Wherever She Goes (Psychic Seasons, ReGina Welling [novels to improve english TXT] 📗

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 23

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 24

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