn’t that what really matters? At last, they’ll be able to move on.” She placed her hands on Cordelia’s shoulders and looked deeply into her eyes. “You might want to follow their lead. You’ll be a high school student in just a few months. It’s time to develop more appropriate interests.”

  “Can I bring the spectercles on the field trip?” Cordelia asked.

  Dr. Roqueni threw up her arms. “For goodness’ sake. You’re relentless.”

  “Just as an experiment. They let people without the Sight see ghosts, right? And since they work in Shadow School, it makes sense they might work outside—”

  “Enough,” Dr. Roqueni said. She had switched to her principal voice, which was capable of quieting down an entire lunchroom with a few well-enunciated words. “Listen to me. You should never seek ghosts out on purpose. They’re dangerous. When are you finally going to understand that, Cordelia Liu?”

  The morning bell rang.

  “I have to go,” Cordelia said, grabbing her bag. “The buses leave first thing after homeroom.”

  “Can you stay after school today? I have a bit of news. I wanted everyone to be there.”

  “Sure. I’ll tell Benji and Agnes.”

  “Thanks. Think about what I said. And no spectercles. Just enjoy the trip like a normal kid for once.”

  “All right. See you later!”

  Cordelia ran out of the gallery. The metal cases that housed the spectercles clinked together in her bag.

  2

  Gideon’s Ark

  After a nausea-inducing trip along a winding mountain road, Cordelia was thrilled to finally escape the bus. She flipped up the hood of her red woolen coat and followed the stream of students into the frigid January wind. Most kids were already snapping pics of their unusual destination: a wooden ark as large as a cruise ship, sitting on the edge of the mountain.

  “Ah, Shadow School,” said Benji, following Cordelia down the steps of the bus, “where even the field trips are weird.”

  “That’s a big boat,” said Cordelia.

  “It’s not a boat,” said Agnes, exiting the bus behind Benji. “Boats float. Look at that hull! It’s not nearly wide enough to generate the buoyant force necessary for a ship of that size to remain above water.”

  “Does having so much stuff in your head ever make it hurt?” Benji asked.

  “Nope. Just stupid questions.” Agnes rubbed her temples. “Ow!”

  “Keep moving, eighth graders!” shouted Mr. Derleth, ushering them across the parking lot. It was empty except for a row of vehicles that probably belonged to the employees: a few cars, a white van, and a pickup truck with too many bumper stickers. The students merged onto a path squeezed tight by rounded piles of snow. Rock salt crunched beneath their boots. While Cordelia and Agnes followed the main procession of students, Benji hung back to compare notes with his buddies about some new video game they had all been playing.

  “So it turns out this place is haunted,” Cordelia told Agnes. “Nothing scary. Just the dude who built it. I was thinking we could—”

  Cordelia noticed—much to her annoyance—that Agnes was texting someone. “Don’t worry. I’m listening,” Agnes said. She added a smile, which was a far more common occurrence now that her braces had been removed.

  “My Agnes! No sharing!” Cordelia whined, playfully reaching for the phone. “Who is this mysterious person who’s more important than me?”

  “Just this guy Mark. I met him at the college where I do that STEM program.”

  “I thought that was only for girls.”

  “It is. Mark’s in a special physics program for the gifted and talented. He had a question about quantum mechanics.”

  “Was it ‘What is quantum mechanics?’”

  “A bit more complicated than that.” Agnes rattled off one last text and slipped the phone in her pocket. “Done now. Sorry.”

  “I forgive you. But only if Mark has romantic potential. I’m picturing tall, big blue eyes, lab coat.”

  “Short, stocky, Patriots sweatshirt.” Agnes’s cheeks colored slightly. “As for romantic potential, he did lend me a pencil last week. And not just any old pencil. The fancy mechanical kind.”

  “What a flirt!”

  “Speaking of romance . . .” Agnes whispered in a teasing tone, linking her arm through Cordelia’s. “Benji and Vivi have been broken up for months now. And he was totally staring at you during social studies yesterday.”

  “You’re crazy.”

  “I’m a scientist. My powers of observation are unparalleled.”

  “I probably had something on my face.”

  “Yeah. Your eyes and nose and mouth. And Benji couldn’t get enough of them.”

  “Stop,” Cordelia said, blushing. “Benji and Vivi barely talk these days.”

  “And this is a problem because . . . ?”

  “They used to be really good friends before they dated. And now they’re not.”

  “That’s how it goes sometimes,” Agnes said.

  “Exactly! If Benji and I started dating, all we’d be doing is stamping an expiration date on our friendship. So many things have already changed. The dehaunter stole my job. Mr. Shadow went back home. Ezra moved. I can’t risk losing Benji too!”

  “Or, as an alternate take, we made the school safe for all the ghosts, Mr. Shadow and Dr. Roqueni are finally getting along again, Ezra’s mom got an awesome new job, and if you and Benji dated, you’d be the cutest couple since Asuna and Kirito.”

  “I don’t know who those people are.”

  “And speaking of change being a good thing,” Agnes continued, “remember that girl who moved here from California and really hated her new school because it was full of ghosts, but now her entire life revolves around—”

  “That reminds me! We’re graduating from Shadow School in a few months! More change!”

  “I think you missed my point there.”

  They started up the wooden ramp that jutted from the hull of the ark. The view was breathtaking: mountain peaks, the morning sun, a forest of snow-dappled hemlocks. Cordelia glanced back at Benji, who was still talking to his friends. He must have sensed she was looking in his direction because he returned her gaze.
r />   Cordelia quickly looked away.

  They reached a scenic landing just outside the main entrance where visitors could pose for photographs. Mr. Derleth was standing next to a big blue storage bin on wheels.

  “No bags permitted inside,” he said, cupping his gloved hands to his mouth. “Leave them here. You can pick them up on your way back to the bus.”

  Cordelia put her head down and kept walking. I saved you from being possessed by an evil gardener, she thought, quickening her pace. Just let the whole bag thing slide. . . .

  “Cordelia,” Mr. Derleth said in a cheery voice.

  “Oops,” she said, turning around. “I didn’t hear you. Sorry.”

  “Uh-huh. No need to lug that thing around.” He gave her a knowing smile. “There’s nothing in there you need today.”

  Cordelia could see what was happening. Dr. Roqueni had known she would bring the spectercles, despite telling her otherwise. Mr. Derleth was there to stop her. With a grunt of frustration, Cordelia tossed the bag in the bin. Someday she might see a ghost outside of Shadow School. But it wouldn’t be today.

  The students congregated in a massive entrance hall. Hats were removed, hair patted into place, gloves stuffed inside pockets. Coats, for the most part, stayed on. The temperature was warmer than outside, but not exactly toasty.

  “Whoa,” Agnes said. “This place is even cooler on the inside!”

  Cordelia gazed up at the wooden ceiling high overhead, drinking in its cathedral vastness. There were winding ramps and hanging walkways everywhere. Looking along the length of the ark, Cordelia felt momentarily disoriented by its size, like standing on the edge of a skyscraper and gazing down at the sidewalk below. Beams of light pierced the dimly lit bowels, crossing in a series of giant X’s that seemed to warn visitors to proceed no further.

  Mr. Derleth and the parent chaperones corralled the students toward a presentation area in the center of the hall. Benji rejoined the girls, and the trio squished together on one of the semicircular benches set up for visitors.

  While taking her seat, Agnes accidentally kicked over Mason James’s water bottle. It made a loud clanging noise.