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I squeeze Honey’s hand because my own wants to shake. I know a bond can be damaged. It can hold and hurt at the same time. And I trust Scarlet’s gift. But it’s hard to reconcile that reality when the love between them is so clear to me.

I look at Theo’s hand on Ezra’s neck. Then at Ezra, clearer beneath that touch and still fading around the edges. Both men look at me.

I’m falling toward two men whose love existed before me and whose hurt also existed before me. That realization should make me run.

What if I’m just a patch kit for their bond?

Chapter 13

Pepper Vines

The idea that I’m a convenient solution who threw myself into their lives makes my stomach sink. I don’t want the reason they want me to be my designation or to stem from gratitude for trying to help Ezra.

Instead of folding to my fear, I do what science has taught me. I allow myself to be afraid and wait for the next question.

Scarlet looks from Theo to Ezra. “What do we know about when he gets clearer?”

Theo looks at me. So does Ezra.

I sit up straighter. “Moving water helps,” I say, because giving fear a list keeps it from taking the wheel. “The channel and the dock. Theo’s touch helps too. Mine changes him, but not the same way Theo’s does. And the stone reacts around the old water routes.”

Junie blinks. “There’s also a haunted stone?”

“The stone isn’t haunted.”

The house knocks beneath the floor. One firm tap. Everyone looks down.

I point toward the floorboards. “That’s unrelated with rude timing.”

Honey speaks carefully. “Maybe begin at the beginning.”

I lean toward my field bag. Theo picks it up before I can and brings it to the coffee table. He hands me the bag and steps back.

I take out the route stone, the brass tag, the sealed swamp lily sample, and my notebook.

Ezra sits on the arm of the couch, close to me. I reach for his hand. Theo stands behind him, one palm resting lightly against Ezra’s shoulder.

Scarlet crouches beside the table. Honey and Junie lean closer.

“Ezra found this stone near the old recovery channel,” I explain. “Three water lines. Open circle. It reacted when I touched it, and Ezra became fully solid. It also reacts near the old water routes.”

“Reacts how?” Honey asks.

“Heat and light.”

Junie’s eyebrows shoot up. “But again, not haunted?”

“I’m reserving judgment until the facts find their footing.”

Scarlet studies the markings. “I’ve seen part of this shape before.”

“On the Love Stone?” I ask.

“Maybe.” She brings out her phone and searches through her photographs.

The image she finds shows the carved gator tooth inside an evidence frame. Its sigils are visible, but the angle and resolution are poor. I place the route stone beside the screen.

Junie leans over my shoulder. “Those curls look related.”