Bloodstone Read Online Free PDF Page A

in the closet along with his keys and turned to Ivy.
    “Sit,” he said.
    I’d never seen him so angry. Chance had miles of patience, especially when it came to my family and their eccentricities. Of course, usually I didn’t traipse them through his house.
    Ivy sat. So did I. So did Thor.
    “Not you, Stacy.”
    Right. I stood next to Chance mimicking his disappointed adult face. I had a lot of practice using this expression on other adults, but never on a child.
    Thor circled around to my side and leaned against my hip. He had a bone sticking out of his mouth, cigar style.
    Chance clapped his hands, took a deep breath. “Okay,” he began. He paused, searching for the right words. Chance had a little brother close to Ivy’s age. I guess he was trying to translate what he would normally say to him in a language females and/or witches could understand.
    “I have to say, Ivy, I haven’t known you all that long so I’m not sure what to make of your actions today.” He put an arm around me. “But I have known Stacy all my life and what you did to her was...not cool.”
    I couldn’t remember the last time I heard him use that expression. Ten years, minimum.
    Ivy darted her eyes around the room and hugged her notebook close like it was a teddy bear. Or a talisman.
    “You had her—and me—worried sick.”
    Ivy met my eyes, surprised, maybe even a little scared. I softened my face.
    “You were worried?” Ivy asked me.
    “Of course I was,” I said.
    Looking back, perhaps what I said next was not the right thing to say at the time. But I knew what it was like to be fourteen and have your whole world collapse around you. I knew the pain of feeling alone in the world. Of being abandoned. So I said it anyway. “It isn’t every day I lose a sister.”
    I heard Chance suck in some air. My lecture would come later, I was certain. But it didn’t matter because in that moment, I felt like we were sisters. And you know what? It felt pretty good.
    Ivy smiled wide and threw her arms around me. I hugged her back, then turned to Chance and said, “Anything else, Dad?”
    Ivy giggled.
    Chance paced in front of the couch, looking more than a little frustrated.
    “C’mon, Chance, I think we need to set some rules. Don’t you think, Ivy?” I said.
    “Like, no feet on the coffee table,” Ivy volunteered.
    “Very good,” I said. “And no towels on the bathroom floor.”
    Ivy said, “No dirty dishes in the sink.”
    Me. “All wrappers make it inside the garbage can.”
    Ivy. “Take your shoes off before walking on the carpet.”
    “Good one,” I said.
    “Thanks,” said Ivy.
    Chance was shifting his head from one to the other of us. Finally he broke into a smile.
    “Did we miss anything?” I asked him.
    He looked straight at me. “No running away.”
    Ivy fielded the statement by saying, “I promise.”
    But I knew what he meant. Chance had taken it personally when I never came back after college. He had been there for me through everything. He knew my family like he knew his own and he never believed that I just wanted to see the world, wanted more out of life than one could ever find in a single stoplight town.
    Now that I was back, it was hard to convince him otherwise. Because the truth was, I had loved him, even when I said goodbye, I loved him.
    But that was a long time ago.
    “Me too,” I said.
    His eyes darkened and a sultry look crossed his face. For a moment, I thought he would kiss me. Instead he said, “And—“ he pointed to Thor, “no sleeping on the furniture.”
    Thor’s huge jaws parted and he let out a high-pitched whine.
    “No,” Chance said.
    My dog rolled on his back, the tan coat nearly melting into the beige carpet, and kicked his legs in the air. Ivy bent down to give him a belly rub.
    “I’m starving,” she said.
    Chance said, “Ivy, why don’t you get settled in the downstairs bedroom and we’ll order some food? Do you like Chinese?”
    “Is chop suey Chinese?” she