Page 21 of Twisted Shadows
Jamey lingered at the dining table after hanging up with Stensby, drinking her coffee and tapping out a text. Aisha hadn’t mentioned a second missing empath on the way to the airport. Was the case that fresh? There was no way the SPD could know about a missing empath before Grayson, could they?
She sent the message to Aisha, then glanced out the window again at the cold and wintery landscape. Jamey had been born in Atlanta and made all her earliest memories there, before her dad had died when she was five and her mom had gotten a too-good-to-pass-up job offer and moved them to Seattle.
In her most conspiracy-driven moments, Jamey sometimes wondered at the coincidence: her dad’s sudden passing, her grieving mom lured to Seattle with a dream job, then hooking up with a stranger and just happening to get pregnant with an empath. But back then, Jamey hadn’t been thinking about that. She’d been changing faster and more intensely than other kids, her strength increasing exponentially fast, her nose and ears becoming so sensitive that she spent most evenings in tears at the sheer overwhelm of the world.
They hadn’t known what was happening to her, but Reece’s empathy had also manifested by then, and their mom had accepted her kids were different and done her best to do right by them. Housing had been cheaper then, and their mom had scraped together enough for a fixer-upper bungalow on three peaceful acres of forested land outside of the city. Even all these years later, it was still Jamey’s refuge; a place she never could have afforded on a detective’s salary, the tranquility worth every minute of the commute.
She drummed her fingers on the table. Now she knew why her ears and nose were so sensitive, why she’d had the strength to help renovate the house, even as a preteen.
And Reece still didn’t know he was the reason.
She picked up her phone. If Liam didn’t want to come to Port Angeles, she’d need to borrow the Smart car, and it was better to tell Reece everything this way, actually, where he couldn’t hear it if she lied. Not that she wasplanningto lie; she just had no intention of telling him both possible explanations. As far as she was concerned, the second one was a fucked-up load of paranoia not worth mentioning.
The phone rang several times before Reece picked up. “Jamey, what the hell,” he said blearily. “Some of us sleep.”
“Not you.”
“There’s nothing wrong with going to bed at one. Two. Four. Whatever. Why did you call?”
“I might need to make a day trip tomorrow,” she said. “Which means I might need to borrow your car.”
“Where are you going?” Reece said. “I’ll highlight all the road hazards for you.”
She pinched the bridge of her nose. Please let Liam want to join her. “I can’t tell you where I’m going.”
“Oh, come on—”
“It’s not the driving lecture.” Mostly not the driving lecture. “It might be case-related.”
“What case?” Reece said. “You’re not on the force anymore. Did you decide to work with Evan? I can make a map for him too; he also needs to practice his cornering.”
“I’m not—wait, what do you mean,also? No, actually, never mind,” she said. “There’s something else I need to tell you before I go. Something more important than safe driving.”
“What’s more important than safe driving?”
“Thisis.”
“Fine.”She heard rustling in the background, sheets moving, maybe. Or maybe he was wearing Grayson’s hoodie again, the one he thought she and Liam hadn’t noticed was essentially Reece’s security blanket. “I should tell you something too. But you first.”
She took a breath through her nose. “You know I’m—not normal. And neither is Agent Grayson. And you know we’renot normalin the same way.”
“I told Evan once that he kind of reminded me of you,” Reece said.
“Yeah, well. I know the reason now.” She bit her lip, then said, “Because of our brothers.”
The other end of the phone went eerily silent.
“It’s not a bad thing,” Jamey said quickly.
“Why do I feel like that’s bullshit?” he said, with an edge. “Are you telling me this over the phone because I would have heard you lie just now?”
She winced. He was so damn intuitive when he wanted to know something. “It’s not bullshit and it’s not a bad thing,” she insisted. “Apparently baby empaths have a lot of love but not much control. The empathy spills over onto their sibling and can impact their limbic and endocrine systems.”
“Like with Cora’sthralls?” Reece sounded horrified.
“No,”she said. “Totally different. Cora changed them on purpose.”
“But Jamey.” Reece’s voice had gone quieter, hoarser. “Changing people isn’t something empaths do until they become corrupted. How do you know it wasn’t the corruption inside me that changed you? Cora made her thralls to protect herself. What if the corrupted part of me wanted to make you strong because it knows I’m weak?”
