Letting Go Read Free Page A

alternative ways to position the wires to achieve different movements. With a few tweaks, the legs and tail could easily be integrated into the larger system, creating multiple, synchronous movements—
    A line of shimmery white caught her eye, like a spider web reflecting light. Zoe startled and brought the figure closer. Tiny luminescent threads of what she could only describe as “magic” stretched from the bird’s body in countless directions around the room and beyond. She reached for one, but her fingers met air.
    The lines were somewhere outside of here. Like another dimension.
    Excitement shimmied up and down her spine. She turned the falcon to get a better look and traced the extra-dimensional wires. Several of the bird’s threads were attached to her . And to something behind her.
    The kid’s screams decreased to a series of sniffles.
    The heat of a body warmed the back of her arm. A pair of dark blue eyes peered around her elbow, and two small hands clasped the table edge beside her.
    Zoe pulled the figurine away. The falcon was connected to the little boy’s chest, just like hers.
    Her heart skipped a beat. “Hi, there.”
    He glanced at his parents. With raised brows, both of them grinned through clenched teeth.
    “ Bad day, huh?” she asked.
    He nodded. Tears streaked his chubby, pink cheeks.
    She shot her gaze to Mother. “We all have them.”
    “ Whassat?” He pointed to the bird.
    She turned her chair and bent to meet him at eye level. “It’s a falcon.” The practical part of her fully expected an avian slaughter, but the shock of seeing this kid tethered to the bird by some kind of awesome Aboriginal magic gave her the strength to hold out the fragile animal with trembling fingers.
    He shot a cautious glance at her, while the grown-ups—none of whom seemed to notice the glittery silken strands—held their breaths. Conjuring a smile, she nodded to the little boy as the Aboriginal man had done to her that morning. Small fingers reached reverently for the bird. When he brushed its wooden surface, his mouth eased into a grin. He gently plucked it from her palm, and the three adults heaved a sigh of relief.
    She and the kid weren’t so different. Like him, all she wanted was for someone to recognize her. To say, “I see you. You’re important. I care about you.” The guy on the street had done that for her.
    Passing along a kind gesture to the boy seemed the right thing to do, but the selfish part of her couldn’t go through with it. She’d just gotten the bird, and it clearly had some kind of magical powers. Okay, maybe not actual magic, but it sure made her feel special. Judging by that temper tantrum, this little fireball would destroy her gift the moment she turned her back if she let him keep it.
    No way. The bird was hers.
    She opened her mouth to ask him to return it, just as the sun broke free of its cloudy prison outside and beamed through the front window. Rays of light illuminated one of the shimmery lines. By far the thickest of the bunch, this string didn’t come from the bird like the others. It linked Zoe to the little boy.
    Her mouth clapped shut, and she choked on her own breath. What did this mean? Were she and this kid somehow tied together?
    He smiled at her.
    Zoe did a double take. Lots of threads from the bird to her and the bird to him, but the ones tethering the two of them together glowed the brightest.
    As she’d once heard Aunt Renee say, Well, I’ll be dipped in shit.
    It was probably another of her hallucinations—she had them occasionally—but after the weirdness she’d experienced with the man, the bird, and these glowing lines, Zoe didn’t want to tempt fate by being selfish or ignoring omens from The Powers That Be. She had enough problems as it was.
    “ Looks like you might need this more than I do.” Though it hurt to let the falcon go, she had to.
    Laughter fell from the boy’s mouth, the sound of sunshine after a thunderstorm. Looking her