Page 113 of Amber Gambler

With Badb in my arms, I jogged up the stairs to Matty’s apartment. Kierce waited for me inside the door. I wasn’t sure if he heard me coming and decided to meet me or if finding himself alone with my brother was awkward for him. Either way, I got him up to speed on Audrey and the fire then handed off his bird.

“We need Josie.” I watched Carter blanch. “She can come sit with Matty while we search for Audrey.”

“Can I be gone before then?” She withdrew her cell. “I would love to not be here when she arrives.”

I got the feeling I was missing more than Carter being afraid Josie would throttle her for the house arrest thing, but I didn’t have time to dig into their issues. I could finesse the information out of Josie later.

“Do what you need to do.” I wished I could tap out on Harrow as easily. “Just get her here.”

As soon as Josie was given the green light to come home, she booked a Swyft to the shop.

About thirty seconds after the call ended, Carter had mysteriously vanished—truck and all.

Five minutes later, Harrow rolled in driving the Chevelle and parked next to my wagon.

He sat there, staring at me through the windshield as I waited on Josie to arrive, giving birth to a million thoughts that died behind his eyes.

Once upon a time, I would have cared enough to pluck one or two from his head to share the burden. As hard as it had been to see Armie as a villain, it was doubly hard for me to cast Harrow in the role. But the one hard line I had, the ultimate unforgivable sin, was harming my family.

Anything I might have felt for him, past, present, or future, had evaporated the second he took Matty.

A Chevy Blazer pulled in, ending our stare off. Josie hopped out before the driver finished the turn. As an overwhelming urge to lecture her on the dangers of leaping from moving vehicles perched on my lips, an even worse thought hit me between the eyes. That she might have learned the particular bad habit from watching me do the exact same thing when I operated in panic mode.

“Frankie.” She flung herself at me. “He’s all right? He’s really okay? Harrow didn’t hurt him?”

“Aretha put him under to counteract the spell Harrow cast on him to?—”

The earth rumbled under our feet, and metal screamed a deafening plea.

Had I been paying closer attention, I would have noticed the black footprints Josie left in her wake. But I had been too happy to find my sister recovered from her own med-witch treatment. I should have also warned Harrow he might want to duck inhis seat until I got her upstairs. Then again, as I beheld the spectacular fruits of her anger, I decided the reminder of why it was foolish to mess with us Marys was warranted.

As best as I could tell, Josie had called a tree root from her garden under the shop into the parking lot.

From there, I got fuzzy on the details. Either she created a new tree from that root or just kept tugging on the root until she had enough slack to stab a limb through the Chevelle from belly to roof. The limb grew until it towered over us, about eight or nine feet, and curved around the body of the car, caging Harrow.

The footprints were scorched earth. Nothing would ever grow there again. Such was a dryad’s fury.

A better person wouldn’t have laughed. A better person wouldn’t have bent over and slapped her thighs hard enough to bruise. A better person wouldn’t have been in real danger of peeing her pants.

“You okay there, Mary?” Josie’s eyes glowed with verdant light. “It’s not that funny.”

“Yes,” I wheezed, still going, “it is.”

Firm hands helped me upright, and then Kierce turned me to face him. I wasn’t sure why his gentleness did it. Broke me. A switch flipped in me, shutting off the manic laughter and turning on the waterworks until I was sobbing against his chest and balling my hands in the fabric of his shirt.

“They’re safe.” His lips brushed my ear. “Josie and Matty are safe.”

The harder I clung to him, the tighter he held on and the softer his voice dipped in reassuring murmurs.

For a guy learning how to be human again, he was doing a bang-up job of holding me together.

“I’m to blame.” Josie rubbed circles on my back. “I should have been stronger.”

“Not your fault,” I choked out between tapering sobs. “Harrow kicked us while we were down.”

A rumbling coo from Badb, who was still sandwiched between Kierce and me, comforted me. Or maybe she was crying out for oxygen. Hard to tell without stepping back, and I didn’t want to let him go.

“Will you leave him up there?”

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