Page 80 of Ex Somnis

Then, yep.

Another crystal.

Ridge is staring at the pile with his eyebrows somewhere near his hairline. “How many of those do you have?”

“Enough,” Jasper says without looking up.

“For what?”

My brother unwraps the tarot cards carefully. “That depends on how bad this gets.”

“Cool,” Ridge says. “Love that answer. Very reassuring. Exactly what you want to hear before a séance.”

“It’s not a séance.”

“You sure about that?”

“I didn’t know the exact energetic configuration until this morning.” Jasper shrugs. “So I brought options.”

Ridge is about to open his mouth, but gets cut off by another of Paul’s, “Don’t.”

He closes his mouth, but not without being visibly offended by the censorship.

“Looks like Lenny has a lot on her hands,” Jasper mutters, mostly to the ground, but I catch the dry edge of it.

He pulls a small velvet pouch from one of the bags and sets it down separately from the rest, then he finally looks up at us.

His gaze moves from me to Ridge to Paul.

“Wait.” His forehead creases. “You’re all awake?”

I frown. “Yes?”

Because he told us to come here.

Didn’t he?

“You said…”

“I said I needed all of your information.” Jasper stands. “I needed to know what each of you knows. I did not need all three of you physically standing here at the same time like the world’s saddest boy group.” His eyes narrow. “You left her alone?”

“One of the nurses is with her.” Paul sounds almost defensive.

Jasper gives him the one look that means he is being very patient with you.

I know this look better than anyone alive.

“Yeah,” he says slowly. “I didn’t mean her body.”

Oh.

“Nev told me everything about her being stuck. One of you could be there right now. With her. In there.” He gestures sharply toward absolutely nowhere. “And instead, you’re all here.”

“I can’t,” I say quickly. “I still haven’t been able to go luci⁠—”

“I know,” Jasper cuts me off, his gaze flicking between Ridge and Paul. “But they can.”

Paul’s jaw tightens slightly, but Ridge’s expression loses some of its bite.