The Bloodline She Burned novel · Chapter 12 of 24

Chapter 12: Terms

It was past midnight when Roz climbed the stairs to Low Ladder.

The practice room was dark, and the machines had been left to sleep.

Gabriel sat on the edge of Nina's counter with a cold cup of coffee, waiting.

He looked up when she came in.

"You didn't come to the party," he said. "The others are at the diner."

"I need to tell you something."

"All right."

"You won't believe it."

"Tell me anyway."

She did not sit.

She stood in the middle of the floor, in the blue light of the street sign, and said it plainly.

"I died, Gabriel. Five years from now, in December, under the Halloway Bridge."

He did not move.

"I was twenty-eight."

She kept her voice flat.

"My family threw a party the same night. They toasted my sister, who had spent five years selling my drawings as hers."

"Roz."

"I woke up five years early, on the top of a staircase, the day before I walked into your cafe."

Gabriel said nothing.

"That's how I knew the vent, and the roof. I wasn't lucky and I wasn't a genius."

She made herself say the last part.

"And tonight my sister told me she woke up the same minute I did."

Silence.

Gabriel put the coffee cup down.

"Camille," he said.

"Yes."

"Remembers it all."

"Yes."

"Which explains the garage," he said slowly. "She told me you'd lose me, and she said always."

Roz stared at him.

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