“Interesting?” Kira ventured.
“Uh-huh.”
“I wish you would believe me.”
“I’d like to, but it’s been my experience that people who use the word ‘woo-woo’ generally think I’m deluded when I talk about energy fields. But it’s okay if you do. I’m used to it.”
“It’s not okay.” If she didn’t feel so comfortable around her, Kira would have been more careful not to annoy her. Although she was kind of cute when she was annoyed.
“Then you won’t build your spa on this spot.”
“That would be financial suicide. It’s not an option.”
Megan turned away, stumbling over one of Kira’s piles of junk. “Yeah,” she muttered. “You definitely find my point of view interesting.”
***
A sliver of moon shone through the pine trees behind Kira’s hotel, peeking out through passing clouds. Megan clicked off her flashlight and let her eyes adjust to the dark.
Without the ley lines, this was nothing more than a neglected, overgrown, wooded lot. That was how Kira saw it—as a nothing-special plot of land waiting for her to build something. A place that Megan was a fool to care about. In the dark it was easy to believe the rumors about that poor woman who was murdered, or that bad guys hung out here waiting for girls to wander into the shrubbery where no one would see them being attacked. Mr. Creepy was there again, breathing down her neck.
Megan sank to the ground next to the standing stone. The cushion of pine needles that blanketed the sandy soil released the faint scent of pine, so different from the overpowering smell of Kira’s sample candles. She crossed her legs and leaned back against the stone.
Energy from the stone flooded her the instant she touched it, and the uneasy feeling of danger vanished. How could she possibly be afraid of anything when she had the strength of the lifeblood of the earth flowing through her? The power was unbelievable. And this time, Kira was not going to interrupt. This time she was alone, and she had all the time in the world to see what this energy could do.
Consciously she merged her inner light with the energy of the standing stone, then channeled it all into the cause of her chest and shoulder pain, whatever that cause might be. The thing kept moving, evading her, slipping away each time her beam of energy touched it.
Eventually her legs grew stiff. She massaged the feeling back into them, adjusted her position, and became still again. The leys weren’t helping as much as she’d hoped. She could feel their power, but either that power wasn’t enough to release the karma causing her pain, or she didn’t have the skill to channel it, or she wasn’t able to reach the requisite level of deep surrender.
She opened her eyes, pondering what to do next. And blinked. Hundreds of twinkling pinpricks of golden light glowed in the darkness like drifting bubbles lit from within. Angels. Hundreds of them. She’d never seen so many in one place before. One by one, the bubbles popped and morphed into glowing female forms, some as small as butterflies, some twice the size of a person.
They were beautiful.
Magical.
She stared until their brightness hurt her eyes. Her sternum throbbed. Was it possible they had come to take away her pain?
She pushed that thought from her mind before the angels could pick up on it and be offended. Of course they weren’t here for her. They were here for their own angelic purposes, and she just happened to be lucky enough to witness it. She craned her neck upward, taking in the beautiful enormity of it, and noticed something she couldn’t believe she’d missed. Behind her, a silvery thread of energy extended from the top of the standing stone up into the sky, disappearing into the night. It glowed faintly in the dark, and angels were shooting down it like they were going down a water slide, joining the others. Soon she realized the arriving angels were not drifting around randomly, but were lining up along the two leys, hovering a few feet above the ground.
Eventually the funneling of angels from God knew where slowed to a trickle and one of them spoke, although it was impossible to tell which one it was—the words seemed to come from several directions at once.
“Don’t let anything happen to this crossroads.” The sound was like a glass harmonica—or were they called glass harps?—where a table of wineglasses filled with different amounts of water made music when the rims were rubbed—except someone forgot to tune this one. And broke a glass. And plugged it into a guitar amplifier. Megan fought the urge to clamp her hands over her ears to block the painful vibration.
