In the Arms of Stone Angels

chapter fifteen


Red Cliffs Hospital

Dr. Ridgeway finished giving Joe last-minute instructions on what he expected from us—his rules—but all I heard was, “Wa, wa, wah, waaah.” My eyes were fixed on White Bird sitting alone in the next room until I forced myself to turn away and look for Joe.

When my eyes met his, words weren’t necessary. And the nod of his head was subtle. I wasn’t even sure I’d seen Joe move at all. His gesture drifted between us like a puff of smoke, there one minute and gone the next. With eyes the color of shiny obsidian, he held my attention like the first time we’d met, when I was afraid of him.

Only this time, I drew from his strength.

Mom was the one who needed words. “Are you ready, honey?” she asked.

Even though Mom had good intentions, her voice doused me with ice water. I loved her, but she wasn’t part of this. She’d always be an innocent bystander. And I hadn’t realized how true that was until now. For her sake, I nodded and forced a smile, but I kept my eyes on Joe.

He was my gatekeeper.

He was the one I trusted to get me through this.

And he was the one who would save us both, if we weren’t already too late.

I heard the white noise of the doctor talking again as he led Joe and me out the observation room door. We were about to join White Bird in the next room. I took a deep breath before the doctor opened that door and without thinking, I grabbed for the pinkie of Joe’s hand. I clutched both hands around his finger as if it was the most natural thing to do. Joe didn’t look as if he minded being my lifeline.

When the door opened with its annoying creak, the doctor let us in but didn’t stay. Even though Mom and the doc would be listening in the next room, we were finally alone with White Bird and I saw him for real this time. His back was to me. And his head was slumped forward as he slouched in his wheelchair. I moved across that room, not knowing how I did it. I was just there, kneeling in front of him, too afraid to touch him—knowing what even the slightest contact would start.

Dressed in a pale blue robe with white pajamas and slippers, he smelled like soap, fresh laundry and the unforgettable aroma of boy. I breathed him in and held my breath to keep him inside. When my lungs burned, I let him out and went for seconds. His dark hair was still damp. It had grown and curled at his neck. Finger worthy. And his half-lidded brown eyes stared at the floor, a sweet gift that was wasted on hospital linoleum.

I fought the persistent lump of guilt wedged in my throat and White Bird’s face blurred with my tears. I wiped them away to see him.

“Hey, it’s me.”

This time I didn’t say my name and introduce myself as if we were strangers, like I’d done before. Too much had happened since then. He’d invaded my dreams too many times.

“Joe Sunne is here…but maybe you know that.”

I whispered the last part, so the doctor in the next room wouldn’t hear me. From the corner of my eye, I saw Joe take off his jacket and tie and toss them onto the only table in the room. When he rolled up his sleeves, Joe looked ready, but I sure wasn’t. I wanted White Bird to lift his head and see me, without needing the intimacy of my touch to know I was there, but that didn’t happen. And it scared me that I didn’t feel him like I did when I dreamed.

Maybe Joe was right—it was too late.

Doubts were killing me and poisoning my mind. My gut instinct told me to focus and shove the negativity aside. And when I looked at Joe, he nodded at me again, as if he’d read my mind. But this time when the man opened his mouth, he mesmerized me when he spoke.

He chanted the nearly forgotten Euchee language and it sounded like an ancient prayer. With each word, I heard the distant thunder again and I felt a spark of energy surge through me. I knew that strong sensation came from Joe. Spirit Walker was his Indian name. When the Shaman eased around White Bird, he waved his dark hands over him with his eyes closed.

But when I felt this incredible urge to touch White Bird, the room blurred to an intense brilliant white. I gasped and squinted, raising my hand to shield my eyes. Still sitting head down and slumped in his chair, he was the center of the light. I couldn’t tell if he’d caused it to appear or if Joe had summoned it. The boy in the wheelchair was all I saw, until he slowly ebbed away like low tide.

The intense light was feeding on his edges and sucking him into the milky void. I had to make it stop. I had to keep him from disappearing. I reached for his hand and pulled with all my strength, like a treacherous game of tug-of-war.

But when we touched, everything went black. And deathly still. I didn’t feel White Bird anymore.

I’d lost him.



Dr. Ridgeway watched the Native Shaman and the girl react to seeing Isaac Henry. He knew in an instant that the girl was in love. Maybe that was all this visit was—a girl who wanted to see her first love before he got sent to jail for the rest of his life.

