Page 129 of Amber Gambler

Carter told us, after the fire marshal finished her investigation, that Little hadn’t just burned down the house where she had lived with Ian and the others. She trapped them inside before striking the match.

Eleven kids, most of them nameless on paper, had perished between the blaze and the drownings.

Josie dedicated a tree in her orchard in remembrance, a sunny plot where they could rest in peace.

Their plaque would arrive with Little’s marker, which Alyse had agreed to keep in her family mausoleum. Two shining reminders of my failures.

“Not Audrey.” I clung to that small mercy. “She’s alive.”

“She might wish otherwise.” Josie stretched out her legs. “She shot Harrow.” She snorted.“Twice.”

“She would never have hurt him on purpose.” I wasn’t sure I had the right to defend her either, but I had a mouthful of excuses locked and loaded for her. “She was terrified when a literal death god appeared in front of her, and she fired at him. His light was blinding. She had no idea the bullets went through him.”

“That’s what Harrow gets for leaving a weapon lying around for a kid to find. Gun safety wouldn’t have been an issue if he hadn’t hidden her at his house in the first place. God. What a tool.”

The old urge to protest rose within me before the weight of his recent actions submerged it again. It was a good thing too. I already felt like enough of a sucker without championing him as well. “Badb?”

“She’s prying the rhinestones out of that cat collar she stole.”

“Of course she is.”

Badb, who, according to Kierce, didn’t speak in words. Let alone with a Yorkshire accent.

“Do you want to talk about it?” She reached for my hand then dropped hers. “Any of it?”

“No.” I shook my head. “I need more time to process…everything.”

Like who had guided me through summoning Dis Pater if not the crow?

“Let me know if you change your mind.” She tipped her head back. “I should get going.”

“Are you sure I can’t talk you into staying?”

“Yes.” Her gaze slid to the shop and then up to our apartments. “I need more time to process too.”

“And you’re sure you should spend it with Carter?”

Apparently, the redcap owned a fully restored Victorian in the historic district with a teeny-tiny garden. I couldn’t tell if the neglected plant, a single oakleaf hydrangea, had guilted Josie into coming back to save it from its black-thumbed owner or if Josie hoped to use exposure therapy to catapult herself from temporary roomie to girlfriend status with Carter.

“You should be thanking me for allowing your birdfriend to stay at my place while I’m gone.”

Armie had tainted her home, stolen her sense of safety, and she couldn’t bear to stay there yet. I got it. I really did. I just hated she wasn’t a flight of stairs away from me anymore. I needed my sister. Now more than ever. But what was best for Josie came first. Always.

“Thank you for lettingKiercecrash at your place.”

As if speaking his name had summoned him from the ether, Kierce materialized at my elbow.

“I should go.” She blew me a kiss off her palm. “See you lovebirdsat work tomorrow.”

The three of us had a lot of catching up to do on the work we let slide during our Marypocalypse.

“I heard what you did there.” I pointed a finger at her. “I expect to see you at dinner five nights a week.”

“Four,” she called out as Carter rolled in to pick up her new roomie.

As the canopy above us ignited, Kierce leaned against the tree’s trunk, studying my profile.

His halo gleamed, a hematite aura behind his head, and his eyes contained infinite worlds.

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