Read Online A Boat Made of Bone (The Chthonic Saga) by Nicole Grotepas - Free Book Online
Authors: Nicole Grotepas
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around her stomach and she felt his chin nuzzle warmly into her neck.
***
Kate gasped awake. She took several deep breaths before settling back into her pillow. It was the middle of the night. The window above her bed let light in as cars passed on the road outside. The sound of their passing struck a chord in her that sounded like loneliness.
He was gone. She touched her finger where the dragonfly ring had been in the dream, but even holding her breath didn’t make it appear there. All of it was a hallucination. A delusion. Wishful thinking.
She sat up, swung her legs over the side of her bed, and flipped on her lamp. The sudden glow singed her eyes and the hardwood floor was cold beneath her feet. Outside, the fan of the air conditioner rumbled to life and settled into a humming, monotonous drone. A deep breath brought in the familiar smells of her room—old Nag Champa and that of a musky, scented candle she had found at Whole Foods. She rubbed her eyes, feeling halfway tempted to go wake Audra up to tell her about that dream. What could it mean? Anything? There had been a dragonfly. The thing that made her run. Did that translucent-winged insect signify something in dreams?
She stared at the floor, tired and lonely, reliving the dream in as much detail as possible. When she fell asleep again, would she dream of him? And if she did, would she remember him or would it be like last time, where it took her a while to remember?
Already she had forgotten his name.
The blue-eyed stranger had given her a dragonfly ring. She put it on and stole it from the artisan. He ran after them, screaming that they were thieves.
Chills clung to her bare arms.
Kate touched a key on her open laptop resting on the desk next to her. The screen woke up and she pressed play on the keyboard. A mellow song began. She switched off her light and flopped back onto her bed and snuggled down under the covers. With her eyes closed, and the song playing quietly, she could almost relive the good parts of her dream.
But she kept coming back to the dragonfly ring.
That ring meant something. It had to. Why keep dreaming of the same man if the whole thing meant nothing? Somehow her mind fixated on the ring, as though the entire structure of her dreams rested upon that metallic insect. It had such a heavy pull for being such a tiny object.
Kate sighed, her eyelids growing heavy. Her mind swirled recklessly in a jagged whirlwind around the idea that the dragonfly held meaning. That it symbolized something made sense to Kate, there, in the middle of the night . . . because it was the middle of the night, where everything made sense. Even recurrent dreams about a gorgeous stranger.
5: Too Many Surprises
“When you see Ty,” Audra said as they sped through the winding industrial section of the city, “don’t get all quiet and self-conscious. Have some confidence that you’re desirable, OK? Men like that. That’s an attractive trait. Not timidity.”
“I don’t get timid,” Kate protested with a scowl. “I’m the most confident person I know.”
Self-storage units, warehouses, and distribution centers flew by, and then Audra came to a screeching halt in a parking spot outside a building that used to be a warehouse itself. Given a facelift and dubbed Boulder Crazy, it was now the hot hangout for all the outdoorsy, Pilates, and yoga people when they couldn’t make it to an outdoor location to climb or boulder.
Audra finished telling Kate how she should behave to land a date with Ty as she put the Subaru Impreza in park and engaged the brake. Kate sighed and smirked.
“Audra, I’m not completely inept at this. I just know when a guy is out of my league.” Her seatbelt whipped back into the wall panel as she released it.
Audra leaned toward Kate and grabbed her arm before Kate could hop out of the Subaru. “Hang on, chickadee, he’s not out of your league. Thinking like that only makes you behave like he is. No guy is
***
Kate gasped awake. She took several deep breaths before settling back into her pillow. It was the middle of the night. The window above her bed let light in as cars passed on the road outside. The sound of their passing struck a chord in her that sounded like loneliness.
He was gone. She touched her finger where the dragonfly ring had been in the dream, but even holding her breath didn’t make it appear there. All of it was a hallucination. A delusion. Wishful thinking.
She sat up, swung her legs over the side of her bed, and flipped on her lamp. The sudden glow singed her eyes and the hardwood floor was cold beneath her feet. Outside, the fan of the air conditioner rumbled to life and settled into a humming, monotonous drone. A deep breath brought in the familiar smells of her room—old Nag Champa and that of a musky, scented candle she had found at Whole Foods. She rubbed her eyes, feeling halfway tempted to go wake Audra up to tell her about that dream. What could it mean? Anything? There had been a dragonfly. The thing that made her run. Did that translucent-winged insect signify something in dreams?
She stared at the floor, tired and lonely, reliving the dream in as much detail as possible. When she fell asleep again, would she dream of him? And if she did, would she remember him or would it be like last time, where it took her a while to remember?
Already she had forgotten his name.
The blue-eyed stranger had given her a dragonfly ring. She put it on and stole it from the artisan. He ran after them, screaming that they were thieves.
Chills clung to her bare arms.
Kate touched a key on her open laptop resting on the desk next to her. The screen woke up and she pressed play on the keyboard. A mellow song began. She switched off her light and flopped back onto her bed and snuggled down under the covers. With her eyes closed, and the song playing quietly, she could almost relive the good parts of her dream.
But she kept coming back to the dragonfly ring.
That ring meant something. It had to. Why keep dreaming of the same man if the whole thing meant nothing? Somehow her mind fixated on the ring, as though the entire structure of her dreams rested upon that metallic insect. It had such a heavy pull for being such a tiny object.
Kate sighed, her eyelids growing heavy. Her mind swirled recklessly in a jagged whirlwind around the idea that the dragonfly held meaning. That it symbolized something made sense to Kate, there, in the middle of the night . . . because it was the middle of the night, where everything made sense. Even recurrent dreams about a gorgeous stranger.
5: Too Many Surprises
“When you see Ty,” Audra said as they sped through the winding industrial section of the city, “don’t get all quiet and self-conscious. Have some confidence that you’re desirable, OK? Men like that. That’s an attractive trait. Not timidity.”
“I don’t get timid,” Kate protested with a scowl. “I’m the most confident person I know.”
Self-storage units, warehouses, and distribution centers flew by, and then Audra came to a screeching halt in a parking spot outside a building that used to be a warehouse itself. Given a facelift and dubbed Boulder Crazy, it was now the hot hangout for all the outdoorsy, Pilates, and yoga people when they couldn’t make it to an outdoor location to climb or boulder.
Audra finished telling Kate how she should behave to land a date with Ty as she put the Subaru Impreza in park and engaged the brake. Kate sighed and smirked.
“Audra, I’m not completely inept at this. I just know when a guy is out of my league.” Her seatbelt whipped back into the wall panel as she released it.
Audra leaned toward Kate and grabbed her arm before Kate could hop out of the Subaru. “Hang on, chickadee, he’s not out of your league. Thinking like that only makes you behave like he is. No guy is
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