She’d never heard an angel speak before. Had the energy of the leys unlocked some hidden potential in her? Fine-tuned her psychic hearing? Or was it standing on the leys themselves that allowed her to hear them? Her friend Gwynne—the only person she knew who could hear angels—had never mentioned how disconcerting their voices were. If the whole choir of angels thing was for real, then she hoped to God that was not what they were gathering here for, because that much sound just might make her lose her mind.
The angels continued to hover over the leys, silent now, and gradually the shock wore off and the words sank in. Don’t let anything happen to this crossroads.
Sure thing. Nothing like a little added pressure.
The angel who was closest held her arms out to her in a gesture that was both pleading and welcoming, but mostly sad. What would happen if Kira built here? Was this a portal where angels came to earth? Would moving the standing stone destroy the portal?
“I’ll do my best,” Megan promised.
A wave of caring and compassion rushed from the angel’s hands and hit her with such force it was almost violent. It wasn’t the same as the energy she’d filled herself with earlier, the energy she’d drawn from the ley lines and the standing stone. This energy was warmer and more chaotic, and it built and built and built, brighter and hotter than anything she’d ever channeled. She sat up straighter, trying to keep the flow of energy from overwhelming her. Her body heated like it was going to melt away and all that would be left would be a core of white-hot light, too bright to look at.
The combined angel/ley energy changed, gathered itself into a sphere that contained her whole body, and started pressing inward. It found the glob of fear that was the survival-level root of her chest problems, the karmic patterning that had cracked her sternum to begin with, and pressed on it from all directions at once, trapping it, compressing it until it was a fist, a BB, the smallest speck of darkness. Megan stopped breathing for the longest time.
Then the speck of fear imploded.
It didn’t spew darkness; it spewed light—blinding, frightening, world-destroying light. An uncontrollable chill tingled up her spine as her buzzing energy system realigned itself.
The light receded; her spine sagged. She started breathing again, and peace seeped through her jangled nerves. Something had happened to her. Something big. But what, she wasn’t sure.
Chapter Six
“My pain is completely gone,” Megan told Svetlana as they walked through town to Kira’s hotel.
Megan shifted her tote bag, which held gardening gloves and a pair of pruning shears, to her other hand. She’d invited a few people to meet them by the hotel to check out the ley lines, and afterward they were going to clear some of the overgrowth from around the standing stone to make the place more inviting.
Svetlana tried on the gloves she’d loaned her and modeled them without much enthusiasm. “Pain is gone because you sat by this mysterious stone?”
“There were angels there. Lots of them. They lined up on the ley lines, and then…I’m not quite sure what happened. They hooked up to the energy of the ley lines and zapped me with it and broke through a blockage.”
“And now you’re healed?” Svetlana sounded confused. “I never know what it is necessary to think when you talk about angel. You seem so rational about everything else.”
Megan swung her arms, twirling her tote bag, showing off how good her shoulder felt now that she could move it without worrying about pinching a
nerve in her chest. After all the frustration of not being able to heal herself, not being able to find anyone else who could help, and not understanding why, she was almost giddy at being pain-free. “I haven’t felt this good in ages.”
“Then I’m glad for you,” Svetlana said firmly. “The energy is amazing, yes? You think I’ll feel it?”
That was a good question. Megan hoped that anyone who knew how to work with energy would be able to take advantage of the ley lines to magnify their skills. Whether someone like Svetlana, who was not an energy healer, would be able to sense the ley lines, was a separate issue, and she was afraid the answer would be no. “We’ll find out soon enough.”
“I wonder because maybe this energy is what is necessary to help me astral travel.”
Megan stopped swinging her arms abruptly. “You’re interested in astral travel?” Practical, medical-minded Svetlana? “Since when?”
Svetlana tugged disdainfully at her borrowed gardening gloves, which were probably too small since they didn’t seem to want to pull off. “My grandmother, she had the ability. She used to visit my grandfather with this astral travel after he was exiled to Siberia. When I was young girl, she tried to teach me, but I didn’t have the knack.”