It was a good thing he hadn’t called the sheriff about the kid’s visitors today. His old friend Matt Logan would have given him hell if he’d made a trip to the hospital for no good reason. Matt didn’t like calling attention to the fact that Isaac Henry was confined to a mental ward with criminal charges still pending.

“Something’s happening in there. I can see it, sort of.” The girl’s mother stepped closer to the observation window and put her fingers on the glass. “Is it hot in there? Joe’s got sweat on his forehead. What’s happening to them?”

Although Kate Nash had a better view, Ridgeway did a double take into the observation room and looked closer. Sunne had blocked his view with raised arms and his back darkened the two-way mirror. The man’s body was rigid and his head shook with strain. And the girl was kneeling in front of the Indian boy. Her hands gripped his so tightly that her knuckles were blanched.

But something much more interesting was happening to the boy.

Once again, Isaac Henry had straightened his head and stared into the eyes of Brenna Nash. With eyes wide, the kid looked fully aware, except for the fact that he hadn’t moved. His face was ghostly white and his mouth was gaped open. Whatever he saw in the girl had terrified him.

“I gotta make a call.” Ridgeway yanked his cell phone off his belt. “I’ll be right outside. Come get me if anything changes.”

Kate Nash yelled as he left the room. “What are you doing? You can’t leave now.”

As the door shut behind him, he hit speed dial for Sheriff Logan. When the man answered, he didn’t bother to identify himself. “Matt, you gotta get out here. Now! That Nash girl is in with Isaac Henry. And I think he’s coming out of it.”

Ridgeway didn’t wait to hear what his friend would say. He ended the call to the sheriff and went back inside the room, joining Mrs. Nash by the two-way mirror. His mind catapulted into the future and he envisioned writing a book on what he was witnessing. He had to know more.

And with Sunne making a bet with him, the Euchee Shaman knew this would happen. How could he have been so sure? Ridgeway had way too many questions to break this up now. He had to see it through.

“This is…amazing,” he gasped.

The Indian kid had never reacted this way in any of his treatments. His head now lolled from side to side and his breathing had escalated, but Isaac Henry looked as if he was on the verge of waking up. He was coming out of a stupor he’d endured for the past two years.

Whatever this was, it was truly remarkable.

“Shouldn’t you do something?” Kate Nash kept her eyes fixed on her daughter.

Ridgeway had no idea what to tell her. The woman had no appreciation for what was happening. They were witnessing a major breakthrough that could mean a boost to his career. What was going on in the next room was beyond the medicine he’d studied. And being a man of science, he had to know more.

He wasn’t about to stop it now.



After White Bird vanished before my eyes, I lost track of time. I saw nothing and an aching emptiness filled me up. I wondered if this was what death felt like—a vast barren abyss where time meant nothing—where a soul in limbo waited for something to happen, only vaguely aware of its existence. Wherever I was felt like a one-way trip. I was a lab rat in a maze with only one way out. I had focused so much on helping White Bird that I never imagined that touching him would blow up in my face. What if I never found him and got stuck here?

Suddenly, I missed Mom. And I wanted my crappy life back.

So I got down to the business of survival. I had to focus on something. The sooner I found him, the sooner we could put our heads together and find our way out. Joe had said to rely on the bond we had and I believed him.

And when I heard the steady beat of my heart, I knew I’d been wrong about being dead. I felt better already. But even with me hearing the blood rushing through my veins, everything else was oddly still. And with sounds muffled in the dense vacuum, I resisted the urge to call out White Bird’s name. I didn’t think he’d hear me. I sensed he was too far away.

But not so far that I couldn’t draw him from my memory and imagine him.

An image of him flashed in my mind. I saw his face wavering in front of me like a ripple on water, but he disappeared as fast as he came. I wasn’t strong enough to hold him. Was that how White Bird had done it? Had he just imagined me asleep in my room and linked to me that way? Maybe he’d been too weak to hold me long enough to find his way home.

When my head filled with memories of him, a warm feeling welled inside me and I felt his presence—really felt him—all around me and through me. I’d never experienced such peace. And the rich smell of the earth and a faint aroma of pine bark and wildflowers reminded me of the shelter he’d made by the creek, even though I couldn’t see anything but a bleak white. I wanted to believe these triggers were meant to calm me, that they were a message from him to let me know he was with me, but maybe that was only wishful thinking.

Where are you?

I concentrated on finding him, trusting my senses to point me in a direction. But when I peered through the brilliant white, I felt a growing tension behind my eyes that sent shards of pain shooting through my head. I’d never experienced snow blindness, but that’s how I imagined it would start.

