I’d scrubbed all the blood away earlier, but I could still feel those beetles crawling over me. I stayed under the hot water for only a few minutes, though, because I was afraid of missing Devlin’s call. Dressing warmly in jeans, boots and a thick sweater, I took Angus out for a quick walk around the block, but I could hardly enjoy our time together. My mind kept bouncing from Gerrity’s murder to Devlin’s medallion to that poor girl on the street who had wanted my help. How had she known to come to me? Was this yet another door that I’d inadvertently opened? I longed for the time when Papa’s rules had kept me safe, but those days were long gone. My life was changing in ways that I could hardly imagine—didn’t want to imagine—but there was no going back. Papa had warned me about the dangers of falling for a haunted man, but even now, I couldn’t bring myself to wish Devlin from my life. He was too important to me. He was everything to me. My fingers curled around the medallion in my pocket, and I rubbed my thumb over the cool texture as though the talisman could somehow connect us.
