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Well, it looked like she had no choice but to venture further into this spectacular little garden. She sighed happily, “If I must.”
Several yards in, she realizedlittlewas not the right word. The grounds were eminent, mazelike, with dozens of winding paths and smaller offshoot trails skirting through a delicate patchwork of ornamental shrubs, trees, and flowerbeds.
Everything was in bloom. Flowers of every color painted the landscape. Some of the buds resembled those she might find on Earth, others not so much. One flower could have been a cross between a tulip and a daffodil. Thetulipdilwas a pleasing mix of yellows, whites, and reds with three filaments curling out from the center, almost like an antenna. When she reached out to feel the softness of a petal, those filaments…reached back.
“Incredible.” Even the flower’s stem arched toward her as the “antenna” stroked her skin. Though it seemed to betastingher, it also appeared benign in nature. “I’m going to call you Audrey Two.” She should be alarmed, yet she felt no fear of this strange moving blossom. In fact, she got the sense it was about as sinister as a blade of grass or a puff of cloud.
As long as Jessie could remember, she’d had a sort of sixth sense about things or situations that posed an immediate danger. She called it her spidey sense. When she was seven, she’d tragically predicted the car accident that had taken her mother’s life. Unfortunately, the prediction had come to her only seconds before the drunk driver had slammed into their little Jetta. Preceding the chaos of grinding metal and shattering glass, she’d been inundated by a crippling fear that had choked the air from her lungs, a vision of the wreckage, the carnage, but she’d been too young to understand, or even know to warn her mother…
And yet…why hadn’t she received a single twinge of alarm when she’d set foot in that camouflaged alien ship?
She’d awakened in the hospital days after the accident, breathing through a ventilator…alone. Motherless.
When she’d finally been released, she’d stayed with a family friend until her father returned permanently from overseas, forced to leave his position in the Marines to become a fulltime father.
That was the first time her life had been dramatically demolished and rearranged into a kaleidoscope of uncertain pieces, but sadly was not the last. Case in point.
She strolled along, that odd feeling pulling her forward. She had the strangest sensation, one she remembered having on occasion, of a rope fastened to her gut, tugging her toward a place she was meant to be—or pushing her away from a place sheshouldn’tbe—like that time she’d left a bar moments before a vicious shooting had occurred.
It was almost as if she were beingcompelledto continue down this path, forcing her to take a left down a slender walkway, past glorious flowerbeds and ornate statues that she wanted to return to and examine in more detail, until she came to a secluded nook that nestled below an elevated stone outcrop. Dense shrubs and looming trees added to a sense of privacy…
Beyond the thicket, hushed voices filtered into her little recess.
Ducking down, she peeked through spinney branches. Two men whispered in harried tones. She could see them clearly from the shoulders down, but their faces were partly obscured by leaves. Both wore cloaks, one made of tawny fur, the other black with purple lining.
“My soothsayers tell me something big is coming,” said one man in an unusual accent that made him sound as if he was from another continent. His aura—I suppose seeing auras is normal now—was a murky miasma of dark shades. If purple could rust, that was what it would look like, with puckers of yellow and mossy green.
“Like what?” the other man replied, the cadence of his accent resembling Orik’s.
“I do not know,” countered the first. “Have you discovered Xanthia’s location yet?”
“Nay. She has no’ been seen since that night.” The second man’s aura was nearly void of vibrancy, like a bundle of swirling grays trying to congeal as one.
Obviously this was a clandestine meeting, not meant to be overheard. If they caught her, what would they do? Drag her back to the castle and hand her off to Orik? Or simply throw her in a dungeon? There were worse options. Ones she didn’t even want to consider. She decided it was best to remain hidden until after they left.
Crouching down, she edged back toward a darker patch in the thicket…
…and a twig snapped under her boot.
“What was that? Were you followed?” Neither man spoke for several moments after that, and Jessie’s spidey sense went haywire. Already she knew she shouldn’t be here, but now she felt as though she were in serious jeopardy.
Footsteps pounded on stone. Alarmed, she peeked through the foliage once more. The men were gone!
Were they coming for her?
Like a shot, she sprinted away, dashing back through the garden. The sounds of the surrounding wildlife seemed to grow louder as she tried to retrace her path. Was it a right here, or a left? Birds squawked out warnings, flapping into the sky as though to escape a predator.
Heart pounding, she rounded a corner, and a flock flew out in front of her. She jumped in surprise, but then continued running, branching off onto another path. Was she going the right way? She wasn’t sure.
Suddenly a set of strong arms grabbed her from behind. Her heart lurched into throat, and a blood-curdling scream tore from her lungs.
7
Orik covered Jessie’s mouth, muffling her scream as he held her thrashing body against him. She kicked out and squirmed like a vicious hellion, but her strength was no match for his. Next to her ear, he muttered, “Did I no’ tell you to stay put?”
To his surprise, her struggles instantly ceased, and all the tension left her body. He might have thought she’d fainted if she wasn’t still standing on her own. Still, her response was unexpected, and therefore made him wary. Releasing his hold, he turned her to face him. She glanced up at him with relief and…smiled?
He lost his breath for a moment, like he’d been walloped in the solar plexus. The lass had a devastatingly lovely smile.