Or maybe my throbbing discomfort was a warning that I was not welcome here.

I hovered like a weightless mass of molecules, connected and yet not. I felt the confines of my body and yet I was connected to everything, as far as I could see. Even the vast expanse of time didn’t feel like a barrier. I wasn’t a kid in this place. I was a sentient being without age, linked to the past yet driven toward the future.

And I didn’t think like the girl that I used to be, not exactly. I was the same, yet different. Like I understood the word sentient without having to look it up on Wikipedia, but I also totally knew all the lyrics to Kimya Dawson’s “I Like Giants” song. A real crowd-pleaser for someone who hung out with weirdos like me. The way I felt reminded me of what White Bird had described years before when he first told me about keeping an open mind to the messages of the universe and about being connected to the past and present.

Had his obsession with his tribe and mystical dream symbols created the illusion that trapped him here now? Or had he truly found his way here because it existed like an alternate universe?

I picked a direction without a point of reference in the stark white. I moved as straight as I could and hoped I wouldn’t be traveling in circles. After what felt like an eternity, I came across something of substance.

It knocked me on my ass.

My face smashed into an invisible barrier that felt like I’d run into closed sliding glass doors. The impact messed me up so bad that when I fell down I stayed down. I lay there in shock, wondering. If I was so hooked into the past and the future in this place, why hadn’t I seen that coming? Shit! I rubbed my nose and waited for the Fourth of July sparklers to stop spinning over my head.

When I finally got up, I placed both hands in front of me to feel what I’d hit. Everywhere I turned, my fingers found a solid surface that mirrored the bleak dreamscape. I had run out of places to go and stood on the edge of White Bird’s vision, getting mad.

What was the point of imagining a dreamworld with boundaries? I’d had enough of peace and tranquility. I balled my fists and pounded the invisible wall. And when that felt good, I kicked it, too. Mom always said that when I was in her belly, I had mad skills with my feet. So I got after it, kicking and hitting that damned wall until I felt it give way and a burst of color shot through. It streaked in like a laser beam.

“Holy shit!” I squinted and tried to peek through the crack, but that wasn’t happening. I’d have to do more.

I pushed my way through the white serenity wall. And when I climbed in, a rush of heat swept over me. It was muggy hot, but I felt White Bird here, more than ever. I had to be in the right place. That was a good thing, because when I looked back the way I’d come, the stark white was gone. One door had opened and another one had slammed shut in my face. There was no going back, even if I wanted to.

But this new dreamscape really got my attention.

“Oh, wow,” I gasped as I looked around.

Everything was in vivid 3-D and insanely cool. I stood in the middle of a beautiful yet eerie forest. And the colors were intense, like I’d had a black-and-white TV my whole life and now I saw everything through a color plasma screen. But with the serene world of white gone, I knew there had been a barrier for a reason. On this side of White Bird’s vision, there was evil. And it lurked beyond where I could see. I don’t know how I knew this, but I did. I tasted danger and it seeped through my pores.

When I sensed it coming, I stopped to listen really hard. I should have run, but I was rooted where I stood, waiting. It didn’t take long for the danger to find me. A low menacing growl came from behind and it sounded like the deep throaty growl of a lion about to pounce. I didn’t want to turn around, but I had to. My instinct for survival took over.

I forced myself to run and when I gaped over my shoulder to see what had made the noise, I saw the huge grizzly bear from White Bird’s nightmare. My feet got tangled and I fell to the ground. And when I turned over, I stared up at the monster that towered over me. The twelve-foot beast reared up on its haunches and swiped its front claws at me. It bellowed a roar and gnashed its teeth. And I knew I wouldn’t stand a chance if it got hold of me.

I scrambled to my feet and looked for someplace to hide, watching the predator over my shoulder. I expected the bear to follow, but it didn’t. It plopped its butt down and watched me run with its head cocked. Guess I looked goofy.

I stopped where I was and turned to face it. We glared at each other for what felt like forever. Maybe it was, but eventually the beast tossed its head and turned to leave. And when it trudged back the way it had come, I got the distinct impression that it wanted me to follow.

“Hey, something I said?” I yelled. With a fresh shot of adrenaline in my veins, I gave the grizzly bear attitude. And it felt damned good.

