Mystically Bound (Frostbite, Book Three) (7 page)

I nodded again, totally spooked. “They feel
cold.”

“Well then, think, girl.” Wayde looked at me
as if my head was empty. “If a ghost has no physical strength in
this world, how are you able to feel its touch?”

A sudden iciness slid through my veins and I
wrapped my arms around myself, chilled to my bones. “I don’t feel a
touch, just coldness.”

Wayde inclined his head, leaning back in his
seat and placing his arms upon the armrest. “But they have no power
to touch anything.”

“Yes, but it’s only air.”

“They aren’t air.”

A hundred retorts held on my tongue, but it
seemed by his knowing look he’d shut them all down, so I swallowed
back any further responses. The sitting room wasn’t overly small,
but it seemed like the walls were closing in on me.

Not allowing myself to be lost in panic, I
blew out a long breath, settling the anxiety tightening my throat.
“All right, so you’re saying that because of my connection to the
Netherworld, I am able to interact with ghosts in a way most can’t.
Plus, the sensations I get from ghosts is because that’s what the
Netherworld feels like and they can only touch me because I’ve been
there?”

Wayde gave a firm nod. “Precisely.”

As much as all this gave me the
heebie-jeebies, it also meant the answer to find Kipp didn’t lie
with the man in front of me. My powers held the key. Perhaps that
meant I didn’t need Wayde, but I needed Nettie’s knowledge. “So, I
only need to tap further into that sensation and stop being blind
to it, and then what, I’ll go into the Netherworld?”

“Your dreams are the gateway into the
Netherworld,” Wayde replied as if discussing the pale blue paint on
the walls.

I blinked in confusion. “But you said I sense
the Netherworld when awake, so why would I need to dream to go
there?”

Gretchen left her place by the window and
leaned up against the side of the couch next to me, keeping her
gaze firmly on Wayde. “She’s right—that doesn’t make sense.”

“Actually, it does.” He raised his eyebrows
at Gretchen, then said to me, “You will always feel the Netherworld
with you, since it’s because of there you have the gifts you do.
The Netherworld is
always
with you. But from what I’ve read
about Nettie, she found a way to access the Netherworld through REM
sleep.” He stretched out his legs, lacing his hands behind his
head, and his dark eyes were ice cold. “In fact, I’d reckon you’ve
journeyed there without knowing it.”

I gulped. “Journeyed there to do what?”

His expression remained stony with his shrug.
“Haven’t a clue since I’m not in your dreams, am I?”

“Hold up.” I shook my head to slow the spin.
This wasn’t at all where I expected him to go with this.
My
dreams
? “Are you suggesting that when people dream they go into
the Netherworld?”

“No, Tess, not people,” he replied carefully.
“
You
.”

While I wanted to reject what he said, since
it seemed far out there, a sudden memory rushed into my mind of a
certain dream I experienced with Kipp. One, with us naked, doing
naughty things to each other, had seemed all too real at the time.
Had that dream actually happened and somehow taken place in the
Netherworld? But then, why didn’t Kipp tell me as much? If that
happened, he would’ve known, right?

Perhaps he didn’t want to scare me, or maybe
he knew I would’ve been less than enthused to hear we did
that
for real. Or maybe even, he realized my connection was
deeper than I knew and he didn’t understand it enough to explain it
to me, or maybe make sense out of it himself.

Could have been all those things, or a
hundred other possibilities. Too bad Kipp wasn’t around to answer.
Especially considering we did
that
in his bedroom, which
made me wonder if I was wrong. It didn’t happen in the Netherworld,
not that I knew what the mystical world looked like, but I
sincerely doubted it looked like Kipp’s bedroom.

For now, I focused on the present and stuck
to figuring out what all this meant. “If I can access the
Netherworld only when I’m sleeping, then how can I remember what
happens when I am there?” As soon as the words passed my lips, I
answered my own question. I remembered the sex with Kipp after I
had woken up, clear as day. Maybe it wasn’t all that difficult.

I had recalled my past dreams and now
wondered how many of those dreams where actually times I’d spent in
the Netherworld, chatting with ghosts. I shuddered at the thought
and hoped it didn’t happen often. “Okay, this is creepy.”

