Authors: Kendall Grey
Tags: #Australia, #Whales, #Fantasy, #Aboriginal Australia, #Aboriginal Magic, #Short Story
Letting Go (4 page)
The song stopped, and a moment later, a blow split the air a few meters in front of them. The other whale popped up on his right. She must have been enjoying the music too.
As the two traveled away, toward the dying sun, Zoe caught one last phrase, which accompanied a trailing, magical white line—just like the ones she saw connecting the bird, the little boy, and her yesterday. Images of countless whales, linked together and to her, passing songs down from one generation to the next, filled her mind. The reappearance of the threads both elated and terrified her, but she embraced the strangeness of it all.
Magic—whether real or imagined—had brought Zoe, the old man, the little boy, and the whales together. Whatever they were, the threads meant something good. They had to.
The whales disappeared into the depths, the glowing filaments with them.
Zoe might have been a little bit crazy, but maybe it wasn’t such a bad thing.
Sometimes growing up meant letting go of the crutches people clung to in order to make it from day to day. Things like doubt and lack of confidence and differences.
Zoe was
not
a normal kid. She would never be normal. But being different was okay. If it meant seeing the world from another perspective, maybe she should accept that as the best angle for
her
and move on.
Dr. Simons stepped behind the wheel and restarted the boat. “What do you reckon, Zoe? Did you find the whales to your liking?”
She flashed her braces at him with the biggest smile she could muster, knowing she looked totally goofy and ridiculous. “I reckon I know what I’m going to be when I grow up.”
If you enjoyed this bit of
Just Breathe
Ephemera, check out INHALE, the first book in the
Just Breathe
Trilogy. INHALE is available in ebook and paperback formats.
Strangers in reality, inseparable in dreams...
After years of suffocating under her boss's scrutiny, whale biologist Zoe Morgan finally lands a job as director of a tagging project in Hervey Bay, Australia. Success Down Under all but guarantees her the promotion of a lifetime, and Zoe won't let anything--or anyone--stand in her way. Not the whale voices she suddenly hears in her head, not the ex who won't take no for an answer, and especially not the gorgeous figment of her imagination who keeps saving her from the fiery hell of her dreams.
Gavin Cassidy hasn't been called to help a human Wyldling in over a year, which is fine by him. Still blaming himself for the death of his partner, he keeps the guilt at bay by indulging in every excess his rock star persona affords. That is, until he's summoned to protect Zoe from hungry Fyre Elementals and learns his new charge is the key to restoring order in the dying Dreaming. He never expects to fall for the feisty Dr. Morgan...nor does he realize he may have to sacrifice the woman he loves to save an entire country.
EXHALE, book two in the
Just Breathe
Trilogy, is available in ebook format.
Her dreams brought them together, but reality could tear them apart...
The man of Zoe Morgan's dreams isn't only real, he's interested. In her. But her boss wants her too, and is leveraging his unsolicited advances with the threat of blocking the huge promotion she's after. When he places a spy on her research team, the intense stranger discovers more than he should, and Zoe fears hiding a relationship with Gavin Cassidy from her boss is the least of her worries. The whale she must protect has been marked for death, and Zoe's old enemy Scarlet is eager to deliver the killing blow. To both of them.
Australia's Sentinels must find and lock the door into the Dreaming before Fyre Elementals launch another attack on innocent dreamers. But corruption and distrust abound, and Gavin believes someone on the Sentinel council is in league with the Fyres. As he reluctantly embraces his new role as council leader, Gavin must not only keep Zoe safe from Scarlet's vengeful clutches, but organize a Sentinel defense strong enough to prevent a full-blown Elemental war--with a traitor fighting by his side.
* The author will donate all profits from sales of the
Just Breathe
Ephemera series and the
Just Breathe
Trilogy to programs that educate people about whales and the challenges they face.
About the Author
Kendall Grey, word diddler and whale warrior, was born without an off-switch between her brain and mouth. She’s been called the “Flux Capacitor of Twitter” and “A little package of love all wrapped up in F-word paper,” but she’s really just a maniacal writer relaying eyewitness accounts of the rave inside her head.
Kendall lives off a dirt road near Atlanta, Georgia, but don’t hold that against her.
Cetacean Research Network - A fictional companion to the
Just Breathe
Trilogy
