Page 54 of The Diamond in the Rough

I swallowed before greeting her after pulling on my mask. “Hello, welcome to Beyond the Veil. What can I do for you?”

“I need help,” she said, her voice that kind of harsh people get when they’re scared or nervous. That wasn’t surprising. A lot of people get nervous when they come in to Beyond the Veil. “My parents just died.”

“And you want to set up a séance to talk to them,” I guessed. That’s why people came here, especially after family members died. I was about to click on the booking icon, but she spoke again.

“Ugh. God, no. They were terrible people.” She sounded vehement.

It was also not what people usually said, and I didn’t know what to say back to her, now that we were off script. “So whatdoyou want?” I asked. I probably shouldn’t have said it that way, but she didn’t seem to mind.

“I need to know if the brother they never told me about is alive or dead.”

“Okay.” We could do that. If he was dead, Ward would find him. If not, Hart might agree to do us a favor and run a search among the living. He sometimes did, especially if Ward or Mason asked him. “Do you have a name?” It would be a lot easier if she did.

“Rayn Alverno.”

I stared at her.

AtViolette. My baby sister. Because it had to be her. She was the right age, and, now that I looked at her, I could see how much she looked like the mother I barely remembered.

“Well? Aren’t you going to write it down?”

I shook my head.

“Why not?” She sounded both hurt and insulted.

“It’s me,” I blurted.

“What’s you?” Now she just sounded impatient. Annoyed. I was used to that.

“Rayn?” Ward’s voice, slightly muffled by his mask.

Her eyes, a lightish grey-green, not like mine, but like our mother’s, widened.

“Holy shit.”

I nodded.

Ward rolled up to us. “Can I help you?” he asked politely.

Violette shook her head and just pointed at me.

Ward turned to look at me. “Rayn?”

“Me,” I said again. “She was looking for me.”

“Why?”

I swallowed, uncertain what to do with the emotions that were swirling around inside me. “She’s my sister,” I whispered.

Ward’s grey eyes went wide, and he turned to look at her again. “Ms. Alverno?”

She blinked. “Yeah?”

“I—”

“Ward is the one who got me out of Tranquil Brook,” I told her.

“Is that where they locked you up?” Violette asked.