The little girl takes small steps toward me, inching closer and closer until she is standing inches away from me, looking up at me with wide eyes. She asks, “I am going to show you who I am. When I do, we will need to move quickly. I have been able to go unnoticed this long, but now that I am revealing myself to you, they will come quickly. Do you understand?”
I nod and ask, “You mean the beings here.”
She nods quickly. “I am not one of them. I came to help you.”
Nate is next to me now. He is mesmerized by this little girl talking to me and mutters, “Are you an angel?”
The little girl looks at him and smiles pleasantly. She nods once. Then she says someth
ing so…so me. “Yes and no.”
She looks back up at me and smiles, letting me know her play on my words being intentional. Suddenly, her body is surrounded by a white aura; a halo of light. The light becomes so intense, the little girl seems to blend and meld with it. Just as quickly as the white light intensifies, it diffuses revealing a woman that once stilled and stole my heart and soul. Anna.
I slowly bring my hand to my mouth. I feel my heart swell and ache and my throat constricts as I gulp down the cry of joy and pain surfacing from within me. A million thoughts run through my mind. A million things I want to tell her about my life without her and how it isn’t the life I ever wanted for us. I want to tell her how her beautiful, strong, resilient, amazing daughter has made me so proud and that she was our amazing blessing. The world’s amazing blessing. She leans her head to the side and smiles softly at me as she seems to memorize every inch of my face.
I look at Nate, making sure he sees what I am seei
ng. He is wide-eyed and looking from me to Anna. I clear my throat and wipe my eyes on the back of my arm. “Nate, this is Anna.”
Anna shifts her gaze to Nate, studies his face,
and then grins. “Nathaniel Sera.” Suddenly, her head snaps to the left and her smile disappears. She looks back at me and Nate. “We need to move, fast and now. Jesca contacted me and told me you were here.” She starts to move away, beckoning us to follow her. “Michael...he is here and he is using Sam.” I reach for her hand and actually touch flesh. I look down at my hand holding her arm, something I had not done in over sixteen years, and my mind goes blank.
Nate saves my silence and says, “Wait, how is Michael using Sam? Jesca stabbed him on the cliff back in Japan. We thought he was dead.”
Anna shakes her head. “No, he is here. Michael is slowly depositing ideas into Sam’s head, fueling his jealousy for you and your team, and his rage for me. He is controlling Sam.” Anna takes a few more steps backward. “Michael has taken over his soul and he is coming for you. We need to get you to a safe and secure place, somewhere we can hull up out of site until Jesca and her team arrives.” Anna looks beyond Nate and I. “I can feel him near. Let’s go.”
She turns on her heels and starts running with extraordinary speed. Nate and I start running after her. Our speed is equivalent to hers and we have her in our view as we weave through the forest, sticking close to the water’s edge of the stream. She makes a swift turn to the left and we are now heading toward an opening in the canopy of trees where a much larger and faster moving river intersects. It is the Etowah River, just as I thought.
Anna is only feet in front of us now, and only about one hundred yards from the end of the forest and edge of the river. She speeds ahead and catapults her body into the air, soaring across the river and landing solidly on the other side, crouched and watching us.
As we approach, Nate ask
s me, his voice filled with worry, “Ezra, can we make it across?”
I shake my head, “No questions
, Nate. Just jump!”
The sound of pounding feet is replaced with the sound of the river passing below us. We ascend higher and glide across the dark waters, then quickly descend and land with a loud thud. Anna pauses to make sure we land soundly,
and then continues to run ahead. Nate and I scramble to our feet and run full speed to catch up to her.
Anna is the first to break through the dense woods. She stops and turns back to us. Nate and I are by her side in seconds. I ask, “What? Why did you stop?”
Anna looks around, and then at me concerned. “This wooded area, it is in Georgia, isn’t it?”
I start to ask, “How do you…” and
then contemplate if her soul had visited Jesca and myself in Marietta and we had not known.
Anna nods at me and smiles quickly,
and then it disappears. She turns back to take in her surroundings. “These being have created an illusion from your thoughts.” Anna looks back at me with concern and curiosity now. “They have found a way into your head, Ezra.”
I mentally back
track what we have seen since being here. The creek, Noses Creek, the Etowah River. I look at Anna and Nate. “The creek, it runs through Marietta. It is about three miles from Jesca’s old house.”
Anna nods at me,
and then looks at Nate. “Have you felt her presence here yet?”
Nate shakes his head. “No, not yet.”
Anna moves toward him. “When you do, she will be confused. Tell her we will meet her at her old house in Georgia.”
Nate nods, understanding that she won’t comprehend it until she sees it.
“I will lead us from here.” As I start to walk, Nate stops us. “Wait.”
He is looking at Anna now. “You said team. Do you know who is coming with Jesca?”
Anna nods, “Sebastian and Xander.”
Sebastian? He shouldn’t be risking himself for me. I can understand Xander, because of the link
between he and Nate, but not Sebastian.
Nate’s expression changes, the way he turns his body away from us slowly, the tension weighted in his shoulders, I know it is because of his feelings for Jesca. Nate walks away a few feet, then stops and just stands still. God help them, it
isn’t just the link between she and Nate that draws them to each other anymore. Love is there. On the other hand, it isn’t the lack of a link that draws Xander and Jesca to one another either. Once again, love is there. My Jesca will be forced to make a choice very soon and that choice could bring both blessings and tragedies into her life and those around her.
Suddenly, Nate drops to his knees like a sack of potatoes. I rush to him and kneel in front of him. His face is pale and his clear blue green eyes are fixed on something beyond me. I look behind me to see what he sees, but there is nothing there.
I put my hands on his shoulders and squeeze, “Nate, can you hear me?”
He is non-responsive. I call to him again more sternly, “Nate! Hey!”
