Page 56 of Amber Gambler

“That fish fry.” Carter broke into my thoughts. “Who else was there?”

“All five of us.” Maggy tilted her head. “The Gillie Girls.”

Their small group must be the five missing girls Harrow discovered in the SPD database.

“Gillie Girls?” I rested my hand on hers to refresh her spirit’s binding. “Who called you that?”

“We called each other that.” She flinched away from my touch. “We all had some weird in us.”

And they had drowned, the three we had located so far, which made no sense for girls with water affinities. Unless their blood was too thin. But then, if they had no real affinity for it… Why had the killer chosen watery deaths for them?

Hoping to get a clear answer, I pushed. “Even Audrey?”

“How do you think we got the fish? She called them. They flopped right onto the shore.” Envy steeped in her tone, explaining why she glossed over Audrey’s skill set in favor of labeling her as a good cook. “She’d just stand there and watch them suffocate if me and the others didn’t kill them.”

A talent like that made her more valuable than a simple bedwarmer. Food was always a concern. Slow days meant you didn’t eat. But if she could provide for herself and the others, she would be worth more to Ian. Enough he might make exceptions to the usual rules. Like allowing her to keep her job.

How had her grandfather not known? Unless she hadn’t figured it out until she met others like her.

“That’s messed up.” Carter munched on her snack. “Those poor fish.”

“The look on her face when she did it, now that was messed up.” Her skin pebbled with genuine disgust. “I could see her killing one of us the same way without batting her long lashes.”

Hard to tell if it was envy or truth, but she had more details than I expected from her. “You and the Gillie Girls met up for this fish fry and…?”

“Smashed some fish brains.” Her eyebrows slanted down. “Ate some fish.”

Hoping to nudge her toward revealing more, I asked, “You remember both those things?”

“I…” She canted her head. “No.” Her mouth pinched. “I must have, though.”

“You’re sure the other girls were there?” Carter kept crunching. “You saw them?”

“I was the first to arrive,” she said after a minute. “I was skipping stones.”

Carter stopped next to her. “And then?”

“I don’t know.” Her breaths came faster. “I was crouched down and…”

“It’s okay.” I started to reach for her but let my hand drop. “Don’t force it. You’ve given us more than enough.”

“You did good, kid.” Carter handed her a cheddar puff. “One last thing.” Maggy took the snack but made no move to eat it. “Where did you and your crew hang?”

“A foreclosure on Kline Street.”

“Thanks for your help.” I wished I could do more. “Are you ready to go?”

“Yeah.” She laid down and settled in. “This morgue shit is freaking me the fuck out.”

After tugging a wet wipe from the container in my bag, I wiped the thumbprint from her forehead.

A long sigh passed her lips as her body went slack and fell still for the final time.

The candles extinguished themselves, and smoke curled around the girl’s corpse in a cleansing swirl.

“She’s gone?” Carter bent to examine her. “Back where she came from?”

Easing behind her, out of her line of sight, I waited until she got close to Maggy then grabbed her sides.

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