Into Thin Air Read Online Free PDF Page B

could.
    "Can you recall your family? Do you have siblings? Your mother and sire, mayhap?"
    Ellie thought hard. Certainly a normal person would remember their own family? She closed her eyes, thinking for some stupid reason it would help her concentrate. Maybe help her focus better.
    Sire? Who said sire anymore?
    Then it came. First pitch-blackness, then a flash of light. Yellowed light, foggy and dim. It illuminated a scene, almost as though she were watching an old movie. It faded just as fast as it had appeared.
    "What is it?"
    Ellie opened her eyes and stared at Gawan. "Not much. A young girl, maybe eight or nine years old, sitting on a wooden dock with an old man."
    Gawan cocked his head. "A wooden dock?"
    Ellie nodded. "Yeah. A dock floating over the water. Maybe a river?" She recalled the scene again.
    "I think it was me. Maybe with my grandpa? But how do I know it's my grandpa?"
    "Nothing more?" he asked, his voice calm, soothing.
    She nodded. "When I left here, before, I remember being somewhere black, cold at first, then warm.
    And it smelled very earthy. I couldn't see anything, though. But it felt weird."
    Gawan frowned, scratched his jaw, then sighed. "I've something to tell you that may frighten you, but there's no sense in putting the matter off." He reached out a hand, large, with thick veins, callused, and squeezed her own hand. She liked how it felt against her skin. "I beg you, don't be afraid," he said.
    The pit of Ellie's stomach lurched. "What is it?"
    He cracked his knuckles. "I suppose I should have told you from the first, but you kept disappearing." He sighed. "I have a rather, well, unconventional occupation."
    She stared. What did his occupation have anything to do with her situation? Certainly, he had a good reason. "Sooo. What is it?"
    Those soulful brown eyes rimmed by dark lashes blinked; then Gawan leaned closer. His soapy scent wafted toward her nose. "I sort of ... see the unliving."
    Silence.
    "Help them, actually," he said. "Guide them. Along with others in need. Of help, that is."
    More silence.
    Without moving her head, Ellie glanced around. She scanned each corner of the expansive room, looking for a hidden camera, a hidden camera crew, or who knew what lurking in the corner, ready to jump out. Then she locked eyes with Gawan when nothing did.
    "You what?" she asked. She scooted closer to the edge of her seat.

    He shoved a hand through his hair. "I know it sounds ridiculous, unfathomable, mayhap, but 'tis the truth. I vow it." He cleared his throat. "I'm a ... Guardian, of sorts. A gwarcheidiol, to be exact." He coughed. "Sort of."
    Ellie peeked over the very broad shoulder of Gawan Conwyk and eyed the door. The one she'd be going out of at any second. Good Lord, how could someone that cute be that delusional? Oh, his poor mother.
    "Ellie?"
    Her eyes darted back to Gawan, who had the look of a wounded puppy. Too bad. Didn't matter how cute and sexy he was—he had issues. Major ones. Ones she felt sure she couldn't help him with.
    And here she sat in his bedroom.
    He thought he saw ghosts. And he claimed to be a gwarcheidiol? What the bleep was that?
    With her fingers digging into the side of the armrests, Ellie slowly stood, and her muscles bunched as she got ready to make a break for the door.
    "She's going to bolt!" a gravelly voice barked from behind the large oak door. "Grab her!"
    "Hush, Sir Godfrey! You'll frighten the poor lamb."
    "Move over, woman! I cannot see a bloody thing!"
    Ellie froze as two—images?—sifted, no, fell through the closed door. She blinked, rubbed her eyes with her knuckles, and stared.
    A strange word grumbled from Gawan's throat. Ellie suspected it wasn't nice.
    The images appeared to be a man and a woman, slightly transparent and wispy and looking as though they'd stepped out of another century. They slowly erected themselves. The woman covered her red lips with two fingers and gasped. The man coughed.
    The woman had a big bird on her head.
    "Now,