Page 32 of Amber Gambler

“Find it.” She cleaned her hands with a squirt of sanitizer. “If it can alter your blood chemistry, what else can it do?”

“I’ll start looking tomorrow.” I plucked at my sheet. “My siblings don’t exactly know about it.”

They knew about the tree but not that Badb had sailed away with a piece of it.

“Ask Samuel to help.” She read between the lines. “He would do anything for you.”

Doubting I wanted the answer, I asked her anyway. “Are you and he…?”

“We went to high school together. I hadn’t seen him in ages until he reached out through a mutual friend to ask if I could do anything for his uncle. Lyle’s case was too advanced for me to offer him more than pain relief.” Her interest sharpened on me. “You guys dated back then, right?”

Turnabout was fair play, or so they say, leaving me no choice but to admit, “Yeah.”

“Any chance you guys will be getting back together?”

“No.” I really should have kept my mouth shut. “Our relationship ended badly.”

“Let me guess.” Sympathy gentled her expression. “Lyle?”

“I…” I had serious concerns that what I told her would get back to Harrow. “That is to say…”

“Lyle was in so much pain the first time I treated him, he couldn’t get out of bed. He got so paranoid I was going to ‘voodoo’ him—which, don’t even get me started—he threw his bedside lamp at me. I would have gotten back into my car and driven home if Samuel hadn’t bribed me. Even then, I sedated Lyle with a spell prior to working on him.”

“Harrow agreed to that?” I gawked at her. “You might be my new hero.”

“I do what I can with what I’m given.” Her cheeks warmed at the praise. “Everyone is in your brother’s apartment, by the way.” She gathered her things. “I don’t know how much longer they’ll wait nicely.”

“Ah.” I heard the warning for what it was, but I wished I could hide under the bed. “Is anyone ever ready to be called a total idiot and have their life threatened by those they love?”

“I have four brothers, so I feel you.” She patted my hand. “But Harrow signs the money transfers so…”

“I can respect that.” I drew myself up straighter. “Thanks again.”

“No worries.” She lingered in front of the door. “Just remember what I said about that object.”

“I’ll do my best to locate it,” I promised, afraid of what Moore might do if she learned a leaf was MIA.

“You do that.”

After she left, I basked in the quiet before thundering footsteps pounded the stairs leading from Matty’s apartment down to mine. The front door swung inward, bouncing off the wall, revealing Matty and Josie on the landing. They rushed into the apartment, climbed in bed with me, and wrapped me in their arms.

“Thank God you’re okay.” Josie squished me until she blurred my vision. “I thought we’d lost you.”

“What happened out there?” Matty fisted the back of my tee. “Harrow couldn’t see a thing.”

The suspension of time after I hit the water, when I should have touched bottom but didn’t, came back to me. That must be what they meant. That when I went in, he couldn’t see me to drag me out.

“A creature hauled me into the water with it. We fought. I thought I died. Then…light.”

Plus, there had been a few unhappy mumbles from the great beyond, but that was nothing new.

Between the sparkle blood, and the uptick in episodes, I really needed to talk to Vi. Sooner rather than later. If Rollokept gatekeeping, I might have to pack up for a weekend trip to NOLA.

“You mean after Harrow found you,” Josie asked, searching my face, “and fished you from the water?”

The truth was, I wasn’t sure, so I would keep the fact that I might have experienced ago toward the lightmoment to myself. “Do you guys remember the burning tree?”

“Hard to forget it.” Matty eased his grip on me. “Weirdest damn thing I’ve ever seen.”

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