against the water stains that looked like swirling clouds or angels. And Iâm disgraced, I thought, feeling a welling of self-pity. The seraphs were angry with me. Worse, I failed Tammy.
Ticked, I kicked out at the copâs desk. My toe met the thick steel with a dull thump, but I hadnât put any force behind it and nothing happened, not even a twinge in my toes.
I know Tammyâs aura resonance. I can find her future by myself, I thought defiantly, but it was quickly followed by the realization that I probably couldnât. I wasnât being a self-defeatistâI was being a realist. Still . . . maybe I could change her resonance so Demus and Arariel couldnât find her. Buy me some time.
Resolving to try it, I looked at the ceiling again, exhaling everything out of my lungs. My eyes closed, and I pulled into my awareness the shimmering silver sheet of time that stretched to infinity in either direction. It glowed from the auras that comprised it, people that existed this very second. Falling from it like water or a drape, was the past. It still glowed, but not nearly as bright as the present. It was the light of collective memory. Go back too far, and the canvas grew black except for people that humanity had chosen to remember, silver triumphs and disasters that transcended time itself. But here, so close to the present, it was alight with color as lives intertwined, connected, and parted.
Going forward from the ribbon was vastly different. A black so intense as to almost not be there made a hazy patch of what-might-be. It was conscious thought, and it was what pulled us from the present into the future. It stretched wide in some places, and narrow at others, almost as if some people were living a tiny bit into the future by pushing their thoughts into it. Artists, mostly. Teachers. Children. The movers and shakers.
But it was the glowing ribbon of ânowâ that I was interested in, and I searched it, looking for Tammy. I knew Demus was likely looking for her, too, and a spike of fear almost broke me from my concentration. âSteady,â I whispered, hearing a commotion down the hall. An argument about me, probably.
My mental sight grew clearer, and it was as if I hovered over the glowing blanket of light, searching for a particular note among an entire concert. Down one way, then retracing my steps and going farther down the other, searching among the thousands of souls near me. And then, like the small sound a vibrating glass makes when you run your finger across the rim, I felt her.
Tammy, I thought, elated. It had to be. She was alone by the looks of it, and not too far away. I focused on her, trying to put myself in her thoughts, but I only got the impression of wet hair, aching knees, and a sense of fear and hopelessnessâof giving up and abandonment. The vibrating-glass sound grew louder, almost sour, and I wondered if it was this off-key sound/taste that the seraphs used to find souls in danger of becoming lost. It grated on me.
She wasnât thinking of the future at all, her thoughts pulling her into the next moment hardly stretching past her existence. I tried to slip my awareness into that dull gray haze that existed between everyoneâs present and future to try to reach her mind like I could Nakita or Barnabas, but it was like trying to thread a needle when you canât see the eye or feel the thread. I didnât think it was even possible. But changing the sound her aura was making . . . I might be able to change that.
A sliding thump in the distance jolted my eyes open, and I looked at the clock. Not even a minute had passed. Okay, Iâd found her. Now to see if I could make a change. I shifted on the thin padding of the chair, trying to settle myself.
I willed my thoughts to slow and my focus to sharpen on my mindscape, making her aura my entire world and surrounding myself in her green and orange. I changed the color of my thoughts
Ticked, I kicked out at the copâs desk. My toe met the thick steel with a dull thump, but I hadnât put any force behind it and nothing happened, not even a twinge in my toes.
I know Tammyâs aura resonance. I can find her future by myself, I thought defiantly, but it was quickly followed by the realization that I probably couldnât. I wasnât being a self-defeatistâI was being a realist. Still . . . maybe I could change her resonance so Demus and Arariel couldnât find her. Buy me some time.
Resolving to try it, I looked at the ceiling again, exhaling everything out of my lungs. My eyes closed, and I pulled into my awareness the shimmering silver sheet of time that stretched to infinity in either direction. It glowed from the auras that comprised it, people that existed this very second. Falling from it like water or a drape, was the past. It still glowed, but not nearly as bright as the present. It was the light of collective memory. Go back too far, and the canvas grew black except for people that humanity had chosen to remember, silver triumphs and disasters that transcended time itself. But here, so close to the present, it was alight with color as lives intertwined, connected, and parted.
Going forward from the ribbon was vastly different. A black so intense as to almost not be there made a hazy patch of what-might-be. It was conscious thought, and it was what pulled us from the present into the future. It stretched wide in some places, and narrow at others, almost as if some people were living a tiny bit into the future by pushing their thoughts into it. Artists, mostly. Teachers. Children. The movers and shakers.
But it was the glowing ribbon of ânowâ that I was interested in, and I searched it, looking for Tammy. I knew Demus was likely looking for her, too, and a spike of fear almost broke me from my concentration. âSteady,â I whispered, hearing a commotion down the hall. An argument about me, probably.
My mental sight grew clearer, and it was as if I hovered over the glowing blanket of light, searching for a particular note among an entire concert. Down one way, then retracing my steps and going farther down the other, searching among the thousands of souls near me. And then, like the small sound a vibrating glass makes when you run your finger across the rim, I felt her.
Tammy, I thought, elated. It had to be. She was alone by the looks of it, and not too far away. I focused on her, trying to put myself in her thoughts, but I only got the impression of wet hair, aching knees, and a sense of fear and hopelessnessâof giving up and abandonment. The vibrating-glass sound grew louder, almost sour, and I wondered if it was this off-key sound/taste that the seraphs used to find souls in danger of becoming lost. It grated on me.
She wasnât thinking of the future at all, her thoughts pulling her into the next moment hardly stretching past her existence. I tried to slip my awareness into that dull gray haze that existed between everyoneâs present and future to try to reach her mind like I could Nakita or Barnabas, but it was like trying to thread a needle when you canât see the eye or feel the thread. I didnât think it was even possible. But changing the sound her aura was making . . . I might be able to change that.
A sliding thump in the distance jolted my eyes open, and I looked at the clock. Not even a minute had passed. Okay, Iâd found her. Now to see if I could make a change. I shifted on the thin padding of the chair, trying to settle myself.
I willed my thoughts to slow and my focus to sharpen on my mindscape, making her aura my entire world and surrounding myself in her green and orange. I changed the color of my thoughts
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