No response, just a blank look. Anna is standing above Nate and I, scanning the area around us anxiously, “Get him up. Something is watching us again, I can feel it.”
I stand and try to haul him up by the arms, but he won’t budge. I grunt loudly, “I can’t move him.” I scramble back down to my knees and grab each side of his head, try and lock my eyes on his and yell at him, “Nate, I need you to get up!”
Nothing. I repeat myself over and over again, hoping that one of my requests will break through the comatose state he is in.
After repeatin
g my chant a handful of times, he blinks rapidly and his dilated pupils meet mine. Nate parts his lips, releases his breathe, and says slowly, “They are here.”
Nate
Anna nods. “Sebastian and Xander.”
The muscles in my chest tighten when I hear his name; Xander. I can’t help but be jealous knowing that I am here and he is her comfort. I turn away from Anna and Ezra needing some space. I’m not surprised or even upset that he is part of the team coming with Jesca. I guess I wouldn’t want it any other way. I mean, with him here and the link we share, we will both be stronger for Jesca and the team to get us home.
She is going to be so pissed about me falling into that wormhole with Ezra. She’ll probably want to kick my ass. I feel a smile creep onto my face and I close my eyes to picture her face. God, I missed her smile. The last time I smiled with her was on our date that night in Florida. Ezra asked me to distract Jesca while he took care of the Sondian tracker that had been watching us at the bookstore for days. I jumped at the opportunity to take her out and make that night memorable. Her smiling as she sat across from me. When I held her in my arms and we danced. Holding her in my arms felt perfect, like everything was exactly how it should be.
But that night, we also agreed that we needed to try and distance ourselves, curb our physical contact, and that our attraction was all because of our link. I didn’t fully believe that, but I wanted to see if Jesca did and if I was reading too much into what was going on between us. I wanted to know that she felt something more too. I brought it up, hoping that by chance Jesca would shoot it down and tell me that it wasn’t just the link that made us, us. That was stupid of me. She agreed that our link set the attraction in motio
n and we needed to distance ourselves. What did I do? I agreed with her. Right then, I should have told her that I couldn’t believe that what we felt for each other was being defined by our link.
Slowly I feel a tingling energy start in the tips of my fingers and toes. I open and close my fist to try and shake the tingling numbness. As the numbness creeps up my limbs, I try to turn around and seek Ezra out for help, but the movement doesn’t come, I am numb, paralyzed. My vision begins to blur, like a fuzzy television channel, until I see nothing but darkness. I suck in a deep breath, panicking from the turn of events. I try and speak, but not even a whisper escapes my mo
uth, just a long breath. A swishing sound coming from every direction draws my attention from the panic I am experiencing. Slowly, the blinding darkness I have been inflicted with is broken with streaks of light increasing to an intense blinding glow.
I am overwhelmed with the presence of Jesca all around me suddenly. Then the outline of Jesca’s face surfaces from within the glow for a brief moment. Just as quickly as it surfaces, it falls back below the glow again. No, wait! I call for her urgently. “Jesca!”
The outline of someone else surfaces now, a man I think. Another surfaces before they both fall below the glow again.
Could it be Xander and Sebastian?
I concentrate on the glowing wall of light they just disappeared into and walk directly toward it. The glow’s warmth gets stronger as I move closer and closer. I reach out in front of me to feel for the surface of the glow and yank my hand back when it meets a harsh electric current. I remember this feeling now. The same thing happened when I traversed through the wormhole with Ezra and Sam. The energy in there was so strong, it knocked me unconscious. I need to get in there, let them know how to get to us before they arrive. Without wasting another second, I lunge into the field of glowing energy.
Jesca
Sebastian’s voice is steady and true, “Now.”
When I press the button on my devices, within seconds, I feel the tickling sensation of electric current on the nape of my neck. The t
ickle becomes a pulsing that marches in time with the pumping of my heart. I must look frightened when my eyes meet Xander’s because he squeezes me tighter and mouths, “It’s okay.”
It feels like my life force is being
siphoned out with each pulsing heart beat. Without warning, a burst of hot energy hits me in the face, taking my breath away. When I open my eyes again, I am looking at a rippling pool of energy suspended in mid air about a foot away from Sebastian, Xander, and I. It is about six feet in diameter. The outer edge of the wormhole is barely visible, matching the room we are in. The spiraling ripple of the vortex pulls my gaze into the middle of the wormhole; it’s hypnotizing. I guess I moved closer to the vortex without knowing, because I feel Xander’s hands grip me tighter. I look from Xander to Sebastian, we all nod at one another, then walk toward the vortex.
The first part of my body that comes in contact with the rippling and swirling of the whirling is my forearm. It feels like it is on fire as I am grazed by the force the spiral is exuding. I panic, wondering if the pain will continue as my body passes through. My wonder is short-lived when my body is uprooted from the ground and hauled into the vortex. The pain is quick, replaced by thoughts of holding onto Sebastian and Xander as we are thrown into a tailspin. If we are pulled apart, we may never find each other beyond the veil. I want to speak to Xander and Sebastian, but I can barely catch my breath as I am being pulled and yanked down and around.
My body is dislodging from the arms around me and I open my eyes in sheer panic mode. I can’t see them! I can’t see Xander and Sebastian. A glowing white blinding energy is all I see, even though I feel Xander’s and Sebastian’s death grip now. I close my eyes again and concentrate on reaching Xander and Sebastian psychically. I call to them in my mind. Sebastian is the first to respond. “I’m here! Just hold on, the energy is going to get stronger as we pass through the event horizon.”
Xander thinks, “I can’t see either of you!”
Sebastian, “The energy around us is moving so fast, it has temporarily blinded us.”
The spinning, pulling, and yanking is increasing all of a sudden.