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He shrugged, his mouth moving silently as if he were speaking to me.

I glared.

He laughed and continued.

Sabine and Shelton were both watching him.

Sabine asked, “Did he lose his mind? Is he losing his mind right now?”

Shelton was next, “Is he pretending to be a peacock? What’s he doing? What’s this?” He moved his hand in the same arching motion that Cassian did. “Are those the peacock feathers? I don’t understand what’s happening.”

“Colette! Little Ghost Girl.” Beatrice’s voice tore through the hallway, shrill and frantic, similar to how these two had acted as well.

I groaned and tried to step into my locker. “Can I hide in here?”

Cassian chuckled, leaning closer. “Pretty sure the ghosts can go in there too. Didn’t you say they had no personal space?”

Sabine and Shelton whirled on him. Sabine glared, her face an inch from his. “We have tons of personal space.”

Shelton’s mouth pressed in a firm line. “Who is he to talk? He has no personal space. He’s always all over you.” He was glaring at Cassian.

I paused, frowning. “What are you talking about?”

Shelton was distracted, focused more on being annoyed at Cassian before he clocked I was giving him an intense scrutiny. He blanched. “Uh. I mean—” He sent Sabine a pleading look before moving further away. “You know. Never mind. I don’t know what I’m talking about.”

I leaned closer to him. “Cass has not been all over me at school so what are you talking about?”

A slightly hysterical high-pitched giggle escaped him before he gave Sabine a second look, this time more panicked. “Uh—” Poof! He was gone.

My mouth dropped. Shelton had never poofed from me.

I turned to Sabine. “What was he talking about?”

“I—” She closed her mouth, her eyes wide. Like she’d been caught. A nervous laugh came from her. She motioned between Cassian and I. “I mean, he never used to be here and now suddenly he’s always here.”

“We’re at our lockers.”

“He never used to be. He was in the library yesterday.”

“No.” I shook my head. “He wasn’t. Lee dropped me off. Cass came over and then I left him to go to the library. I barely saw him yesterday.” I moved closer to Sabine, lowering my voice. “Have you been spying on us somehow? You were at Lee’s house Saturday night. Noah threatened you.”

Another hitching gargle left her. She began frantically looking around, moving away from me. “I—we—that doesn’t—he—rules!” She snapped the last word. “There are rules and he’s not supposed to be here. He grounds you and I can’t—you’re not supposed—it won’t work anymore—” Poof. She was gone.

My head was spinning. What was she talking about?

What wouldn’t work?

Cassian wasn’t supposed to be in my life? Or he wasn’t supposed to ground me?

“Hey.” Cassian touched my hand. “What’s going on?”

“I—”

“Finally,” Beatrice had gotten to us. She harrumphed, making an impatient motion toward the library “All of our work has been undone. I am at my wit’s end. I cannot keep doing this. I need your help sorting everything. We must put the library back in order. We must save the books. If she doesn’t respect the books, I will take them away. I don’t want to be forced to do that.”

“The books? I can’t…” My thoughts were all over the place.

“Is the library chick here?”