Eternal Island (Book 1 in the Eternal Series) Read Free Page A

small velvet bag out of her pocket. Rainey poured a small amount of the dust in her palm and sprinkled it above Ariana’s face.
    She spoke in a low voice. “Ariana, I am your friend and I am here to help you. When you wake, you will not be frightened. I will count to… Oh, and you will concentrate your thoughts on what I’ve got to tell you. I need you to focus; we don’t have time to dilly-dally. Right. I will count to three and you will slowly open your eyes. One, two… three.”
    Ariana’s eyelids began to flutter. She opened her eyes and looked directly at Rainey.
    “Good morning, sunshine!”
    “Who are you?” Ariana managed to get out.
    “My name is Rainey, and I have been sent here to wake you and escort you to the place where you will spend the rest of your life. You are in a mental hospital and you have been in a coma for a long time. Now, you have a choice to make. You can come to Eternal Island with me and you can live and eat for free. I’ll find you a job – as a maid, I think – and that is how you’ll be able to pay for room and board. Any extra money from your wages you can spend as you wish. You will have three days off one week and four, the next. You will be free to do whatever you wish with your free time, but if you leave the island you cannot ever return. You see, it is a very private island, off the map, as they say – at least to you, humans – and we would like to keep it that way.”
    Ariana closed her gaping mouth and asked, “Excuse me, are you a patient in this hospital?”
    “How did I not see that one coming?” Rainey chided herself and rolled her eyes.
    “You’ve got to admit it – none of what you just said makes sense. And since you said this is a mental hospital…” she left the sentence hanging.
    “I should have included ‘and you will believe me’ right after ‘you will not be frightened’ in my spell,” Rainey mumbled under her breath.
    “And you’re talking to yourself,” Ariana pointed out. “I rest my case.”
    “Ariana, we don’t have time to sit and chat forever, you know?”
    “Summarize. And speak fast, I can follow. If you want me to come with you to your special island, I would say you owe me at least that much.”
    Rainey sighed in defeat. “Okay. Please don’t go into shock again; my wake up dust is really hard to make. You had some bad news, you fainted and never woke up. Now, hurry, hurry, hurry. Get up, get these clothes on and let’s go.”
    “Bad news? What news could have been bad enough to make me pass out?”
    “Ariana, listen. Look at me. Focus! Snap out of it. Hey, no fainting. You know you can’t handle that one. And we don’t really have the time, right now. I’ll tell you more on the plane.”
    Ariana had started to tremble. Rainey could see her blankets quivering.
    “Oh, no, you’re not going into shock on me. We haven’t got time for that, either.”
    Rainey grabbed hold of Ariana’s arm and shook her, then grabbed her face and forced her to look straight into her eyes.
    “Listen, I’m really sorry, but we gotta get going.”
    “I’m not going with you anywhere! How do you know so much about me? I thought you were just some crazy person from another room.”
    “I told you, but you wouldn’t believe me.”
    “I believe you. I mean, I don’t believe you.”
    “Can you make up your mind on the go? Here, put this on,” Rainey held out a shirt. “I haven’t even begun to tell you the unbelievable things yet. That could take weeks, the way you’re reacting.”
    “Like what? Humor me,” Ariana demanded, momentarily sidetracked, but she took the shirt and slid her arms through the sleeves.
    So this is a trade, Rainey thought. She gets dressed, I speak. “Like the fact that I am a witch.”
    “Ha, this just keeps getting better.”
    Rainey held out some pants. “There are many witches on the island. We put a spell on it so that humans can’t see it unless they know the magic word; which, of course, is