Page 15 of Amber Gambler

“That I can do.” He put the car in neutral and allowed it to coast. “Holler if you see anything.”

Twisting in my seat, I propped my forearms on the lip of my missing window and scanned the area, but I didn’t expect us to get lucky on our first attempt. There was simply too much water and?—

A faint glimmer caught the corner of my eye, and I squinted into the darkness for a better look.

Wispy blue radiance shimmered, too far for me to determine gender, but it must be her.

“There.” I pointed toward the bridge over Herb River. “Park on the shoulder, and I’ll walk out.”

“We’llwalk out,” he corrected me but did as he was told.

He met me at the hood of the car, and we went to greet the teenage girl I could now see was using a low-slung power line as a swing, swaying back and forth while her feet dangled mere yards above the river.

“Hi there.”

The girl whipped her head around, lost her grip, and fell. Or she would have if the laws of physics still applied to her.

“Hello?” Waving her arms as she drifted over, she hopped on air like she was flagging down a ride. “Hello!”

For her to accept us with such naked hope in her eyes, Harrow’s uniform must have put her at ease.

“Ouch.” I rubbed my ears as she touched down on the road. “No need to yell.”

“You can hear me.” She shoved damp bangs off her forehead. “You canseeme.”

Beside me, Harrow followed my line of sight, but he simply watched and listened to me.

“I’m Frankie.” I offered her my hand. “Do you know your name?”

Traumatic deaths often left amnesiac ghosts. That, or they produced vengeful spirits.

“Farah.” She stared at my hand like it was radioactive. “Farah Kent.”

Relief she wasn’t Audrey collided with grief she had died so young, leaving me questioning how to proceed without upsetting her. I rarely bumped into freshies outside of cemeteries. Newly departed spirits tended to have some idea who they were and how they got there, so there was no harm in asking.

“What happened to you?”

“I have no idea.” She raked more slippery hair away from her face. “I went to sleep, and then I woke up here.”

Allowing my arm to fall to my side, I wished I had more training for this. “That’s all you remember?”

“Yeah.” She wrapped her arms across her stomach. “Am I…?” She rocked side to side. “Dead?”

“I’m sorry.” I watched her nod, as if confirming what she already knew. “How long have you been here?”

“A few days?”

Uncertainty crept into her features, and so I prompted her. “What’s the last holiday you remember?”

“We’re not big on holidays.” She rubbed at a hole in her shirt. “We don’t have much to celebrate.”

Intercepting an encouraging glance from Harrow, I dug deeper. “Who iswe?”

“The other kids.” She kept it vague, but I sensed it was done on purpose and not a glitch in her recall. “I thought that might change this year.” She half smiled. “My best friend moved in with us. We had these plans for Christmas but…”

“I’m sorry you won’t get to see them through.” I decided to jog her memory a bit, test the theory to make sure I could trust her intel. “What’s your best friend’s name?”

“Audrey.” Her gaze slid out over the water. “Audrey Collins.”

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