Page 59 of Joshua's Mistake
His face was wet and it took him a moment to realize he was crying. Crying out all the sorrow pouring from this Tessa, who encompassed all the sorrow and pain of a life cut short.
She pounded on his back, thrashing to get away from him. “You are killing me. Go!”
His heart contracted to a stone in his chest. Killing her, how could this be? When he released his hold on Tessa’s sorrow his pain subsided to a dull ache. In the back of his mind he could feel his brother relax.
“I can’t leave you, Tessa.”
In the short time he’d stood before her, she’d aged ten years. Her shoulders hunched and her hair grayed even more. The lines in her face deepened and her lips were no longer ripe and pink but pale and thin. The light had completely gone from her eyes. But the most terrible change was the vibration of her soul had lost all its joy. The tone no longer called to him.
“I am not the woman you wanted. I am nothing. Go back to your world and leave me to mine. You can only bring pain here.”
The tears he had shed were hers and not his own, but he wanted to cry. His body ached so badly he could feel it even in the spirit world.
Adianca’s voice filled the void. “You must rest, son. You will need strength and little Lakeland’s body is failing though he will not leave you. Come. You must stop for now. She too must be fed.”
With one last look at Sorrow, Joshua let himself return to the world of man.
It was as if he fell against a wall of pain when he returned to his body. The discomfort he’d felt through the veil between worlds had been a shadow of reality. His legs cramped so badly he curled into a ball on the hard dirt floor. He couldn’t help the groans that poured from him. His chest ached and his hands curled into fist from dehydration. Joshua was helpless. He couldn’t move except to rock against the agony of his joints and muscles.
In an instant his brother was lifting him as if he were a child and carrying him from the sweat lodge. Kane’s breath was ragged. Josh was helpless, he couldn’t even straighten his legs let alone carry his own weight. He felt more arms holding him up and looked to his right. Jon’s dark eyes watched him as he took some of the weight from Kane and they rushed him inside the cool house.
They put him on the couch.
Lucy handed him a cup. “Drink this.”
“What is it?” His voice was barely a croak.
She smiled. “Gatorade. You need fluid and electrolytes then food and rest. Drink it slowly and then I’ll give you some water. Don’t gulp. Just drink it slowly.”
He took a sip of the sweet-and-salty drink. His legs were on fire. “Where is Tessa?”
He had asked Kane, but it was Lucy who answered. “Gowan brought your woman in. Rain is caring for her.”
His fingers were cramping and he bobbled the cup. Strong fingers wrapped around his and helped him sip some more. His brother’s face was a mask of concern.
“I failed, Kane. I have to go back.”
Kane’s lips tightened to a thin line. His eyebrows pulled together over his nose. “You have to rest first. You stayed in too long, Josh.”
“How long?”
Kane looked up at the clock on the oven. “Sixteen hours.”
“Jesus. It felt like minutes on the other side.”
Adianca sat on the chair in front of him. “You know time is different in the spirit world.”
Joshua took another sip and let Kane help him into a sitting position. His muscles were starting to relax. His chest no longer ached. “Yes, but I have gone in and had days pass in my mind but when I returned it was only an hour. How could minutes be hours?”
The shaman’s eyes turned to the left and he followed her gaze to the smaller couch where Rain was coaxing fluids into Tessa. “The place where she is trapped is dark. It takes time to traverse so much pain and bad energy.”
Tessa’s body was covered in sweat, and pieces of golden hair clung to her cheeks and forehead yet her body was relaxed. She had not become dehydrated as severely as Joshua. He knew the only answer was his friends had managed to get fluids into her over the past sixteen hours. They had probably attempted the same with him, but he had expended a great deal of energy hunting for Tessa and it had not been enough.
“I don’t understand. Tessa is good, filled with light. I’ve been in her mind, she turns darkness away as no one else I’ve ever met. How can she be in such a dark place?”
“The power that tried to claim her aura was the blackest kind. It is an abomination of the natural world to steal another’s essence. To wield such energy is to embrace hell.
“She survived because of you and because she is strong, but now she has split apart and is trapped in a dark web. The pieces you’ve seen, fear, rage and sorrow are all pieces of this woman, but they are only the darkness living in each of us. They do not have the power to break free. Until you find the part of Tessa that is strength you will not succeed.”