All my instincts should have told me to run the opposite way, but since none of this was normal and I wasn’t at some whack petting zoo, I did as Joe had said and trusted my gut. I took a risk and trailed the animal from a safe distance. After all, White Bird’s adopted Euchee tribe was the Dala, the bear clan.

With my new traveling companion, I drifted through a dense monochromatic forest awash in shades of lime-green. It was as if I saw everything through polarized sunglasses. Trees towered over me with light flickering through their trunks. And a thick green fog swirled at my feet and clung to tree bark before it drifted into the branches. The mist brought a muggy stillness to the forest.

And even though I wasn’t sure if that was a good thing, I kept walking with the grunting bear, searching for any sign of White Bird. The farther I trekked, the stronger the sense I got that he was very close. And when the bear eventually broke free of the dense vegetation, it took me into a vast field of charred trees rooted in a sea of blood-red flowers. And the fog followed me. It spread its billowing clouds and the intense humidity made it hard for me to breathe. It was an annoyance I couldn’t shake.

“Get a life.” I swatted at the trailing mist. My swipe didn’t do any good, except to make me feel better.

Ahead of me, the burned field stretched over rolling hills. And beyond that, a steep rock face lurked in the shadows with its peak shrouded in a dense haze. And although the blood-red flowers made me flash back to the violence of Heather’s death, I trusted my instincts to stay with the slow plodding bear as it lumbered across the open field. But the minute I stepped on the flowers, they gave off a foul odor.

“Oh, God. What the hell is that?” I checked the bottom of my shoes until I realized the stink was coming from the flowers.

What I smelled was the coppery stench of blood. It was so toxic that I had to hold my breath. I pressed my arm over my nose and kept the bear in sight. The animal was headed for a trail into the dark mountains. As we climbed, the fog snaked down to meet us, making it hard to see ahead. And when visibility got tough, the bear slowed even more. Eventually, it strayed off the path that had split in two. One trail led down and the other way climbed higher and was much steeper. The grizzly plopped down and groaned. It bobbed its head and swiped a paw at me.

“So…you’re a low road kind of guy. Is that it?” I shrugged and mumbled, “Guess that leaves me the high road. That’d be different.”

The bear had taken me as far as it would go. The rest was up to me. I stared into the thickening mist and took a deep breath to steady my nerves. From here on, I’d be on my own.



Dr. Ridgeway had called Matt Logan earlier and delivered the bombshell that Isaac Henry was coming out of his catatonic state. Time would tell whether that news would be good or bad. Sam Ridgeway had explained the medical jargon before, but he’d never placed any credence in a condition that got the kid out of serving the jail time he deserved. Up until now, that boy had gotten off light. Red Cliffs was no posh country club, but from the kid’s perspective, the mental hospital was better than being locked in a box with hardened criminals.

After Matt got the call, he dropped everything and headed out. And hospital security rushed word to the doctor that he’d arrived. It didn’t take long for him to be ushered into the observation room where he’d get to see it all for himself.

One thing he hadn’t counted on was coming face-to-face with Kate Nash. He would have bet money that Brenna had come alone, leaving her mother in the cold again. The kid had no sense, but maybe he shouldn’t blame her.

Apparently, that trait was hereditary. Kate had been a headstrong kid, too. She had been no shrinking violet. Even though he was older, he’d remembered that much about her.

“You and your daughter shouldn’t be here, Kate.”

The sternness in his voice reverberated in the small observation room. And he sounded angrier than he’d intended.

“And you’re like a vulture on roadkill, Matt. Why are you here?” Before he answered, she figured it out. Kate glared at Dr. Ridgeway and shook her head. “You’re both feasting on this kid like he’s raw meat.”

Wisely, Sam Ridgeway stayed out of the argument. He backed off and kept his eyes focused on the next room.

“In case you forgot, he killed an innocent girl,” Matt reminded her.

“Don’t you have to convict him in a court of law first? Or does that silly notion not apply in your town?” The woman crossed her arms and cocked her head. “You’ve got a lot of nerve getting all preachy with me.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Your nephew is a bully and those kids he hangs with think they’re above the law. And you can’t see it.” She raised her chin in defiance. “So don’t act all holier-than-thou, Sheriff. Not until you clean your own house.”

“You got any proof, Kate? ’Cause that sure would be nice for a change.”

Kate Nash always got him riled. She knew how to push his buttons.

“I know Derek and his friends trashed our house but, no, lucky for you, I’ve got nothing real to back me up, only my gut feeling.” She heaved a deep sigh. “But would it hurt you to look into it? I need help here, Matt. I think those kids hurt my daughter. And now they’ve trashed my family home. This has got to stop. You’re not doing any of those kids a favor by ignoring their behavior. They’ll only grow into mean, manipulative adults.”