“Creepy?” Wayde glowered, standing from his
chair in a huff. “You have an incredible gift. Don’t frown upon
it.”

I glanced at Gretchen and she gave me a kind
smile, clearly understanding the weird information. I noticed the
strength in her gaze and that comforted me now. No matter where
this took me, Gretchen wouldn’t leave me and would do whatever she
could to keep me safe, that I believed without a doubt.

Feeling slightly more confident, I turned to
Wayde. “All right, so Nettie here…” I peered at the book and
couldn’t help but feel a little pull to the woman. Strange as it
might be, hearing of someone else who had my gifts gave me a
certain type of peace. Maybe I hated being alone in the world—one
crazy-ass ghost-seeing woman—and to know there had been another
gave me hope. “What happened to her?”

“Nothing.” Wayde replied, drawing my gaze up
to him. “She died in her eighties.”

I sighed, rolling my eyes. “So then, how will
seeing her picture and hearing we have the same gifts help me? I
have no idea how to dream myself into the Netherworld.”

“Flip to the fourth page.” After I did,
seeing nothing but diary-like writings, he approached me and knelt
against the dark hardwood floor, putting his hand on the book. “You
are not allowed to read past that page.”

I snorted, almost liking my suspicion,
because it meant I could hold the very answer to Kipp’s problem in
my hands. “Why, because the spell to fix Kipp is in this book?”

Wayde shifted on his knees and pressed harder
against the book against my legs. “No, I told you, the Lux is
protected. This book only contains Nettie’s history. But I may need
to use the information in here.”

I narrowed my eyes and squirmed against the
couch, so he eased up on the pressure. Nothing like having to help
a man who was planning to exploit me and didn’t even didn’t hide
that fact. Too bad for me, I didn’t have a choice but to comply.
“Fine. What am I reading?”

“It’s Nettie’s diary.” He tapped the book
with his index finger. “This passage will tell you how she entered
the Netherworld.”

“That easy, huh?” I retorted, not believing
anything could be so simple. “Read her diary, and I’ll have all the
answers I need to find Kipp?”

“If I attempted this, I would fail, but you…”
Wayde leaned away from me, but remained on his knees. “Yes, it’s
that easy.”

I glanced sideways at Gretchen, and once
again, she urged me with a nod. “It does make sense, Tess.” She
shifted on the armrest of the couch, peering down at me. “I only
know what I do from learning from the witches before me. In this
case, Nettie held the
exact
gifts you do, meaning she holds
the answers you need.”

She paused before she gestured to Wayde.
“He’s read her diary, which is how he knows about
your
gifts. You can trust what he’s telling you now. I have no doubt
that the reason Alexander wanted to meet you is because he knew
about Nettie.” She sighed, and it sounded tinged with annoyance. “I
suspect he wanted to teach you what he knew of her.”

The darkness in her features indicated that
Alexander would’ve let me see the diary in its entirety. He
wouldn’t have played the ridiculous games Wayde did. But the tight
set of her mouth told me to only trust Wayde so far. He might tell
me pieces of the truth to ensure I helped him, but he didn’t tell
me the full truth. “Fair enough.”

Drawing in a long breath, I glanced at my lap
to read the book, but then felt cornered. Wayde stared into my face
and he crowded my space. I raised my head, glaring at him. “I won’t
read farther, but can you back off and give me some damn space to
breathe?”

Wayde’s challenging stare lasted a few good
few seconds, then he lowered his hand, stood and took a step back.
I didn’t doubt for a second if I flipped a page, he’d full-out
attack me to get the book out of my hands.

I rolled my eyes at the idiot and looked down
at the page.

October 4, 1920

Tonight, I proved my theory right. The
elevated tingle across my flesh before I enter sleep is my soul
touching the veil. I allowed the connection to overtake me and
chose to travel into the Netherworld. When I awakened, I found an
odd place, filled with so much mystery, yet I oddly felt as if I’d
come home. There, I made contact with an older gentleman, Tavish,
who welcomed me and we chatted a while about his life in Scotland.
He didn’t request help from me and I never offered, but it did seem
he enjoyed the time with me.

On a snort, I stopped reading and glanced up
at Wayde. “Again, I don’t see how knowing about a tingle is going
to help me.”

