We never actually made it to Barbados, because I became pregnant and then life took over.
“Why are you just now telling me this?”
“He asked me not to.” She pops an M&M into her mouth.
I want to rage against her words, because there’s no way that Garrett would speak to her and not me. Not unless...
“He doesn’t believe I could handle seeing him, does he?”
She smiles sadly. She doesn’t have to say the words. I know it. It’s such a Garrett thing to do, worrying about my well-being even after death.
I blow out a breath and concentrate on slowing my heart rate. Resolved, I straighten in my seat and meet her gaze.
“What did he say?”
She crumples up the M&M’s wrapper in her palm and tosses it across the table. “Not much, honestly. Just that you weren’t ready for him to communicate with you.” She chews on her cheek. “And something about me needing to help you remember.”
I narrow my eyes. “Remember what?”
She shrugs. “Beats me. He wasn’t exactly clear with his message.”
“Why didn’t you press him for more information?”
Corinne stalls, pulling her hair into a high ponytail and taking her sweet time answering me. “I’m going to be honest with you.”
“That’s a first,” I quip, earning a stern glower from the gremlin pixie.
“Before that night, I’d never made contact with a spirit.”
“I could’ve guessed that,” I deadpan. “No medium worth their name conjures in the back of a nail salon.”
She bares her teeth at me. “I own the place. It’s a cost-saving measure.”
“According to your brother, he owns it.”
She gnashes her teeth together like she wants to yell at me, but she must decide against it. Her eyes close and she appears to breathe in and out several times before she says, “Are you going to fight with me all day, or are we gonna get to the bottom of what was unlocked that night?”
Her words bring me up short. “Unlocked?”
She nods. “After you left, I did a lot of research.” She clears her throat, averting her gaze. “I might not be the medium I represent myself as, but I come from a long line of very gifted psychic mediums,” she gloats, raising her chin as though this information should make me humbled in her presence. “I’m the first of my lineage to not have the innate gift by my age.” Her eyes meet mine and hold. “Until you showed up in this room.”
I squint, trying to work out what she’s implying.
“When we touched, a bit of your latent power transferred into me, and now I’m able to do things I wasn’t able to do before.”
I shake my head. “I’m not following. What are you trying to say?”
She groans. “You’rea medium.”
My head jerks back. “What?” I shout. “Of all the ludicrous sh—”
“Listen to me, Alyssa,” she orders, cutting me off. “I consultedwith some family, and they all agree. Whether you knew it or not, you have the ability, and that night, it was unlocked.”
“How is that even possible? I don’t come from a long line of mediums. I might’ve been curious about this stuff, but that’s where it starts and ends.”
“Sometimes, curiosity is all it takes to unlock Pandora’s box.”
She rises, heading to the shelf that’s lacking the tchotchkes from the other night. From the top shelf, she pulls a thick leather-bound book, heading back toward me.
