Page 75 of City of Love

“It will be,” she said. “I know that now. Look. See.”

She felt him explore her mind then, coming to the same realization she had, and he pulled her tightly into a hug and held her.

There was a soft knock on the door, and they looked up to see Vikkras and Alana entering. “Okay, lovebirds. You ready?”

People filed into the bedroom, taking their places in various spots. Lexi had slipped beneath the sheets and Gideon was on the bed with her. Roberto and Vikkras stood right at her side.

Alana and Julian, both masters of voice, sat next to each other in a corner of the room and started singing a soft, beautiful chant, though they kept the volume low and unobtrusive. There was at least a half-dozen others there too, some closer in toward the bed, others sitting further away.

And the damn clock was telling her she had roughly ten minutes left before her body was going to try and make its great escape.

Lexi tried her best to relax, taking the deep cleansing breaths she’d learned in a biofeedback workshop she’d taken in her teens. But by now the unseasonal winter storm had arrived full-throttle, lightning flashing through the windows as if a million paparazzi were covering the big event, the huge thunder cracks rocking her resolve. “Hey, Vik, any chance you can do something about that storm? It’s not exactly helping my serenity here.”

“Sorry, love. I’m afraid I’ll have my hands rather full as it is, playing with physics just to keep you in this bed.”

“Gotcha,” she said. “I agree with your priorities. And I guess power outages aren’t exactly an issue around here.”

“Making jokes right up to the last minute,” Gideon said, brushing a strand of hair off her forehead. “That’s my girl.”

“Actually,” Roberto said. “The activity of the thunder and lightning may help to anchor her here—a focus point to keep her in this reality, our reality. I really think it’s a blessing.”

She relaxed a little at the sound of Roberto’s soft, rich voice.

Gideon glanced at the clock. “We’ve got to be close now.”

“Yes,” Roberto agreed. “Lexi, Gideon explained to you what we’re going to be doing, correct?”

“Most of it, I think, yes,” she said, so nervous now she was practically stuttering. “I think so.”

“Okay, so just to make sure then, let me walk you through it,” he said kindly. “When your body starts to fade back to your world, several people who have the ability to do so will hold your body in our vibrational frequency. That is, they’re going to use the power of their minds to keep your body vibrating to match our world. Gideon will be doing this, along with Vikkras, and some of the others in the room.”

She nodded, her throat sticky and dry.

“Unlike when we do this by playing the music, it’s a more direct manipulation of the atoms in your body,” he continued. “It’s more aggressive, if you will, and your body will try and fight it.”

Her body shook beneath the sheets, her palms clammy and sweaty, and she wondered how obvious it was.

Gideon stroked her arm lightly. “It’s going to be okay. You already know it is, sweetheart. You just need to make it through this one-time discomfort.”

“Oh, so now it’s only discomfort,” she said to him silently. “You’re a funny guy, mister.”

He smiled at her and winked, but his clenched jaw betrayed his own tension.

“Lexi,” Roberto was continuing, “at some point either your body will shift and relax into our frequency on its own, thereby making the permanent transition, or it won’t. In which case, you’ll slip back into your world.”

Or die, of course.

In fact, though no one spoke it out loud, she was pretty sure it was more of an ‘adapt or die’ situation. As a precaution, Gideon had purchased the row home in her world that matched up to his own—the one she’d noticed had been for sale the day her clairvoyance had shown Gideon and Benjamin arguing in front of it. Matthew now waited on the other side, sitting next to a bed that lined up with Gideon’s, waiting to receive her should the conversion not take and she faded back.

But deep down in her bones, she believed the second house was all for show. To give her the illusion of a safety net. She’d either end up in Gideon’s world, or nowhere at all. It was as simple as that, and she’d always known it.

“In the meantime,” he continued, “others here in the room will be using their own special abilities to help calm you and ease your pain. We’re all here for you, Lexi. It’s going to be okay.”

He handed her a glass of water and a pill. “It’s a light sedative. It’ll help you, and your body, relax into this.” She swallowed it down.

And not a moment too soon either. Apparently, Gideon, Vikkras, and the others had set to work on her body. She felt a change, a sort of buzzing inside, similar to what she felt whenever the portal music was playing, but much, much stronger.

“I feel something,” she said quietly, looking at Gideon. “Are you doing that?”

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