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Doopen doors and windows.
Well, that was a no-brainer. Ripping open the front door, Andy sucked in a clean gulp of air before darting back into the living room. There she tugged open the windows, then glanced up at the ceiling fan. Instinctively, she wanted to turn it on, but she remembered that was on the what-not-to-do list.
Don’tflip any electrical switches.
They could create a tiny flammable spark.
Jesus. She’d already messed that one up in the bathroom. She was lucky she hadn’t caused an explosion. Lucky she hadn’t blown the place up with her and Petals in—
Petals!
Another blast of fear hit her at the deafening silence coming from the kitchen. Andy’s feet moved automatically, but it seemed to take a very long time to get to the nook, round the bistro table, and unlock the tiny door she’d unlocked so many times before.
Her gaze locked on the small creature lying on the cage floor, and her heart completely bottomed out.
“On no.”
Petals was so still.
So still and so quiet.
She just needs air. She just needs air. She just needs air.
Andy yanked open the nook window. How stupid of her not to have opened it first! She’d cost her little friend valuable seconds.
Darting back to the cage, she scooped Petals up carefully. Her little friend was cool to the touch. She needed the sun to warm her up. She needed the sun and fresh air.
Petals loved Andy’s bedroom patio, but Andy didn’t often take her out there because she was too afraid Petals might flutter up to one of the trees with her clipped wings and get stuck.
“Hold on, Petals. Just hold on. I’ll take you there.”
Andy raced into her room. The blinds were still closed as Luke had left them, but they were rustling with a breeze. Andy had forgotten to close the door when she’d left that morning.
This was probably a good thing, she told herself as she yanked the blinds open along with the screen. Some of the toxic fumes would have had a place to vent.
Petals might be okay.
Andy nudged her little friend with her thumb. “Wake up, Petals. Wake up, please.”
Petals rested in the bowl of her hands, one twiggy foot crooked up to her body, the other extended. Just the way she usually slept. Her eyes were open too. Also not unlike the way she usually slept.
But this time, something was different. This time Petals’s black-brown eyes were as still and quiet as the rest of her body.
This time Petals’s eyes were lifeless.
“Oh, no.” Andy’s knees found the paving stones. “No, no, no, no, no. Please wake up. Please, please, please—”
Emotions rose up to strangle her ineffectual pleas.
Shock. Horror. Sadness. Grief.
Big emotions.
Big emotions that lodged in her throat as her body began to rock on the patio, and the tears began to sting down her cheeks.
Faster and faster she moved, and more and more those stingy tears fell, until the pressure of her silent sobs burst into sound.
Chapter thirty
