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remember what it is to feel, to be human. That is a more precious gift than you can imagine. His hand
stroked her hair again.  The hour has grown late. Sleep.
Linda forced a tiny smile.  Sleep? With a ghost in my room?
 I will leave for the night, if you wish.
 No, I didn t mean it that way. You can stay. I just& it s so much to think about. I never really believed
in ghosts, or spirits, or magic. Not since I became an adult, anyway. But I have no choice but to accept
that you re real. Either that, or accept that I m going crazy. Hell, maybe I am.
 Do you really believe that?
She hesitated.  No. I guess I don t. She muffled a yawn with one hand and realized she was exhausted.
Her curiosity and fascination had kept her from feeling it, until this point, but now her eyelids seemed to
be made of stone. Holding them open took all her willpower.  I guess I reallyshould try to get some
sleep. Her head sank to the pillow.
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 Sleep well, Linda.
She d thought it would be impossible to sleep with Gregory there, but she felt oddly safe in his presence.
She could imagine his huge body in bed, next to hers, could feel the intimate touch of his thoughts inside
her mind. She closed her eyes.If only there was something I could do , she thought.If only I could talk
to the person who taught him the spell, and find out how to reverse it. If only &
Chapter Three
Linda opened her eyes and stared down at her own body. It lay in bed, eyes closed, chest rising and
falling with each breath. She floated upward like a balloon, through the ceiling, into the cold, clear night.
She rose above the city, above the skyscrapers, into the black, star-scattered dome above.
What was going on?
She looked down at herself. Her body was soft and translucent, wreathed in milky light, and a glowing,
silver cord ran down from her navel, to her apartment building far below. The sight of that cord made her
feel somehow safer, made her certain that she could return if she wanted. She looked up at the sky, and
a white light blossomed above her. She floated toward it, into it, and the world disappeared.
Linda stood on soft, mist-covered ground. The mist hid her feet, swirled around her legs. The unseen
ground beneath it was spongy and slightly giving. She took a few, tentative steps. It felt almost like
walking on a cloud, or what she d imagined a cloud would feel like, as a child, before she learned clouds
were just water vapor.
Linda shivered and wrapped her arms around herself. Goose-bumps rose on her arms. She was dressed
only in her flimsy, white cotton nightgown, and her feet were bare. The silver cord still trailed from her
navel, vanishing into the mist below. With her mind, she felt carefully along its length and followed it down
to its end. A glimpse of her sleeping body flashed through her mind, and her anxiety faded a little.
 Hello? she called.  Anyone here?
The silence swallowed her question.
She looked around. The mist-covered field stretched in every direction, flat and empty, no trees or
rocks for miles. Overhead arched the clearest night sky she d ever seen, blue-black, edged with purple,
and covered with a thick spray of glittering stars. She felt profoundly alone in this vast, silent, empty
place. Fear slipped into her heart like a sliver of ice.
She began to walk, hugging herself for warmth. Ahead, she saw something tall and bright, rising out of
the mist.
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Linda quickened her pace. She drew closer, but still, she couldn t see what the object was. She broke
into a run& then stopped and stared in awe.
A pair of open, shining white gates rose out of the mist. There was nothing around them, nothing to hold
them up. They stood alone, glowing with a soft, pearly radiance, like moonlight, their surface carved with
hundreds of tiny, intricate shapes -- letters, maybe, but in no language she recognized. A long stream of
misty, indistinct figures passed through them. They looked like people, but they were pale, soft and [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]