“There is a way but we must hurry. Julius, you and Estelle will join me in creating a bridge to the other side. Amethyst, you will help your friends anchor that bridge in this plane. One of you must cross over to bring her back. There will be risk. You must now choose who it is to be.”
“I’ll go. I’ve known her longest,” Gustavia volunteered.
“No. I’ll go. It has to be me. Don’t you see? I love her and I’ll bring her back because I’m not sure I can live without her,” Zack insisted.
“How long have you known?”
“Probably since I rescued her from that first date but two minutes ago is the first time I admitted it to myself. I need to tell her.” Zack turned to Galmadriel.
“Tell me what to do. I’m ready.”
“Follow your heart. It will not fail to lead you but heed my warning. If you tarry overlong, you will share her fate.”
The angel reached out her hand and touched Zack gently on the forehead. His long lashes dropped to flutter against his cheek then Gustavia cried out as he sagged to the floor.
“Hurry now.” Galmadriel spoke quickly to Amethyst. “Once I create the bridge, you will see its aura. Use your healing ability to hold it firmly on this side, anchor it, you will understand how. When you feel it standing strong, give him,” she pointed to Zack “a push in the correct direction.” She waved a hand imperiously for Julius and Estelle to follow her then they all winked out of sight.
Face strained with effort, Amethyst waited until she saw a rainbow arching back from the point where the angel had been standing.
“Everyone stand right here,” she pushed her friends into a loose semi-circle. “Don’t move no matter what. I don’t know what will happen but you heard what she said. We could lose them both if we fail.”
Using a series of rapid hand movements, the flicked the colors from the end of the bridge, linking them with the matching ones in her friend’s auras then pulled the ends of the rainbow through them, wrapping it around herself the way a climber might secure a rope to a tree.
When she felt she had as firm a hold as she would ever get, she grounded the light as deeply as she could to anchor it then Amethyst grasped Zack’s aura and flung it toward the arc of the rainbow bridge. Now, all that was left for them to do was wait and hold tight.
Chapter Twenty-Two
When she felt Billy’s touch, cold as bitter wind and fetid as rotting meat just before her life force was wrenched from her body, Kat knew something had gone horribly wrong.
Darkness deeper than anything she had ever experienced fell over her while Billy shrieked until a mighty thunderclap burst against her ears then washed away taking all sound with it. Not even an echo remained. Was this what it felt like to die?
Something tickled Kat’s nose. She brushed at it, automatically opening her eyes. Grass.
Thinking she might still be lying near the gazebo at Hayward House, Kat struggled to her feet then turned in in a circle.
She was alone, in a place where nothing was familiar.
There was no gazebo, no Hayward House in the distance.
Instead, in every direction stretched an endless field of grass lit not by the sun but by an ambient light that came from everywhere and nowhere at the same time.
Now what?
“Galmadriel?” Kat called out into the silent atmosphere. She could hear her own voice but it sounded strange, as though it never left her to travel in normal waves.
If this was the afterlife, it wasn’t living up to her expectations. No tunnel, no bright light, no crowd of loved ones waiting to welcome her home. So much for preconceived notions.
Kat whirled in place again, then walked—well, since there was no sun to be seen, she had no idea in which direction—forward. Everything was utterly still. No breeze brushed the grass into motion or whispered through the blades. The quiet unnerved her nearly as much as the sound of her own shout had done.
Though there was little enough to look at, Kat found that her vision was clearer than it had ever been. Looking down at a blade of grass, she could see every tiny ridge, every variation of color. Greens so vibrant they very nearly appeared to be unreal speared toward her, toward the light.
Bending down, Kat pulled off her shoes leaving them to race barefoot through the verdant field of uninterrupted green. She relished the way it felt to run without being on a treadmill, looked behind her to see the grass spring back up erasing every spot where her feet had crushed it down. With that joy in her, Kat arced through the air, leaping and creating her own breeze.
Tears streamed, now. Could this be all that was left to her? Running alone through some otherworldly place with no chance to say goodbye to her family, her friends, to Zack. The fleeting joy could not compete with that sadness.
Wasn’t your life supposed to pass before your eyes? Like a movie—that’s how people who had had near death experiences described it. No reel played for her, no review of her decisions, good or bad. No eternal record of her regrets or accomplishments and she had some of both. She should have chosen to trust that love could overcome such petty obstacles as blindness or psychic ability. That neither of those things defined her or branded her as less. She should have told Zack she loved him.
Breath coming faster now, she pulled the sparkling air into her lungs and felt its clarity lend even more speed to her feet. She ran without tiring but eventually, with nothing to run toward but more of the same, she stopped and stood still again.
Glancing down, she saw her shoes.
Seriously? What was this? The cosmic version of a treadmill?
Behind that thought came the certain knowledge that though she could not seem to go forward or back through this place, she could, if she chose, move on to the next. Kat was also certain that if she did, there would be no going back.
Kat stood, frozen with indecision.
That was where Zack found her.
