Page 58 of Siren's Gift

I swallowed hard. No, I couldn’t think like that. She was a fighter. A survivor. If anyone could walk away from a bomb, it would be Frankie.

"Do you think I should ask one of them where she is?" Marissa tilted her head toward the police officers who were guarding the street. Normally, I would have assumed she wanted to flirt with the handsome men, but genuine concern marked her expression.

Before I could answer, a gruff voice behind me asked, "You guys looking for Frankie?"

"Hey Vince, good to see you in one piece, man," Calvin said to the older man and shook his hand.

Vincent was one of the gym’s longest-standing regulars and a wolf shifter. As glad as I was to see him alive and well, despite the layer of dust and soot covering his tanned skin and clothes, I needed to know if Frankie was alive. "Is she okay?"

His smile fell and my stomach along with it. "I told her it was a bad idea to go there. But you know her. Never listens to the likes of me."

Marissa gasped and pressed a hand to her mouth, her eyes glistening. "She’s dead?"

Sound faded away as the world all but collapsed around me. A hollow, aching numbness spread through my chest, leaving me weightless and sinking all at once. I might not have set the bomb, but I felt like my selfish actions had led to this. Had gotten one of my closest friends killed.

More than a friend. I’d lost a sister.

If only I’d confided in her fully, treated her as an actual friend, we might have devised a way out of the mess that was my life. Now, I’d never have the opportunity to make things right.

I’d never hear her cackle at something that only she found funny. Never laugh as she howled over some trashy reality show.Never have another late-night conversation about nothing and everything.

My eyes and nose tingled, my throat locking up as grief curled around me, suffocating, crushing, all-consuming.

"Oh Luna, no. I’m not sure anything can kill that woman." Vincent chuckled, shaking dust from his hair like he hadn’t just shattered my world again in the span of a heartbeat.

A moment passed, my mind sluggish, refusing to catch up.

"She’s at The Tipsy Cauldron."

His words slammed into me. The suffocating weight vanished. My lungs jerked in a ragged inhale, my heart stuttering painfully against my ribs.

Frankie was alive.

Alive!

A sound wrenched from my throat—half-laugh, half-sob. I didn’t know whether to slap Vincent for making me think she was dead or hug him until his ribs cracked.

"Jesus fucking Christ, Vince!" Marissa gave him a small shove. "You just scared the absolute shit out of me."

I blinked. Not at the cursing—I was over that—but at the sheer force behind her words. The raw panic in her voice made my stomach drop all over again. I was on one heck of an emotional rollercoaster.

Marissa caught my look while brushing tears from her cheeks. "Oh, don’t even. You were as scared as I was. I just voiced it."

Vincent rubbed the back of his neck. "Sorry ’bout that. I just meant she doesn’t handle her booze well, and after this, she’s going to drink the place dry."

"With that heart attack out of the way," Calvin shot a pointed look at Vincent who grimaced, "I’m going to head into the office. I’ll let you know if I find anything on…that other topic."

As the wizard slipped back through the crowd, Vincent edged away from us.

"Oh, no, you don’t." Marissa caught his arm and dragged him closer. "You owe us a drink after that. Lead the way."

CHAPTER 28

Bree

The Tipsy Cauldron wasn’t anything special besides being a semi-safe place for Gifted people. The main floor was for anyone, but the second floor was only for us Gifteds. As with most places within which the GIG allowed commingling—even if separated by a floor and unbeknownst to humans—magic was prohibited. Just in case the random non-Gifted human snuck upstairs.

I’d only been inside once before when I’d first turned twenty-one, but nothing had changed. The bouncer barring the staircase at the back looked us over then waved us up, recognizing us as Gifted.

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