Pumpkin Spice & Poltergeist (Maple Hollow #1)

“You summoned me here to torture me, didn’t you?” Her voice was calm at first, then turned to venom. “Is this your last nail in my coffin, Jordyn? You’ve trapped me in this twisted little world of yours and now I have to stay here and watch you fuck someone else!”

With a deafening crack, the dresser behind her erupted into splinters. Clothes and trinkets scattered to the corners of my bedroom.

I jolted backward, my eyes flaring. “What the fuck, Lou?”

Something like fear passed over Lou’s face when she realized what she’d done. Frantic footsteps from somewhere in the apartment came rushing toward us.

“Goddess, Jordyn!” Iris called behind the closed door. “Are you okay?” She let herself in and shrieked. “Holy shit!”

“Lou did it,” I told Iris. “You owe me a new dresser, bitch. I don’t know how, but you better find some cash in your ghostly pockets or start commanding power tools.”

“That’s not what I screamed at.” Iris pointed directly at Lou, her eyes wide. “I can see her.”

“What?” Lou and I exclaimed in unison.

Iris’s gaze panned up and down Lou’s more solid form. Both of them seemed pleasantly surprised by the new manifestation of Lou’s corporal being. To me, it was like I’d adjusted a camera’s focus so she was more vivid than before. The color of her hair was less dull, her skin refreshed and less grey.

“Oh man, Lou.” Iris finally found her voice. “What an outfit to die in. You look hot as ever. Wait, is that Jordyn’s shirt?”

“You better be kidding,” I yelled at Iris. “Are you hitting on a ghost? My ghost ex?”

Iris peeked at me. “It doesn’t hurt to be polite.”

Seriously? First Ramona, and now Lou? Iris would hit on anything—with or without a pulse.

“This can’t be possible,” I said. “She shouldn’t be visible to anyone who wasn’t present at the summoning. And how has she managed to explode my dresser?”

I wasn’t sure who I was asking, but I looked at Iris to confirm I wasn’t actually going crazy and that Lou hadn’t broken any universal laws of nature.

Iris chewed her lip for a second before her eyebrows shot up. “Did you make her angry?”

“Uh, kind of,” I said. “She caught me and Harlow hooking up in the pumpkin patch.”

“Oh my goddess,” Iris squealed. “You have to give me all the details.” She glanced at Lou. “Later.”

Lou bared her clenched teeth, and the room started shaking like a train was whizzing by just beside the wall. Ichabod hissed from somewhere in the living room followed by a terrified growl. The love he had for his invisible playmate was gone now.

Lou made a creaking gurgling that made my stomach plunge with ice.

“Iris,” I muttered from the corner of my mouth, “what is happening to her?”

“I-I think . . . she’s turning into a vengeful spirit.”

“We can’t let that happen.” I grabbed for Iris’s arm and pulled her to my side. “We have to stop her.”

“We need to help her cross over—and fast.”

Together, we took several steps toward the living room where we kept our most powerful magical ingredients. But the moment my foot hit the threshold, Lou’s image flickered in and out like static on an old TV. Then the rumbling stopped. The color drained from her appearance and she looked all around. “What just happened?” Lou asked.

“I can’t see her anymore,” Iris whispered.

Relief hit me but left behind a stone in my gut. “You just had a little bit of a meltdown. Don’t you remember?”

“No.” Lou looked behind her and pointed at the splinters and scattered clothes all around her feet. “Who did that?”

“You did.” I narrowed my eyes at her. “Because of what happened at the pumpkin patch.”

“Why would the pumpkin patch make me blow up your dresser?”