“I had no idea you were into that sort of thing.”
“Only curious.”
“Don’t be. Astral travel’s dangerous.”
“What could be dangerous about it?”
Megan stared. Sure, what could be dangerous about your mind abandoning your body? “You’re leaving your body unguarded.”
Svetlana shrugged nonchalantly. “My grandmother never had problem.”
“How is this better than calling someone on the phone?”
Svetlana looked incredulous, as if Megan, of all people, should understand. “Phone call is nice, but it’s not real visit. I have not seen my parents in years. I miss them.”
Megan gave a dismissive shake of her head. So much for Svetlana being the practical one. “I wouldn’t recommend it.”
She didn’t think she had much to worry about, though. Chances were good that if Svetlana had already tried astral travel under the guidance of her grandmother, and hadn’t been able to do it, she wouldn’t be able to do it now. No ability—no danger.
***
“Here it is.” Megan waved toward the standing stone and stepped out of the way so everyone could get a closer look.
They clustered around the monolith, trying to sense what she had sensed, each in her own way. Vanessa dangled a quartz pendulum, Dara walked back and forth in slow motion holding dowsing rods, and Svetlana, who couldn’t sense energy, put her hands on the stone, examining its shape. Gwynne merely mouthed the word “wow” and retreated to stand next to Megan.
“Dara’s going to hurt someone with those dowsing rods if she doesn’t open her eyes,” Gwynne commented under her breath. “What did she make them out of? Coat hangers?”
“Be nice. Just because you can see without tools…”
“Well. She is on the right track,” Gwynne conceded. “But what good she thinks her rods are doing if she doesn’t look at them, I don’t know. Kind of defeats the purpose. How is she going to know which direction they’re pointing?”
What was up with Gwynne today, making her so irritable? Actually, Megan had a pretty good guess. People like Dara Sullivan often wished they could see angels and auras the way Megan and Gwynne could, but those abilities set them apart. Watching Dara fumble with her dowsing rods, and knowing Dara was one of the better energy healers—well, sometimes it got lonely.
“So, what do you think?” Megan asked.
Gwynne was dipping a toe in and out of one of the energy streams with a fascinated look on her face. “About the ley lines?”
“Yes, about the ley lines. Unless you have more to say about Dara. Like you noticed her eyes were closed because you can’t stop thinking about what color they are?”
“You must be out of your mind. Sitting on these leys last night must have fried something crucial.”
“It’s possible,” Megan said easily. “The power here is incredible.”
“It is,” Gwynne agreed. “And you know what else? Something weird is happening with that standing stone.” She sauntered over to the monolith, careful to stay out of range of Dara’s swinging dowsing rods.
Megan followed. “What is it?”
“There’s a funnel of energy anchored to the ground under this stone, and it’s not a ley line. It has an angelic residue.”
“I know. I saw angels traveling down it.”
“I wonder what it is.” Gwynne tilted her head thoughtfully.
“The angels called it a crossroads.”
“Whatever that means. But I can see why they like to hang out here. It’s a powerful spot. I’ll have to come back.”
“You don’t have an uneasy feeling you should leave?”
“A spell of ward?” Gwynne looked startled. “No. Do you?”
“I thought I did, briefly, the last time I was here.” She figured her encounter in the woods with Mr. Creepy could have been the manifestation of a warning spell—a psychic Do Not Enter sign. But she trusted Gwynne’s intuition, and if Gwynne didn’t sense a spell, maybe it was something else. “You really don’t sense it?”
“Maybe it’s masked by the uneasy feeling I have that I should get out of here before you set me up on a date with Dara Sullivan.”
“Shh.” She hoped Dara, who was approaching with her eyes still squeezed shut in concentration, hadn’t heard.
Gwynne scrambled out of Dara’s way. “You sure it wasn’t the rumors about this place giving you the heebie-jeebies?”
“The murder?”
“Yeah.”
“I don’t know.”
