Dead Man's Deal The Asylum Tales - By Jocelynn Drake Page 0,115

satisfying and peaceful.”

I looked down at Squall as he slept soundly before me, trusting and happy. I closed my eyes, but my head was filled with the sounds of remembered laughter and twinkling green-gray eyes. Everything fit so wonderfully. I fit so perfectly here, as if I had finally found the puzzle to which I belonged. It was so tempting. So perfect . . .

My eyes snapped open and I looked at the old woman. “You’re not one of them, are you?” I demanded, referring to the people I had met around the farm. “You’re Mother Nature. You’re Gaia. And none of this is real.” I couldn’t keep the sadness from my voice as I looked down at the baby. I wanted all of it to be real. For a second the world I lived in and had left behind that morning came screaming back with all its harsh edges and dirty light, and I needed this to be real so that I could draw my next breath.

“Chang warned me you were a smart boy,” the woman said, drawing my gaze back to her face. She took my hand again and held it over Squall. “Does that not feel real? You know, Gage, that there is more to this world than what our eyes show us. But if you need it, this is all real and just for you.”

I nodded, struggling to swallow past the lump that had grown in my throat. All the emotions that had left me were surging back, leaving me feeling raw and ragged.

Gaia squeezed my hand. “You don’t have to leave.”

“I can’t stay.” My voice was rough and choked, but I didn’t care. “If I leave, will I ever be able to return?”

She cocked her head to the side for a second as she stared at me. Her smile dimmed a little. “If you leave, you will have one more chance to return. But only one.” She released my hand and slid her arm around my back, starting to steer me away from the bed. “Come. Let’s get some lemonade before Holly adds too much sugar.”

I paused, looking back into the crib. I could feel a slight tearing in my chest as I tried to move away from the little boy with the blond curls. It was becoming harder to breathe and my heart was pounding as if I had run five miles. “Squall?”

Gaia gave a soft chuckle as she stepped in front of me. Her old, wrinkled hands came up and cupped my cheeks. It was only when her thumbs brushed aside tears that I realized that I was crying. “He’ll be waiting for you, I promise. He’ll wait.”

I gave a jerky nod. “Let’s get some lemonade,” I said, trying to smile.

Gaia led the way out of the nursery, but I paused at the crib and looked down at the sleeping baby, trying to memorize the feel of the little soul that, somehow, I knew would one day be my son.

21

WHEN I STEPPED out of the old white farmhouse behind Gaia, we were faced with a giant, lush garden rather than the rolling field I had walked across minutes earlier. I stood at the bottom of the stairs, taking in the rich array of blooming flowers, the green trees with branches spread wide overhead, and the thick carpet of grass that looked soft underfoot. But as I stood there, soaking in the beauty, I knew that what I saw wasn’t real. It wasn’t there. Oh, I could see it, feel it, smell it, and taste it only because there was a part of my mind that needed to find a way to comprehend this strange place.

Gaia’s home was a place of energy and life. It was either the source of or a crossroads for all the living things of the world: plant, animal, and other. Gaia tried to keep life in balance, but it wasn’t the easiest of tasks with creatures eating away at the domains of nature and the Towers unbalancing everything with their magic. Yet despite it all, she had this place of perfect harmony and I didn’t want to leave.

The old woman placed her hand on my arm and I let her lead me around through the garden to where a small table and a pair of cushioned chairs had been set up under a copse of trees. As soon as Gaia was comfortably settled, Holly carried over a tray that she placed on the table before us. She flashed me