***
It had already been a weird enough day that the novelty of running along a rainbow didn’t even register on Zack’s strange-o-meter. There was no trail, no sign of Kat or her passing to be found until he took that last step across the arching bridge.
Looking around in surprise, he found himself standing in front of a landscape that looked very much like his own painting. Dreary gray buildings splashed with darker shades under a thundercloud sky and not another person in sight.
Kat, where was she? He lifted his head the same way Lola might when she was learning the scent of a thing.
He turned to see Julius, Estelle, and Galmadriel working to hold down their end of the pathway back. Seeing them struggle, he could tell their ability to continue was limited, Zack walked away from the bridge while marking its position in his memory. The last thing he wanted to do was forget the way back.
“Kat. Can you hear me?” Zack called out, his voice swallowed by the vastness of the shimmering distance didn’t even echo off the structures. He ran straight ahead marking each building for what felt like only a few minutes but somehow he knew time in this place might turn around on itself.
What was it she had asked him during their first dance? Did he believe in intuition? Maybe she had sensed something more in him right from the start. If there was anything remotely psychic about his cop sense, now was the time to find out. Zack stopped, stood still, and closed his eyes to imagine her, to use that memory to connect with the gut feeling he had always trusted. It was there. A tiny spark of knowing.
Left, she’d gone that way. He turned and fed the spark with trust until it burned into a steady flame. She was moving slowly away from him; he could feel the distance between them lengthening. Zack broke into a run.
“Kat. Kat. Kat,” he chanted her name with each beat of his feet on the pavement. The flame became a beacon, a flare that he sent along ahead to carry his need for her, his love.
Left, then right. By now, he had forgotten to count the buildings. Getting back had become less important than finding her.
“Kat.”
He called louder with both heart and voice.
There, he could see something now. A faint, small shadow some way ahead.
He thought he heard her shout, “Hello.”
Then she was gone again. He put on more speed, panting now, stretching his limits.
Around the next corner, he roared to a stop. It was her, facing away from him just like the boy in his painting—the one he’d never told anyone was him.
Instead of a teddy bear, she held a pair of running shoes in her hand.
“Kat, I’m here.” She heard him.
“Zack?” Kat stopped. She felt as though she had been running for hours. Maybe she had. Turning, she saw him coming toward her and raced to meet him.
He scooped her into his arms to rain kisses across her face. “I found you, never leave me again.”
“I didn’t mean to…everything was all whirling and then I ended up here knowing I would probably never be able to go back. All I could think about was how much I would miss you. I was standing here thinking it was time to move on.”
Before she could say another word, he scooped her up with the intention of carrying her back the way he thought he had come, toward the bridge, but something in her voice stopped him.
“Is that what you want? To move on?”
“I don’t think I can go back. I tried and nothing happened. Why did you come? What if you can’t go back? You shouldn’t be stuck here because of me.”
He bent his head to kiss her. “I couldn’t let you go. I love you. Don’t you want to go back? To be with me?”
“Of course I do. That’s all I want because I love you, too.”
“Very touching but we cannot hold this bridge forever.” Galmadriel’s voice sounded breathless and very close. How had he run for miles and only been a few steps from where the angel stood?
“Go. Now.”
Lowering Kat to her feet, Zack grabbed her hand and pulled her along with him. With each footfall, the colored light they crossed felt a little less substantial. That observation baffled Zack but there was no time to rest, no time to think about anything but getting her back where she belonged, back into her own body.
He spared no thought for whether his own lay vacant beside hers. Getting her back would be enough, even if he didn’t make it himself.
Rounding over the curve, it was downhill now so they put on more speed to race full out but the footing was so much less solid that now it was like running through sand or deep water. Almost there, he could see Amethyst struggling to hold her end of the bridge in place.
The next thing he heard was Galmadriel’s voice ringing in his ears. “Now,” she commanded and he felt Kat gathering herself for the leap. In the end, he wasn’t sure if they jumped, fell, or were thrown but the last thing he remembered was the feeling of his feet tangling in something and seeing his body loom closer.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Letting a mortal go back once they had crossed over was against all the rules but Galmadriel thought she could get away with it since Kat’s body still lived. With the all the grace she could muster, she decided to intervene because these were unusual circumstances. She could not stand by and let the woman die when it had been her own failure that sent Kat across in the first place.
Clinging and fighting to anchor her end of the bridge, she felt it when first Estelle then Julius began to fade; with energy flagging neither could hold out much longer.
With their help, this plan had been tenuous at best, without it, her oversight may now cost two lives instead of one.
Time slowed as she saw Kat and Zack nearing Amethyst. “Help them,” she shouted toward the healer before the two spirits lost their grip on the bridge. Galmadriel strained to put everything she had into holding firm and then she felt Zack’s feet catch and pull. Pull her back toward the earthly plane.
Despair washed over her in that split second, she had failed everyone.