He frowned. “Keep reading.”

I did.

Once Tavish left me there alone, I realized
the sensation I’d experienced—the empty, odd, icy darkness had been
that place. A veil of nothing, no way forward and no way out, home
to lost ghosts. In an odd way, I feel as if I belong there more
than I do in the world I’m in now.

On a deep swallow, I leaned back in the couch
and exhaled deeply as those words seemed to coincide with what
Wayde had said. Did I honestly belong there, too? Was that what he
meant? Had I shut my eyes and no longer looked at the world around
me, because in truth, I didn’t belong in this world anymore? Could
it be possible if I’d been more aware, I would’ve known it?

At that moment, I realized how easy it’d been
to tap into the Netherworld. It was as much a part of me as the
blood running through my veins. It’d always been there, ever since
the near-drowning in the lake. An ingrained part of me that once
found, answered the remainder of my questions.

While I could relate to the questions she
had, since I had a thousand of my own, I doubted her reasoning to
find answers was that her ghost lover needed rescuing. But I
surmised the sensation she spoke of was what Wayde mentioned and
Gretchen confirmed. Could it be possible? Was my eerie sensation
around ghosts actually the feeling of the Netherworld?

There is where I found my peace, but soon, I
came to discover my choice to remain didn’t belong to me. My
presence lasted only a short time. Now I assume it has something to
do with sleep patterns, since I awoke and remembered my time there.
Let this be said, I will journey there again, and as often as I
can, until I understand why I’m so connected to a place that is
meant for no one to belong.

I exhaled the breath I hadn’t known I held
and looked at Gretchen. “Says here, Nettie knew she belonged in the
Netherworld and yes, it explains the sensation I feel well enough.”
Then, to Wayde I said, “But it doesn’t say how I’ll get there.”

Gretchen gasped, dragging my focus to her,
and her hands were over her mouth, eyes wide. Locked in her knowing
stare, understanding simmered right through me in an instant and
the answer became all too clear. Wayde had said it himself: for
him, it would be impossible; for me, it was simple.

“I don’t need to learn anything, do I?” At
the slow shake of Wayde’s head, I swallowed deep and then managed,
“I’m already gifted the right to be there.”

“Exactly.” Wayde took the book out of my
hands. “You only need to be aware, and then open your mind to what
you’re feeling. The veil is yours to cross. Right there awaiting
you. You simply need to make the conscious choice to go. It’s that
simple—nothing complex.”

Perhaps Nettie had been more willing to
accept her gifts and see for herself what made her tick, but I
hadn’t ever been so accommodating. Each event since I met Kipp had
brought me closer to understanding what I could do, and why. Right
now was no exception. My world had been very small and I realized
how much I shut down. How much I ignored everything right in front
of me.

Now, I’d never seen anything so clearly.

Why did the hardest things in life sometimes
seem so easy with just the right perspective?

The softness of the mattress beneath me made sleeping
easy. After all I’d been through, plus the thought I might see Kipp
again, my eyelids became heavy the moment I climbed into the large
four-poster bed.

In the fancy bedroom, my broken fingernails
and crunchy hair reminded me I did not fit in here…at all.
Everything declared this space for the wealthy, from the rich red
curtains, crown moldings surrounding the burgundy painted walls,
and no doubt ridiculously expensive artwork on canvasses. Even the
gold satin embroidered bedspread appeared more like something a
celebrity should be sleeping in than little ole’ me, further
reminding me to get this done as quickly as I could. I needed to go
back to Memphis where things made sense.

“So…” Gretchen shut the door behind her and
turned to me with a smile. “I didn’t want to ask out there with
Wayde, but have you ever noticed yourself going into the
Netherworld?”

Again, the dream with Kipp lingered on my
mind. Not as if I’d go into that with Gretchen, since I doubted she
wanted to hear about my X-rated fantasy. “I’m not sure.” Not a
total lie considering I honestly didn’t know. Perhaps I misread the
dream. “Besides, it’s horrifying to think I
might
have gone
there.”

“Agreed.” Gretchen sat next to me and the
mattress didn’t even bounce within the solid wood frame. “It’s
peculiar.”