The Lost Garden (The Lost Garden Trilogy Book 1) Read Online Free Page B

become more vivid. Something was happening to him, but he didn’t know what. In his kitchen, he poured himself a soda water. His stomach was upset, because of either too much drinking or too much thinking. He sipped from the glass, staring out his bay window. The ocean was black. The tide was in and the foaming whitecaps glowed in the moonlight. In the distance, he saw the gleaming lights of an oil rig. The sound of the crashing waves reached him clearly and distinctly through his partially open window. He stood there, listening to the soothing waves, feeling the faint ocean breeze mingled with the scent of brine. He imagined himself being carried off on a wave, letting the ocean swallow him whole as he drifted down. He would be at peace with himself; the dreams would be gone forever.
    He opened his eyes. His window was now wide open.
    He looked around the kitchen. There was nothing out of place, no indication that someone had entered his house, other than the noise earlier and the open window.
    He thought back to the noise and was sure it had come from his artist’s studio below. The studio also doubled as his workout room. It was heavily equipped with all types of martial arts weaponry.
    He set aside his glass carefully and removed his shoes. He walked across the bare wood floor in his dress socks, careful of the telltale squeaking boards he had not yet repaired.
    He didn’t grab a weapon, preferring to keep his hands free, which could be weapons enough if he had to use them.
    The studio loft was accessed by a wide stairway that led off from his living room. At the head of the stairs, he looked down. There was nothing to see. The stairs disappeared into darkness and there was clearly no light coming from below. His eyes were already well adjusted to the night, so he carefully stepped down, keeping away from the middle of the stairs and the many potential squeaks.
     
    * * *
     
    Jessima IL Eve was comfortable in the dark. After her many years on this earth, her eyes had grown accustomed to even the darkest rooms, or caves.
    She stood in the center of what appeared to be a combined martial arts studio and artist’s loft, covered with both deadly weapons and paintings of every shape and size. Try as she might, even she couldn’t make out the details of the paintings, although they appeared to depict vegetation or forests. She often wondered if her ability to see in the dark was a side effect of the healing oil. After all, it had given her so much already.
    After spending so much time on Earth, she often wondered if she had truly lived. She thought that there should be more to her life than the parameters that had been set for it, eons ago.
    As always, she tucked those feelings away. They were far too dangerous to ponder.
    Besides, she had yet to find something to live for, other than her chosen task.
    She had left the colloquium quickly. The time had not been right to meet Knight and she suspected he would look for her. It had become quite evident to her that he had been aware of her presence, although she had no idea how. Perhaps he was attracted to all women. She had always known she intrigued men, but then again, perhaps they thought she was a freak.
    Knight did not look like a man who thought that way. He looked like a man who was trying to remember and trying to recognize. As if he had known her, or known she was coming.
    Perhaps, she thought, as she tore herself away from a painting that seemed to show a burning sun over a forest, he has the second sight as well. Humans had it as well. There had been many such prophets who possessed it. He didn’t look like a prophet, but that didn’t matter.
    She thought, You are a curious man, Evan Knight.
    She had his address, of course. She had researched the man thoroughly and had followed him home the day before. The previous night, she had scouted out his house and had determined that he would leave an upper window open. Scaling great heights with her bare hands came