Matt clenched his jaw and stared at Kate. The silence that filled the room was only broken by the static from speakers and the occasional voices coming from the next room. After the watch incident with Derek, plus the suspicions about his nephew’s character that he’d had for a while, Matt had a strong feeling that Kate was right.

And that meant he was wrong, a notion he didn’t like at all.

“Look, I know you’ve had your share of trouble since you’ve been back. My deputies will investigate the vandalism at your house and what happened to your daughter. I’d like to get to the bottom of all this myself.” He softened his tone. “I’m doing the best I can with what I’ve got, Kate.”

“So am I, Matt.” She narrowed her eyes. “So am I.”

Kate looked tired and a hundred miles past worried. And when Matt looked at what was happening in the next room, he understood why. What kind of whammy hoodoo did they have going on with that kid?



After the bear and I had parted ways, I climbed the steep trail until I got to a rock ledge that flattened for a stretch. It was wider than the path up and might have been a good spot to catch my breath, until I got a better look. The ledge was mottled with fissures in the rocks. And each crack glowed red with steam rising from the molten lava that seeped out and spilled onto the earth. With the stench of hot gases and sulfur, I couldn’t stay here. I carefully stepped through the minefield of spewing hot lava, choking on bad air.

It smelled worse than gym class after Taco Tuesday.

But a sound made me stop and look up. Through the belching steam and thickening fog, I saw red, glowing eyes homing in on me. And a huge dark shape cut a swath through the fog. A fierce black stallion burst through the mist, its hooves pounding like thunder. Its eyes looked like hot embers and it breathed fire from its nostrils. When the demon horse hit the clearing, it reared up and flailed its sharp hooves. That’s when I saw the tiny bird. It came out of nowhere and flitted too close to the menacing horse. I thought it would get trampled.

“Shoo. Go away!”

I waved my hands at the little bird, trying to protect it. The bird was helpless, like the one White Bird had healed at the creek. And for a second, I thought he had sent the tiny creature as a messenger, to let me know he was here, even though it wasn’t the best time to reach out and touch someone.

But I didn’t have time to think about what the bird meant. When I dodged the raging horse, I lost sight of the bird, but came face-to-face with the fire-breathing animal that was bigger than a Clydesdale.

“Easy now.” I spoke to it in a calm voice, but that only made the fierce horse more enraged. It charged and forced me down the trail. I wasn’t going to get by it.

And I couldn’t go back the way I came, either.

From the corner of my eye, I saw a grinning jackal baring its teeth and growling at me. The hair on its neck bristled out from its head and down its back. The mythical guardian of the dead closed in, creeping slowly as it maneuvered around me. It stared at me with strange gray eyes, licking its chops. I knew the sly hunter would strike when my back was turned.

“Back off, mutt face.” I glared at the mangy fleabag, but it hadn’t come alone.

Next to the four-legged scavenger was a black hairy spider. Way bigger than a tarantula, it was the size of a small dog. Besides its ginormous size, it had two other distinctive features. A splatter of blood red on its back and glittery green gems on its head that looked like eyes. And when the giant bug crept toward me, I heard its legs hit the ground, sounding like the clicking clack of fingers on a computer keyboard. The noise really got to me. And worse, the spider was spewing its weblike barf. It would soon trap me in its slimy lace. Not cool.

I had my back against the wall—literally—and had nowhere to go. The fiery black stallion, the cagey jackal and the barfing spider with the green Day-Glo eyes had joined forces to stop me. And that left me with only one way to go. Up.

I didn’t consider myself athletic. Forget about me being a rock climber, but there was a first time for everything with the right motivation. When I gazed up at the towering rock face behind me, it was the only option I had left. Without much of a plan, I scaled the rocks fast. The jackal leaped off the ground to catch me and barely missed nipping at my ankle. And the fierce horse charged and snorted a flame that roasted my butt as I climbed.

Once I got beyond the reach of those two, I breathed a little easier, but I still had one more fugitive from bizarro world to worry about.

The spider clacked after me and skittered up the rocks with more agility than I had. It wouldn’t be long before the eight-legged freak caught me. My fingers grabbed for anything that would hold me. And the muscles in my legs burned from exertion. I climbed faster and harder, my lungs on fire. And with sweat pouring off me, my hands were real slick.

