Serial · ongoing
Three Ghosts and a Debt
Three Ghosts and a Debt is an urban fantasy for readers who like their haunted houses with a lease attached. Milo Grant is eighteen and unbound in Halcyon, a city where ghosts are weather and a contract is the only thing standing between a person and a red file. He has one exam to prove he belongs in a school that has already sorted him into the back corner. The exam is held in a haunted gym. The rich kids bring family contracts. Milo brings a mouth and a phone. He passes. The win binds him to three ghosts: a deadpan analyst, a hymn that kills in groups, and a chainsaw that has already been on fire. Each one is a tool, a liability, and a mouth to feed. Each one makes him more useful to the families above him and more exposed to the ones he has already crossed. This is a book about leverage, debt, and the price of being clever in a city that keeps receipts. It has horror teeth and a dry laugh. It is not a romance, though there is an alliance in it that matters more than a romance. I wrote it for readers who want the ghost story to send a bill.
Chapter 1: Penta Kill in Homeroom
Twenty minutes before the exam, Room 214 smelled like lemon cleaner and somebody's nervous sweat. Priya came back from the bathroom with her…
Chapter 2: Four Wrong Answers
"Burning ghost," Mr. Hollis said. "Somebody who isn't Grant." Chairs creaked. Everyone found a reason to look at their own desk. Then Priya'…
Chapter 3: A-Grade
"Rules," Hollis said. He said it to the board. Then he picked up the eraser, reached up, and wiped GRANT, M. DETENTION off in three passes.…
Chapter 4: Half a Ghost for a Whole Pass
Milo counted the others before he looked at the building, because the others were the part that could be turned into something. Five on the…
Chapter 5: Break at 99%
He had his eye to the gap in the door and he counted the fan's shadow around the tile nine times before anything in the room changed. What h…
Chapter 6: Loyalty Below Zero
The heat came first. Then the sound: a wet little sound, a seam giving way in something that had never had a seam. Milo got one hand on the…
Chapter 7: Five for Five
Five for Five The stairwell had one light and it was losing. Lila Sunderland took the concrete steps two at a time with her hand on the rail…
Chapter 8: The Doctor Is In
The sound stopped. Milo kept his palm flat on the wired glass and waited for it to start again. It didn't, and the not-starting was worse. A…
Chapter 9: Second Opinion
The needle went in and the vein rolled away from it. He pulled back and pressed gauze down with two fingers. The gauze came up clean. He hel…
Chapter 10: Consent Registered
Consent Registered The lid was up, her hands were on the keys, and she hadn't played anything yet. Milo did the arithmetic. Six feet of tile…