Love Everlastin' Book 3 Read Online Free PDF Page A

far
sorrier than ye."
    His chest rising and falling
with each furious breath, Winston accused, "You're a coward,
Baird!"
    "Just wiser than ye," she
laughed softly. Then somberly, "Goodbye, Winston. Just remember
tha' ye canna hide yer thoughts or feelin’s from me. If naught
else, it may teach ye humility."
    "Wait! Wait!"
    Realizing that he was fading
from the garden, he sucked in a great breath. He experienced a
whoosh of sensation, then opened his eyes and found himself staring
into the dwindling flames on the iron grate in front of him.
Profound sadness yawned inside him, opening a void so stark and
desolate, he nearly succumbed to tears. But then the old Winston
resurfaced. He clamped down on the fragmented emotions he believed
had been transferred from the mysterious woman to him, and stiffly
rose to his feet.
    The room was chilled, the
shadows looming like grim sentinels. He suddenly felt lonelier than
he ever had, but he refused to waste even a moment trying to
analyze the cause.
    She couldn't have been
anything more than a figment of his imagination, a necessary
diversion for his stressed psyche!
    He was about to turn in the
direction of the bed when something caught his eye. With a
trembling hand, he reached for the object on the mantel.
    Instead of the loose petals
he had placed there earlier, there lay an intact rose. Despite the
lessening light, he knew it was purple, and he knew it was the same
rose, only fully restored now. As he drew it to his chest, a tiny
invisible thorn pricked his finger. Liquid warmth entered the wound
and rapidly passed into his veins.
    "Ye are no' ready to embrace
the magic," she had accused him.
    Lifting the rose to his
lips, he murmured, "You're wrong, Baird."

Chapter 2
     
    A dark and sinister eel-like
mass slithered along the boundaries of Winston's psychically
protected subconscious, awakening him minutes before dawn peeked
over the horizon. He bolted upright, his eyelids rapidly blinking,
his heart seeming to throb wildly in his throat. He was first
alarmed by the grayness in the room, then the silence, the latter
so thick he thought it an intruder hovering over him. When he tried
to recall what had frightened him during his dream state, he met
with a mental blank wall. The void was something he'd never before
encountered. There had always been unsolicited images and
impressions crowding the multiple realms of his psychic fields. Now
there was nothing but emptiness.
    By the time his heartbeat
returned to normal, he had to softly chuckle at himself. Why was he
afraid of the peacefulness inside his skull? Hadn't that been
something he'd longed for since childhood? He ran his fingers
through his disheveled black hair and worked his dry mouth. His
stomach grumbled. Blinking hard to erase the remnants of sleep
weighing his eyelids, he peered out the window.
    It was a new day.
    Yawning, he flexed the
muscles in his back and shoulders then threw back the covers and
climbed out of bed. He relieved himself in the bathroom, then went
to the fireplace and prepared the hearth. The chill in the room
attached itself to every part of his exposed skin. He'd worn only
his boxer shorts to bed. Once he had the fire on the andiron going,
he hastily donned his dark gray slacks. In lieu of his shirt, which
he couldn't see anywhere, he pulled the top quilt off the bed,
draped it over his shoulders, and held the material closed with one
hand. He returned to the hearth and crouched, shivering against the
cold still nipping at him.
    The absence of dreaming
continued to perplex him. For as long as he could remember, his
dream world had always been so vivid and consistent, there had been
times he wasn't sure which world had been the reality. He had never
experienced a personal nightmare, a manifestation of his own
subconscious. Even his dreams belonged to outsiders. Their fears.
Their insecurities. Their hopelessness.
    Baird.
    The woman's facetious name
murmured in his skull.
    If only he could grasp