Mystically Bound (Frostbite 3)

“Yes, but it’s only air.”

“They aren’t air.”

A hundred retorts held on my tongue, but it seemed by his knowing look he’d shut them all down, so I swallowed back any further responses. The sitting room wasn’t overly small, but it seemed like the walls were closing in on me.

Not allowing myself to be lost in panic, I blew out a long breath, settling the anxiety tightening my throat. “All right, so you’re saying that because of my connection to the Netherworld, I am able to interact with ghosts in a way most can’t. Plus, the sensations I get from ghosts is because that’s what the Netherworld feels like and they can only touch me because I’ve been there?”

Wayde gave a firm nod. “Precisely.”

As much as all this gave me the heebie-jeebies, it also meant the answer to find Kipp didn’t lie with the man in front of me. My powers held the key. Perhaps that meant I didn’t need Wayde, but I needed Nettie’s knowledge. “So, I only need to tap further into that sensation and stop being blind to it, and then what, I’ll go into the Netherworld?”

“Your dreams are the gateway into the Netherworld,” Wayde replied as if discussing the pale blue paint on the walls.

I blinked in confusion. “But you said I sense the Netherworld when awake, so why would I need to dream to go there?”

Gretchen left her place by the window and leaned up against the side of the couch next to me, keeping her gaze firmly on Wayde. “She’s right—that doesn’t make sense.”

“Actually, it does.” He raised his eyebrows at Gretchen, then said to me, “You will always feel the Netherworld with you, since it’s because of there you have the gifts you do. The Netherworld is always with you. But from what I’ve read about Nettie, she found a way to access the Netherworld through REM sleep.” He stretched out his legs, lacing his hands behind his head, and his dark eyes were ice cold. “In fact, I’d reckon you’ve journeyed there without knowing it.”

I gulped. “Journeyed there to do what?”

His expression remained stony with his shrug. “Haven’t a clue since I’m not in your dreams, am I?”

“Hold up.” I shook my head to slow the spin. This wasn’t at all where I expected him to go with this. My dreams? “Are you suggesting that when people dream they go into the Netherworld?”

“No, Tess, not people,” he replied carefully. “You.”

While I wanted to reject what he said, since it seemed far out there, a sudden memory rushed into my mind of a certain dream I experienced with Kipp. One, with us naked, doing naughty things to each other, had seemed all too real at the time. Had that dream actually happened and somehow taken place in the Netherworld? But then, why didn’t Kipp tell me as much? If that happened, he would’ve known, right?

Perhaps he didn’t want to scare me, or maybe he knew I would’ve been less than enthused to hear we did that for real. Or maybe even, he realized my connection was deeper than I knew and he didn’t understand it enough to explain it to me, or maybe make sense out of it himself.

Could have been all those things, or a hundred other possibilities. Too bad Kipp wasn’t around to answer. Especially considering we did that in his bedroom, which made me wonder if I was wrong. It didn’t happen in the Netherworld, not that I knew what the mystical world looked like, but I sincerely doubted it looked like Kipp’s bedroom.

For now, I focused on the present and stuck to figuring out what all this meant. “If I can access the Netherworld only when I’m sleeping, then how can I remember what happens when I am there?” As soon as the words passed my lips, I answered my own question. I remembered the sex with Kipp after I had woken up, clear as day. Maybe it wasn’t all that difficult.

I had recalled my past dreams and now wondered how many of those dreams where actually times I’d spent in the Netherworld, chatting with ghosts. I shuddered at the thought and hoped it didn’t happen often. “Okay, this is creepy.”

“Creepy?” Wayde glowered, standing from his chair in a huff. “You have an incredible gift. Don’t frown upon it.”

I glanced at Gretchen and she gave me a kind smile, clearly understanding the weird information. I noticed the strength in her gaze and that comforted me now. No matter where this took me, Gretchen wouldn’t leave me and would do whatever she could to keep me safe, that I believed without a doubt.

Feeling slightly more confident, I turned to Wayde. “All right, so Nettie here…” I peered at the book and couldn’t help but feel a little pull to the woman. Strange as it might be, hearing of someone else who had my gifts gave me a certain type of peace. Maybe I hated being alone in the world—one crazy-ass ghost-seeing woman—and to know there had been another gave me hope. “What happened to her?”

“Nothing.” Wayde replied, drawing my gaze up to him. “She died in her eighties.”

I sighed, rolling my eyes. “So then, how will seeing her picture and hearing we have the same gifts help me? I have no idea how to dream myself into the Netherworld.”

“Flip to the fourth page.” After I did, seeing nothing but diary-like writings, he approached me and knelt against the dark hardwood floor, putting his hand on the book. “You are not allowed to read past that page.”

I snorted, almost liking my suspicion, because it meant I could hold the very answer to Kipp’s problem in my hands. “Why, because the spell to fix Kipp is in this book?”

Wayde shifted on his knees and pressed harder against the book against my legs. “No, I told you, the Lux is protected. This book only contains Nettie’s history. But I may need to use the information in here.”

I narrowed my eyes and squirmed against the couch, so he eased up on the pressure. Nothing like having to help a man who was planning to exploit me and didn’t even didn’t hide that fact. Too bad for me, I didn’t have a choice but to comply. “Fine. What am I reading?”

“It’s Nettie’s diary.” He tapped the book with his index finger. “This passage will tell you how she entered the Netherworld.”

“That easy, huh?” I retorted, not believing anything could be so simple. “Read her diary, and I’ll have all the answers I need to find Kipp?”