Below, I heard the stallion shrieking and stomping and the jackal howled its haunting threat, but the spider had gained on me. I had no time to turn around and see where it was, nor did I have to. The clacking had gotten louder.

It was right behind me.

And I couldn’t go on much longer. I wasn’t strong enough to outpace a monster with six more legs than I had. With sweat stinging my eyes, I looked up to see that the fog had cleared and I saw another ledge above me. Had I reached the peak?

I couldn’t check that out. I heard the spider behind me and I had to move. I hoisted my body onto a rock and made my last climb. When I got to the top, I doubled over with a painful cramp, panting out of control. And I saw a shimmer of blue-green behind me, but I’d run out of time.

The spider had closed the gap and was heading straight for me. I had reached the summit and had nowhere else to go. And I was too exhausted to run. There was only one thing left for me to do. I grabbed a rock and hurled it at the green-eyed mutant, but the stone only bounced off.

“Shit, metal head. Why don’t you die already?” I grabbed a bigger rock and raised it over my head. “Come on, bitch. Show me what you got!”

Instantly, I regretted saying that. And I also wished that I hadn’t stepped on every bug that had crossed my path in my other life. It was way too ironic that I might end up as spider food. I was about to hurl the heavy boulder, when a flash of white streaked down from the sky and attacked the bug.

Without a sound or a screech, a snow-white owl dive-bombed the spider. It tore chunks of flesh off the bug with its sharp claws. And as the spider bled, it gave off a foul stench that reminded me of the field of blood-red flowers. I nearly gagged. After the white owl ramped up its aerial attacks, the gross spider lost interest in me. I could have stayed to see what happened, but I took advantage of the distraction the owl created. I left the spider to its fate and sneaked away to find White Bird.

I felt him strongest here. The mountain had drawn me and I knew he was close. I stood on the precipice with the rumble of thunder in the distance and I stared into an immense crater below. Its valley held a pond of bright aqua water, the color of a glacier.

“You’re down there, somewhere. Aren’t you?” I whispered, hoping White Bird would hear me and would know I was coming.

Like Joe had told me, I followed my heart and headed down toward the water. And with every step, I thought about what he’d said about my journey, that it wasn’t only about finding White Bird. I had to remember every encounter, every incredible sight, every sound and every creature from hell. Joe had said everything would be important to remember and I trusted him.

As I made a mental list of what I’d seen—picturing me doodling in an imaginary notebook so I wouldn’t forget things—I hiked down to the water’s edge. I trekked the rocky bank and peered into the depths of the gem-colored water. On the pond’s calm surface, I saw the reflection of the brewing storm. The dark clouds rolling in were a striking contrast to the cool serene water.

Something on the glistening water brought images of White Bird to my mind. Glimpses of our past bubbled to the surface as I gazed into the shimmering pond. I should have felt at peace here, walking beside the still water, but I didn’t. Nothing was normal in this place and a bad feeling gripped me hard. I picked up my pace and my search grew more frantic. Something lurked beneath the water and when I peered into the depths, I wasn’t sure what I was looking for.

Until I found it.

“No! Oh, God. Please.” I gasped and collapsed to my knees. When I stared into the murky bottom of the pond, I was shocked at what I saw.

White Bird’s body floated just beneath the surface of a deep underwater chasm.

He wore only jeans and his dark hair was long, as I’d always remembered it. Tiny bubbles dotted his eyelashes and clung to his lips. His handsome face looked pale, blanched by the water. Suspended beneath the surface, he lay perfectly still.

He looked more dead than alive.

“Oh, no. Please…no.”

The blow of seeing him like this took my breath away and my eyes brimmed with tears. I don’t know how long I cried, but I was still sobbing when I finally waded into the water. Nearing the edge of the chasm, I wasn’t sure the underwater rock ledge would hold me, but I didn’t care. I had to see him. And if I could reach him, I wanted to hold him in my arms. He looked at peace in his watery grave like someone lying in a coffin. A rush of grief and shock welled inside me and I couldn’t believe it was over.

“Why did you do this? Why?” I screamed. And the echo of my voice carried across the mountainous crater….

I slipped my hand into the water to touch him. Rings of shimmer lit his face before my outstretched fingers cast him in shadow. And I swear to God, I saw something move. I yanked my hand back and gasped.

White Bird’s eyes had opened wide.

I’d scared the shit out of him—and he’d returned the favor.

“Oh, my God. It’s really you.” My voice cracked. “And…you’re alive.”