Stepping into the Sky: Jump When Ready, Book 3 Read Free

above.
    Rose got out of her car and walked toward the stone wall.
She swung her legs over it and sat staring out, feeling numb, seeing only
within herself another tragedy she couldn’t have imagined possible. She thought
of barely remembered faces. She reached back through time, trying to recover
their expressions, their gazes, their embrace. She waited, hoping to feel the
love of her lost parents surrounding her. A cloud passed over the sun, leaving
her in more darkness.
    Then she heard it in the distance—the throaty roar of
Joseph’s Camaro as it raced up the incline.
    Was he coming for her? Part of her wanted it to be true.
    But it could never matter now, she knew. How could it
ever matter?
    Within seconds, his car blasted by. He hadn’t seen her,
Rose felt sure—he couldn’t have. Rose told herself to remain where she was. She
told herself it was already over, that life no longer mattered. But her body
sprang into action for some reason she couldn’t understand. She scrambled to
her car and jolted the engine to life. Gravel sprayed as she took to the road
again, even as she asked herself what she wanted, what she could possibly hope
for. Was it confrontation? Was it sympathy? Did she want to see him cry and beg
forgiveness? She didn’t know and there wasn’t time to think as she sped after
him.
    Rose rounded a corner, clearing the trees. She raced
after him, imagining his face stretched with pain as he cried, hunched over the
steering wheel, desperately thinking he’d soon catch up to her. She stomped her
foot to the gas pedal and pulled up alongside his car. She turned her head and
saw the truth.
    Joseph drove relaxed in his seat, one arm outstretched to
the steering wheel. Beside him, Linda rested her head against the seatback,
eyes closed and grinning as the wind blew through her hair and sun shined on
her face. Music blared from open windows.
    Rose’s throat seized and the world before her became a
tunnel. She gasped for breath, tears streaming from her eyes, her heart
pounding. She locked her brakes and cut the wheel.
    Joseph’s eyes met hers for just a moment before metal hit
metal with a sickening blow. Glass shattered and sprayed. The air filled with
the smell of burning rubber. Linda craned to see what was happening as Joseph’s
car veered off the road.
    Rose’s car spun and stalled at the side of the road. She
sat twisted in her seat, thrown against the door, unable to stop watching as
the other car broke through the cliff’s guard rail and sailed into the sky.

2
    The Veil
     
    Henry glanced over
at Nikki as they followed Martha into Halfway House, shooting her a questioning
look. Nikki’s shrug and arched eyebrows returned his question. Lysrus wanted to
talk to them? The Mentors wanted them to do something? Their world had just
shifted, definitely. They both understood that much, but that much only. The
rest would have to wait until they came face to face with Lysrus.
    As they climbed the stairs, Henry thought back to the
moment when he’d caught sight of Lysrus, who’d appeared next to Martha after
they’d returned from the physical realm. It had only been for a second or two,
but Henry thought he saw a tall, thin figure draped in a white robe.  He saw platinum
hair and golden eyes. He’d felt almost sure he’d seen wings. But Lysrus had
vanished again almost instantly. It had all happened so fast that Henry might
have thought he’d imagined it but he hadn’t been able to forget seeing Lysrus’s
eyes and how different they’d seemed. The word “alien” had kept coming to mind,
although Henry knew the word would have a different meaning in this realm. By
“alien,” he didn’t mean someone from another planet. He meant alien in the
sense of not human. At least, not human in any way he’d experienced before.
    Martha stopped at her door and turned to them, her hand
resting on the knob. She offered a smile but her eyes remained serious. “Things
are about to change,” she said.