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Prologue

Chance

My phone buzzed in my pocket yet again, disturbing the silence required for our readings and creating a spike that meant we’d have to start again. For the twelfth time today. Ashe glared, her scowl deepening the lines on her forehead as she jammed her finger a little too hard on the power button.

‘Just go,’ she told me, already packing our equipment away. ‘It must be important if they’re calling you that much, and you’ve been acting weird lately, anyway.’

I sighed, disappointed in the lack of progress we’d made. She wasn’t wrong about how I’d been behaving, either. Something was niggling at me, a cold sense of dread I couldn’t place. And not only today. It seemed that the universe was telling us to give up, anyway.

I pulled my phone out of my pocket to see a dozen missed calls from different member of my family. Three for Mom, one from Dad, and the rest were all, surprisingly, from Blake.

‘What?’ Ashe asked when she turned the light on and caught sight of my expression. ‘What’s wrong?’

I turned the screen so she could see, and she blew a long whistle. ‘Who died?’

I blinked at her. Those words settled deep in my gut like some sort of premonition, and I was suddenly afraid to answer the next call. My family didn’t contact me unless they needed something. Their disapproval had created a wedge between us that none of us had ever tried to remove. They lived their lives and I lived mine, and we came together on holidays to play at being a happy family, then we went our separate ways again.

Just how I liked it.

Which was why there was a pool of dread churning low in my gut. Theynevercalled.

My phone lit up and vibrated once more, my brother’s name flashing on the screen. Ashe, sensing my concern, sidled up beside me to offer some comfort. I answered, putting it on speaker.

‘Blake,’ I greeted, then tried to push aside my worries with the snark I typically reserved for my Golden Child brother. ‘You butt-dialing me or something?’

‘Chance…’ his voice came down the line strained, and my blood chilled in my veins. Something was definitely wrong.

‘What is it?’ I asked, cutting through the bullshit remarks that ran through my brain.

‘It’s Kali,’ he said, his voice choking on his wife’s name.

Immediately, I was on alert. Had she left him? Or had something happened…?

‘Is she okay?’

‘She’s…’ he sniffled. ‘She’s missing. She went on a girls’ trip last weekend and just… she never came home.’

No… No, no, no.

‘Can you come home?’ he asked in a small, vulnerable voice that was so unlike him, I had no choice but to agree.

‘I can get the first flight out there tonight,’ I told him.

‘Where are you?’

‘Louisiana,’ I admitted, though if my family had paid any attention to my life or my career, then they’d know exactly where I was and why. ‘Few miles out from Baton Rouge.’

‘Oh, right. Of course. Do you need me to pick you up from the airport?’ he asked, always looking out for others even when he was the one who needed support. I used to think his selflessness was over-the-top and annoying, but now I just wanted to protect him from himself. He didn’t need to worry about me when hiswifewasmissing.

God, please. Not Kali. Anyone but her.

‘Go,’ Ashe said, pushing me towards the door. ‘I’ve got things covered here.’

‘But the truck…’ I argued.

‘I’ll call Mike. His is bigger anyway.’

‘You sure?’