Reading with Rasta: Gibbous Moon
Gibbous Moon by Katie Groom.
Mid-June
Near Bran Castle, Romania
Zoie flew up out of the water and looked down at her attacker. She had escaped! She had won!
And—pretty exciting—she could fly or levitate or something. This was going to be a neat talent to add to her magic arsenal, which truly only was going to grow from here. She knew that at some point, she had been able to mess with time, but that power hadn’t been exercised in a while.
It didn’t matter. With her new ability to fly, she was excited to get started on learning what her powers could do. She felt infinite in that moment. But only for a moment.
As she floated above the pool, she watched her nemesis Miles smirk and then saw her mermaid friend Stevie walk calmly out onto the pool deck. It always amazed Zoie how calm and confident Stevie was, even in the scariest of moments. Zoie watched in excited anticipation for her friend to draw the water out of the pool and tear Miles apart in a maelstrom.
Instead, Stevie locked eyes with Miles. “Go!” She ordered. When Miles hesitated, she ordered more firmly. “Get out of here before he gets back here and kills the both of us!”
Zoie had her gaze fixed on Stevie, confused, and barely noticed when Miles exited. Why didn’t Stevie take him out? If she didn’t want to kill him, why didn’t she capture him? Make handcuffs out of the pool water? Use the water as rope to tie him to the chair? Why did she just let him go?
Zoie’s concentration had faltered, but it returned when Stevie used the water in the pool to lift something from below the surface.
With a gasp, Zoie startled and jumped back in the air when she realized that the item being pulled from the water appeared to be her. Willing herself closer, Zoie knew that she had to get a better look to figure out what this out of body experience was.
Stevie leaned over the body and spoke sincerely. “I’m sorry, Zoie.” Stevie looked around quickly, her black curls bouncing with every move. Then she leaned closer to Zoie’s body and whispered something too quiet to hear.
“What? What are you apologizing for?” Zoie asked. Stevie didn’t acknowledge her whatsoever.
Soon after, Zoie’s mate Hugh came bursting through a door, and to Zoie’s side—well, the side of that immobile body that looked like her.
He took that lump of a body into his arms and sobbed. He angrily begged Stevie to help. Stevie told him that she tried—that Zoie’s lungs were clear.
“That’s a lie!” Zoie yelled. That’s when it hit her.
Flying wasn’t a new power. This was the afterlife