Page 9 of Another Damned Darling

Holy shit.

I stared at it where it landed, then turned back to Lily. “What was that?”

She blinked slowly, then fetched the necklace and dropped it in front of me again. Only that time, when I reached for it, she backed away from me until she was standing in the doorway.

“Come on, really?” She had the balls to walk it over to me but not to stand within fifteen feet of me when I grabbed it? “Wuss,” I muttered under my breath.

I let my hand hover over it for a second before I pulled back. It probably wasn’t the best idea to latch onto the thing while I was sitting on my ass. I rolled to my feet and crouched over it, trying to convince myself to pick it back up.

What if it tries to electrocute me again?

But how could it? The thing was a dumb little necklace for Pete’s sake.

Maybe I’m going insane? The whole batshit crazy thing does kind of run in my family.

I huffed out a breath and grabbed the chain before I could talk myself out of it. And, drumroll please… nothing happened. Lily watched my every move without moving a muscle, and when I looked over at her, she flicked her chin up like she was telling me to get on with it.

“Okay, what was I doing with it when it zapped me?” I asked, talking to myself, but roping Lily in whether she liked it or not. I held it, letting the amber pendant swing in front of me. “You flicked it at me. Then I grabbed it. Oh, but I grabbed the pendant, not the chain.”

I rolled my shoulders back and sucked in a breath. “Here goes nothing.”

I dangled the pendant over my open hand for about ten seconds before I convinced myself to drop it into my palm. Balling it into my fist, I braced for another shock, but nothing happened. “Seriously? Not even a spark?”

When I shot a glance at Lily, I swear to all the gods, the dog was looking at me like I was an idiot. I mean, I felt like an idiot, so that was fair. But still.

I thought back over every move I’d made. I was irritated, and Lily was being pushy. I’d grabbed the thing off the ground in a huff and told Lily I just wanted to find Matty.

“Is it one of those wish fulfillment deals?”

Lily’s lips peeled back, revealing just a hint of her very sharp teeth. Not gonna lie, it was a little creepy.

“So, maybe if I think about what I want, it’ll bring it to me?” It sounded insane, but so did a zap-happy necklace.

I thought briefly about testing it on something simple, like asking it to bring me a beer. But why waste the time? And really, what did I have to lose? If it didn’t work, it didn’t work. Then I would just have to find some other way to track Matty down.

Of course, I was operating under the assumption that the damned thing wasn’t a summoning device.

“This isn’t going to summon the demon, is it?” I asked, looking at Lily expectantly.

She gave me nothing.

Because she’s a hellhound, Never. A big, bad version of a dog. Not the master of the universe.

“You know what? Never mind.” I pulled up a mental image of my brother, gripped the pendant tight, and repeated what I’d said before. “I want to find Matty.”

The hum started in my palm and spread like liquid fire up my arm, across my shoulders, and into my core, until my whole body was thrumming with a foreign energy.

Lily let out another whimper and laid down.

I opened my mouth to tell her everything would be okay, but I couldn’t breathe. The air around me thickened, and my bedroom faded to darkness. Then came the pressure. And the wet. It rolled in all around me, filling my ears and my nose. Turquoise lights flickered and darted across my vision until I closed my eyes against the sting.

Am I drowning?That would be just my luck. Behold the foolish girl who picked up a magic necklace that drowned its unsuspecting victims.

More cool liquid pressed in around me, slowly crushing me. My lungs burned in my chest, desperate for a fresh supply of oxygen, and the growing pressure of the water against my body ratcheted up my anxiety. It took all my focus not to thrash wildly into a full-blown panic.

I forced my eyes open, ignoring the bite of pain long enough to find what I was looking for.Light!My heart leapt. It wasn’t daylight, at least it didn’t look like it through the burn of salt stinging my poor eyes, but it was enough to give me direction.

My chest was locked up tight, but I managed to force a little breath out without totally losing control. When the bubbles started to rise toward the light, I let the panic take over and used it to drive my muscles, to pull myself up and up, until I finally broke through the surface with a desperate gasp.

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