Chapter 4 #2
The next moment, she placed a crystal in my hand and I knew it was the Merkabah stone.
It felt pointy, and a cold, ethereal beam of energy began to emanate from every point on the star-carved stone.
The force surged through me, lifting me even further away from my body and the world around me.
I was sitting in the middle of a star-studded field, swirling round and round as though I were on some crazy carnival ride, like the Octopus or the Spider.
I wanted to let go, to allow the energy to send me wherever it wanted, but May’s instructions were still in my thoughts, so I held on, doing my best to keep still as the field of stars spun around me.
“I’m now going to place a counter stone in your other hand. This will help guide the quest. When you feel it, you can let go and let the journey take you.” May’s voice sounded so far away now, but she still echoed in my ears and I grabbed her words before they flew by unheard.
The next moment, she placed a smooth palm stone in my other hand. This one felt heavy, weighing me down to allow me to focus. I felt my body begin to ground at a midpoint between flying off and crashing back to earth.
I took a deep breath and realized I could hear the sounds in the room again. “I’m grounded.”
“Good,” May said. “Keep your eyes closed.”
I knew from experience that I was in a very suggestible state, but I trusted May and Bran, and my Grams was here to watch over me.
“I want you to find the thread that bonds you to Fancypants. Can you see it?”
I looked around—on the astral—and realized I could see thousands of strands connecting people, connecting events, connecting everything in the universe.
A handful shimmered with a familiar sparkle.
As I reached out to touch them, I discovered they were mine.
And among those that stood out as belonging to me, one in particular had a reddish hue.
I touched it and immediately Fancypants flooded to mind. This was my bond with him.
“I found it,” I whispered. “I found our bond. Please don’t make me cut it.”
“I’m not going to—but I need you to take the energy that I’m going to filter through you, and coat the strand. It will quiet the energy and you’ll be able to focus.”
I licked my lips, nodding, as May connected to my aura and began streaming in a pale gray cloud of mist. I didn’t want to accept it, but I knew she was just trying to help both Fancypants and me.
As I accepted the energy and began to coat the strand with it, the connection to my dragonette started to fade into the background.
Heartsick, I continued on, dampening the connection until—after a few minutes—I no longer felt him.
I could see the thread binding us together, but the bond was thoroughly suppressed.
A moment later, I let out a long sigh and May withdrew her energy. She talked me out of trance, and as I opened my eyes, I realized that my face was covered with tears.
“I miss him,” I said, bereft.
“Well, now we focus on rescuing him. They’ll be keeping him sedated, so it will be hard to follow his energy signature, anyway,” she said.
Grams crossed to sit beside me. She gave me a hug. “We’ll find him, Elphyra. We’ll do everything we can.”
I pressed my lips together, unable to say anything.
“What next?” Bran asked.
“Can you call Bree?” I asked. “I’d like her here.”
“I’m on it,” he said.
“Let’s have some tea while we wait for Daisy and Bree.” Grams helped me to my feet and led me toward the kitchen.
“I’ll be right there,” May said, packing up her things again.
As we gathered in the kitchen, Faron set the table with tea mugs, and a plate of cookies.
Bran returned. “Daisy will be right out. She said that there have been a couple of other disappearances in the area that are worrying her.” He sat down. “You want me to call Bree?”
I nodded. Bree was my best friend. “Please. She’s good at tracking, given her job.” Bree owned a wilderness tour guide company, leading people into the Olympics on all levels of expeditions.
“How are you doing?” Faron asked, sitting beside me. He took my hand.
I shook my head. “I can’t talk about it. I’ll break down.” The lack of Fancypants’s gentle mind touch made the loss seem even harder, though I did have to admit that my head had cleared. But the loss felt even more keen. I turned to May. “How did you get through losing Melda?”
She let out a long sigh, staring at her mug. “I’m not sure how to answer that. How do you get through any loss that cuts bone deep? You never fully do, but you learn how to live with it.” She paused, then gave me a long look. “You understand what I’m talking about.”
I nodded. “The Butcher…” A wave of sadness swept over me.
Rian had been my fiancé, and a vampire who dined on inflicting pain, who lived for destroying lives, had forced me to watch him torture and murder my love.
In a way, I had envied Rian. He had died in pain, but he had escaped.
I had been locked in a prison, doomed to remember that night, doomed to relive it whenever my brain decided to drag it out in front of me.
“You learn to let it go, though it never truly vanishes. But in time, the loss becomes a bittersweet memory, and you cry and then you go on with life.” May stood, kissing me on the top of the head. “But we’ll do our best to make sure Fancypants comes home.”
“Thank you,” I whispered. She was right. Rian would forever haunt my dreams, but I managed to make it through the nights now, with fewer nightmares. And I’d found love again with two men who doted on me.
At that moment, the doorbell rang, and Bran answered. Daisy was here, and I hoped to hell she’d be able to help us figure out what was going on.