BooksBarbecue
Back Rituals
Chapters (65)
  1. Cover
  2. Other Titles
  3. Title Page
  4. Copyright
  5. Dedication
  6. CHAPTER ONE
  7. CHAPTER TWO
  8. CHAPTER THREE
  9. CHAPTER FOUR
  10. CHAPTER FIVE
  11. CHAPTER SIX
  12. CAPRICIOUS
  13. CHAPTER SEVEN
  14. CHAPTER EIGHT
  15. CHAPTER NINE
  16. CHAPTER TEN
  17. CHAPTER ELEVEN
  18. CHAPTER TWELVE
  19. IN THE CARDS
  20. CHAPTER THIRTEEN
  21. CHAPTER FOURTEEN
  22. CHAPTER FIFTEEN
  23. CHAPTER SIXTEEN
  24. CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
  25. CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
  26. CHAPTER NINETEEN
  27. CHAPTER TWENTY
  28. LOVE
  29. CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
  30. CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
  31. CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
  32. CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
  33. CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
  34. CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
  35. CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
  36. CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
  37. CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
  38. PHONE ISSUES
  39. CHAPTER THIRTY
  40. BONDING
  41. CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
  42. CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
  43. CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
  44. CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
  45. CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
  46. CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
  47. CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
  48. CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
  49. SACRILEGE
  50. CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
  51. CHAPTER FORTY
  52. CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
  53. CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
  54. CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
  55. CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
  56. CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
  57. DEATH BY HELL-BIRD
  58. THE DARKNESS
  59. CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
  60. FINALLY
  61. THE PACT
  62. CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
  63. CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT
  64. CHAPTER FORTY-NINE
  65. About the Author

That realization had driven Bobby to murder while barely in his teens. Murder and then madness, condemned to a psychiatric ward. He’d given Rose the same look Seanna had, when Hannah had told him their secrets: that Rose had the Sight and Hannah could understand animals in a way ordinary people could not.

Hannah.

My, my, you’re really piling on the punishment today, aren’t you, Rose? Why not add Gabriel to the heap of mistakes you’ve made, people you’ve failed to help, failed to save.

But Gabriel was already on the list, wasn’t he? Right at the top, and that was what had her up all night, begging the cards for answers. Rose Walsh, who never begged for anything. Now she was. Yet the cards stayed silent, taunting her instead with a never-ending parade of people she’d wronged and mistakes she’d made.

Hannah.

Her best friend from the day they’d met, too far back in memory for Rose to recall, though Hannah’s mother always told the story of two toddlers fighting over a toy at a town picnic. Except they hadn’t been fighting to take it from the other; they’d been trying to give it to the other. You want it, so you take it. No, you take it. True or not, Rose supposed it said a lot about them, and why they’d become such good friends.

Best friends as toddlers, as schoolchildren, as teens. Then Hannah went off to college. Rose had visited her on campus, where they’d gone to a party and had too much to drink. Ducking the advances of frat boys, they’d stumbled, laughing, into an empty bedroom and locked the door. Drunk and sleepy, they’d decided to take advantage of the bed and lie down, and they’d curled up together, as they’d always done, and then…

Rose never could quite remember how it started. Or who started it. They’d been cuddling, with the alcohol buzzing, and the cuddling felt so good, not quite like it did with boys, slower and sweeter and not necessarily better but not worse, either. And then the cuddling turned to nuzzling, and the hugging to touching, soft strokes on an arm or a back, fingers searching and then lips searching and a kiss. That first kiss answered all Rose’s uncomfortable questions about boys and sex, and why she liked it—really liked it—but there was an itch it didn’t quite scratch.