Dara came to a halt in front of them, opened her eyes, and lowered her dowsing rods. “Thanks for showing us the stone.”
“No problem,” Megan said. “Are you going to stay to help us pull poison ivy?”
“I wish I could, but I jammed my thumb yesterday playing volleyball.” Dara held up her injured hand. It looked swollen. “I know I shouldn’t play, but…what can I say? I’m an idiot. I have two clients tomorrow and I need to save my strength.”
“You’re not going to cancel them?” Megan suggested. Yeah, like she was one to talk. How many times had she canceled on a client when she really should have? Not nearly enough. “You don’t want to overdo it and get permanently injured.”
“I’ll push through. I don’t want to lose what few clients I have.”
Megan winced. “I understand.”
“I might have to cancel my gig at Avalanche, though. I work there four nights a week giving free back rubs. Free for the patrons, I mean. The club pays me. Not much, but it’s good advertising. But it’s hard on the thumbs.” Dana clasped her hands together in beg mode. “Would you be willing to cover for me sometime this week?”
“Sure,” Megan said. “How long is your shift?”
“It’s only an hour. It can get pretty hectic, though.”
“Is Friday one of your nights? I could help out then.” She didn’t love Avalanche’s throbbing, too-loud dance music, but an hour wouldn’t kill her.
“I could take a couple nights, also,” Svetlana volunteered, overhearing their conversation.
“Thanks,” Dara said. “That would be fabulous.”
***
Kira surveyed the site of her future spa and stuck her hands in her pockets. She wasn’t surprised that Megan was back. And what do you know, she’d brought a bunch of her woo-woo friends, just as she’d predicted. She was starting to wish she’d never brought her here. Would have made life so much simpler.
Even worse, they were weeding. Weeding! You didn’t weed a construction site. Why bother, when heavy machinery was on its way, and would strip the soil of any and all greenery? Weeding was something you did to a garden, or maybe a park. Some place you wanted to take care of. Someplace you were trying to protect.
Exac
tly what she’d like to avoid.
Megan had her back to her and was tugging with both hands at a vine of poison ivy that had grown up a tree trunk. She wore a cropped T-shirt and shorts, her only protection a heavy-duty pair of gardening gloves. It wasn’t enough. What if she pulled that vine off and it fell on her face? Or brushed against her bare arms? Poison ivy was nothing to fool with. Kira watched anxiously as Megan successfully pulled the vine free. When she started to tackle another one, Kira kicked at some brush to make it rustle, annoyed that Megan hadn’t noticed her. Megan still didn’t notice.
“Please tell me my construction crew’s not going to get here tomorrow morning and find you chained to a tree.”
Megan turned around. She wiped the sweat off her brow with the back of her arm, holding her gloved hands well away from her body. “Now there’s an idea.”
No. There was not an idea. Not that she was ready to start work on the site, but once she was, tree huggers could hold up construction for weeks. Kira groaned. “You’re messing with me, right?”
“We’re totally serious.”
“Please don’t do this.”
“You’re not really starting construction tomorrow, are you? Patrick went down to the county office for me and said you don’t even have the permits yet.”
Shit, this was sounding worse and worse.
“I’m not a big-time developer,” Kira said. “You bankrupt me, someone a lot worse is going to get this land at a bargain price and do God knows what to it.”
“We’re not going to bankrupt you.” Her friends started to object, but Megan shushed and flapped at them until they quieted down.
Kira relaxed a fraction. At least one of these nuts was willing to see reason. Not that Megan was a nut, exactly. Maybe a small one. A pistachio. That was it—a loveable little pistachio. The arm flapping was certainly adorable. Now if only she would forget the tree hugging idea. And stop clearing poison ivy.
“We’ll work this out.” The look in Megan’s eyes, like she wanted to connect with her on a gut level and find out what made her tick, was almost enough to make her want to discuss a compromise—if it meant they had to spend more time together hammering out the details.
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