AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Gabi did not like to think of the Ivers’ divorce proceedings. The poor man wouldn’t be left with a single penny. But it was worth it, to be rid of that bitch.
With the atmosphere in the hallway shifting away from violence, Salma closed the distance between her and Victoriya and bundled the girl into a hug. Gus, too, got up and joined them, and Eilidh pressed close, her tear-worn face now lined with sympathy and anger. Joy rushed to her feet to crush Victoriya in her own worry and love.
Gabi felt in the way; she moved aside and sat back down, her pointed ears burning. Her feet wanted to take her far from here, but she wouldn’t walk away from Joy when she was still shaky.
Gabi was a little surprised when Victoriya’s mum—the renowned healer and psychometric Regina Stone—sank into the seat beside her.
“You as honourable as your dad?” she asked without preamble. Wisps of dark hair had come loose from the knot on the back of her head. Gabi tried not to stare at them as she puzzled the woman’s question.
But she’d heard so many stories about Regin—the people she’d saved, the cases she’d helped her dad with over the years—that she didn’t hesitate to answer.
“Yes,” she replied, meeting Regina’s green eyes.
“Good. You keep an eye on my daughter while she’s caught up in this case of yours.”
“I will,” Gabi said seriously.
Regina patted Gabi’s arm, reminding her of the absence of her coat—her armour. “Anytime you need my help, you can ask. And there’s a hot meal for you at my house any time you want to join us for dinner. Your dad, too.”
“Thank you,” Gabi breathed, her professional mask slipping in the face of this unexpected kindness. She knew Regina and her dad had been friends for years, but she’d never expected that to extend toher.
Regina patted Gabi’s arm again and stood, disappearing into the room across the shiny corridor. Gabi had meant to thank her for keeping Joy as calm as was possible before the medics got to Neil, guiding her through the phone and in person. It was too late now.
“Victoriya,” Regina hissed a moment later, popping her head out of the door and gesturing with her chin at the room. “Quickly.”
Victoriya didn’t hesitate; she shot for the open door on wobbly legs. When she stepped over the threshold, all her fury evaporated. She slumped, pressing a hand over her mouth—but when she dropped it, she was smiling, just slightly.
“I thought you were dead,” she said in a hard voice.
“Not just yet,” Neil croaked from within the room.
“Good,” was all Victoriya said before she spun on her heel, looking more like herself than she had all day as she blew through the hallway to the exit and out into Agedale.
“Gus,” Salma said, lifting an elegant hand to stop him as he started following his friend. “Let her be.”
Gus stopped in the middle of the hall, looking awkward. He scratched the back of his neck, rumpling his hair. “Then what are we doing? Are we staying?”
Eilidh shrugged, folding her arms around herself. Looking as if the day had hit her all at once. Gabi didn’t know how she would have felt, to be Eilidh, to have her own cousin—
No.
She swallowed hard at the image, those memories, thathurt. She shied away but forced herself to finish the thought. She didn’t know how she’d feel to have her cousin be killed, ripped from the world, and for that killer to hurt someone else.
Hurt? Furious?
Lost, she decided. Gabi would feel empty and afraid and lost.
Pretty much what she’d been feeling this whole time they hadn’t spoken.
She felt keenly the slice of grief Joy must have felt in the days after her mum’s death, and she knew exactly what had made her lash out, and push Gabi away.
“We should go home,” Salma murmured, looking at the exhaustion on her coven’s faces. “Mrs. Stone will tell Victoriya if there’s any news, and Victoriya will tell us.”
Regina’s nod confirmed it before she shut the door to Neil’s room again, taking care of whatever mysteries healers needed to take care of inside.
“I’m leaving too,” Gabi input, standing. “You can keep my coat for now, Joy. I don’t need it.”
She did need it. More than anything. She felt exposed and vulnerable, her skin prickly and tight, but she knew Joy felt worse. So she just unclipped her badge from the wool lapel, pinned it to her shirt, and let Joy keep her coat—her armour.
