Wild Blue Yonder (The Ceruleans: Book 3) Read Online Free Page B

That I had to die, to come here, to save her.
    Jude: No, you had to die to become a Cerulean.
    Scarlett: To save her! How will I save her? Jude? Jude!
    Jude: You’ll need to speak with Evangeline about that.
    *
    Scarlett: What are Ceruleans?
    Jude: People with a gift.
    Scarlett: Where did we come from? Why are we like this?
Have we always existed? Who are the Fallen? What happened to make them ‘fall’?
    Jude: That’s really for Evangeline to explain.
    *
    Scarlett: Why did you say you don’t know your mother?
    Jude: I don’t.
    Scarlett: But how can that be?
    Jude: You’ll need to ask Evangeline that.
    *
    Scarlett: I don’t understand. You told me before I died
that there was no coming back from Cerulea. That I would never see Luke and
Cara and my mother again. But they’re there – just over the water! So close!
And you’ve admitted Sienna isn’t here. So to find her means leaving the island…
    Jude: Well, yes.
    Scarlett: So you lied! I’m not in some cloud realm
separate from the earth! I’m not held in by some invisible, insurmountable
wall! I’m on a plain old island off the coast of England, and I can leave any
time – go back to Luke!
    Jude: No. You can never go back to Luke.
    Scarlett: Why the hell not?
    Jude: Because you have to let him go, let all of them go.
    Scarlett: Why? That’s crap... Oh… Oh God – the key in the
lock.
    Jude: For your own protection, so you didn’t wander off
without me.
    Scarlett: You mean to keep me here. Imprison me.
    Jude: No, don’t look at it that way.
    Scarlett: Then let me go!
    Jude: I can’t. We can’t.
    Scarlett: Why not!
    Jude: You’ll need to ask –
    Scarlett: If you say that ONE MORE TIME! So take me to
this Evangeline then! Now! I want to hear it from this woman – all of it.
    Jude: You can’t see her. Not now.
    Scarlett: Because?
    Jude: Because she’s… occupied. She may see you in the
morning.
    Scarlett: She may, huh? That’s gracious of her.
    Jude: Scarlett…
    Scarlett: What makes her the bloody god of this place
anyway?
    Jude: She is the Mother.
    *
    In the end, I decided, it boiled down to this: I was on an
island, agonisingly close to those I loved with the exception of my sister, for
whom I’d come here in the first place but who was trapped someplace else,
someplace unknown. And while apparently I was not captive here, I was ,
because I couldn’t go home for some reason yet to be explained by the elusive
Evangeline.
    Is it any wonder I ended up crying? And when Jude’s arms
came around me and pulled me in, is it any wonder I didn’t fight him – my only
friend in the world, my only connection to my old life? Still, when the sobs
turned to hiccups and I found myself breathing in his musky scent and relaxing
just a little, I pulled away abruptly.
    ‘I want to go back to my room now,’ I told him.
    He nodded. ‘I’m sorry,’ he said softly. ‘That I couldn’t
tell you all of this before.’
    ‘You haven’t told me all of it now,’ I pointed out.
    ‘I know. But Evangeline insisted that she be the one to –’
    I held up a hand. ‘Enough. Please.’
    He reached over and ran a thumb down my cheek, rubbing away
a tear. I stared into his eyes. In the dim light coming from the lamp beside
the sofa, they were almost black. He leaned forward a little and I stood
sharply.
    ‘Please take me back,’ I said.
    He stood too. ‘I’ll take you to your room. You’ll have a
good sleep, and in the morning everything will seem brighter.’
    Literally, yes. Figuratively, I had my doubts.
     

5: BEHIND LOCKED DOORS
     
    I wanted to be alone. To think. And cry some more. And maybe
throw some stuff, like that totally inaccurate ‘Hame’ll Dae Me’ cross-stitch.
    But it wasn’t the room in the Birth Place that Jude showed
me to. It was a bedroom in the hotel. Right next to his. My room from now on,
he explained.
    It was the mirror image of Jude’s room in layout, but where
Jude’s was fairly basic in its decor and had that bachelor pad feel