And, her light fading to nothing, the angel Galmadriel fell.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Kat felt something warm and wet slide up her cheek. Once then twice. She pried open an eye and tried to figure out what she was looking at. The warm, wet, pink thing approached again accompanied by the unmistakable odor of Lola breath.
All she could think of was pushing the snuffling snout away from her face but when she tried, neither arm would move. Something bad must have happened because it felt like a huge weight rested on her chest. An accident maybe?
Everything fell away again for a while, she didn’t know how long, and then Lola was back. This time Kat groaned, “Lola, go on.” Her voice felt raspy like she’d been screaming for hours.
This time when she opened her eyes, she could see why her arms wouldn’t move. Zack’s chest lay half across her own, the steady rise and fall of his breathing a comfort but his weight had her pinned to the floor. No, not the floor, someone’s legs. They were all sprawled across the floor like bowling pins.
It took a minute before she remembered exactly what had happened. A stirring off to one side had her slanting her eyes over just in time to see Finn sit up with a mutter. Apparently, Lola was making the rounds.
“Finn, help me.” Kat tried to shove Zack’s dead weight off her chest. “Is everyone okay?”
“I think so.” He checked on Gustavia first then reassured by her even breathing, reached over to help Kat extricate herself from the pile. “That was intense.” He pressed a hand to his temple where a headache beat against his palm.
***
Julie, Reid, and Gustavia came to at about the same time with Tyler not far behind. A minute later, Amethyst stirred but when Zack woke up, it was not the soft, subtle process it had been with everyone else. He went from unconscious to hyper alert, leaping to his feet, eyes wide with concern.
Seeing Gustavia and Kat sitting together went a long way toward calming him down again. By then, Finn had located the downstairs bathroom and a blessedly large container of painkillers. He detoured to the kitchen for as many bottles of water as he could carry and returned to pass them around the room.
Despite the pounding in his head, Zack insisted on checking his prisoner. Finding Logan sprawled out in the still locked cruiser, sound asleep relieved more of the headache than the painkillers could.
He pulled out his phone to call it in and discovered whatever energy the angel had raised, his phone was either dead or destroyed. He went back inside to use Julie’s landline.
Within minutes, a deputy arrived to take charge of the prisoner. Zack would have to go in later and write up a detailed report, but that would have to wait until he decided what that report should say.
Meanwhile, Ellis would be booked and treated to a bed and a hot meal.
Duty over for the next little while, Zack went back inside.
***
Kat stepped back from the window, went to the door, and met Zack halfway down the drive. At first, her steps were uncertain. What if everything she remembered from her time on the other side had been a dream? Even now, it was fading the same way dreams do when touched by the light of morning.
When he looked up and saw her, she knew he’d been thinking the same thing.
“Was it a dream?” She had to know.
“It feels like it but no, I’m sure it was real.”
“So everything you said…”
“True, every last word of it.”
Forgetting that he might be shaky on his feet still, she launched herself into his arms and clung there while he kissed her as if he would never stop. When he finally pulled back, Kat smiled into his eyes and asked, “What exactly is second base on a guy, and how long until Prom? I think I heard something about a five date rule, how many dates have we been on?”
Chapter Twenty-Five
Just before 10:20 am on the day of the spring equinox, the group assembled for the fourth and final time to watch Zack, the newest among them slide the portrait of Julius into place. When it locked in with a soft click, Julie closed her eyes and swallo
wed hard. In a few short minutes, she would have to say goodbye to Grams for a second time and everything would change again.
Being the tallest, Gustavia still had to stretch to position five of the original ten glass lenses into the slots Kat had found. When it was done, she stepped back, reached blindly for Julie’s hand. So much had happened over the past few months that this final search seemed sadly anti-climactic.
She glanced over to see Samantha bouncing in place, one of the prisms from the third search clutched tightly in her hand. This girl, her father; she marveled at how quickly they had become her life.
The length of time the sun would strike the window was limited so when Kat and Amethyst stepped forward with Sam to position the prisms, every key was in its place, ready for its light to play across the window and reveal the final clues.
It was a bittersweet moment.
Julie needed nothing more in the way of valuables. Never having been greedy to begin with, her financial needs had already been so well met there was nothing left to do but pay it forward. To that end, Tyler and Reid were working to establish a foundation for young inventors and she was confident they would make the venture a success. No matter what they found today, it would pale in comparison to the treasure of having friends who became family and the love of a man like her new husband, Tyler.
It was almost time for the first reveal. Eleven eager pairs of eyes watched as a beam of sparkling sunlight speared through the stained glass to make its way across the painting and illuminate a small, square section of library wall just above Julius’ shoulder.
***
Standing next to Zack, Kat found herself, like everyone else, wishing this day would never end.
She watched Julius for a moment, his body language more stiff and anxious than ever. All of this had been meant as a puzzle he hoped his son would one day be mature enough to solve. That it had never happened weighed on him almost as much as the danger he had unleashed in his zealous effort to provide the hidden items to Julie, the only family he had left.
Wherever She Goes (The Psychic Seasons Series Book 4) Page 15
