Dead in the Water (Gemini: A Black Dog Series Book 1) by Hailey Edwards Page B

eventually—I was a bad liar—and I didn’t want to end up with a bar of her homemade soap in my mouth when I fumbled my story. “I overextended on a case. I used too much magic, and it knocked me out for a full day. That’s why I missed my flight. It was too late to call when I woke up, so I waited until morning.”
    Salty curse words peppered her end of the conversation. “Do you need me?”
    The question made hot tears burn the backs of my eyes. If I said yes, she would hook her trailer up to her truck, or make Isaac do it, and she would drive straight here without sleeping. For a woman in her early sixties, with no love for technology, she had fully embraced the millennial caffeine culture. I had to pat her down at the grocery store for canned energy drinks and those little bottled shots before we got in the car.
    “I’m fine.”
    “Camille Annalise Ellis, you are never too old for me to bend over my knee. You better be telling me the whole story.”
    “I am. I promise.” I jiggled my wrist so the bracelet Harlow had given me glinted in the low light. “I met someone and—”
    “Is he handsome?” she asked coyly.
    “No. Well,” I amended, “she’s pretty, but it’s not like that.”
    “You got me excited there for a minute.” Aunt Dot sighed. “I was seeing grandbabies.” A considering note entered her voice. “How pretty is this girl you mentioned…?”
    “She’s a kid, a teenager,” I said, exasperated. “She’s, I don’t know, a friend. I guess.”
    “You made a friend?” She clapped in the background. “That’s wonderful news.”
    Her wholehearted endorsement of Harlow based on nothing more than the fact she was a warm body willing to befriend me spoke volumes about my social life. Or the sad lack thereof. I’d always had trouble making friends. We traveled so much there wasn’t much point in trying. It had been pretty much just me and Isaac growing up, and he got in more fights than I could count once kids realized who I was, what I was. There were no lone Geminis. None. Except me. That made me a freak, and my other cousin, Isaac’s twin brother, Theo, was a twerp. Nine times out of ten he was the reason I was outed before the other kids could pinpoint exactly what was wrong about me.
    “She kept an eye on me while I recovered.” I kicked off my shoes. “Thanks to her—” and the warg I was most definitely not mentioning, “—I’m back at one hundred percent.”
    “I’m so proud of you,” she gushed. “You ought to invite her to come home with you for a visit.”
    I pinched the bridge of my nose, grateful she couldn’t see me. “She’s busy with that case I’ve been working.”
    “Well, when you two figure out who done it, she’ll be ready for a vacation.” Aunt Dot was already party-planning in her head. I could tell. “At least ask her, all right?”
    “I will,” I promised, knowing I would wiggle out of it later with a flimsy excuse.
    “When should I expect you home?” The sound of a screen door slamming would have told me she had taken the call outside even if the burst of katydid song hadn’t filled the line. “There’s no rush, mind you. I’m keeping an eye on your place and keeping your plants watered. I just like to know where my girl is when she isn’t home where I can watch after her.”
    Being called her girl made my chest tighten. She was more of a mother to me than my own had been in the years since Lori died. I didn’t know where Mom and Dad were, and I wasn’t going to ask. I hadn’t seen them in five years and hadn’t gotten a card from them in three. Aunt Dot blamed the postal service and us being on the road so often, but we had lived in Three Way for a whole year. I knew the truth, even if she didn’t want to accept it or for me to have to face it.
    “I should probably let you go.” I eyed the clock, and my stomach gurgled. “I’m about to order a late dinner and head to bed.”
    “You should have eaten hours ago,” she