Read Online Ghosts of the Falls (Entangled Ever After) by Sarah Gilman - Free Book Online

killed you . Ripping your soul from your body? It hasn’t been studied or practiced. What if you’d stopped breathing?”
    “My body is safe in my car. Breathing. I know it could have killed me,” she said evenly, eased out of Aaron’s grip, and turned to Dutch. “But I would still have had a body and a heartbeat.”
    “Jade,” he said, his throat tight.
    She hooked an arm through his and spoke to her brothers. “I would like to stay here awhile. As a spirit myself, benefitting from the powers of this place, I’m an even stronger exorcist, and I stand to learn so much about the spirit world. I might finally be able to write an incantation to help spirits move on without destroying them. Both of you know how much that means to me, even if it means nothing to you.”
    Aaron sighed. “I know I’m an asshole, Jade, but you’re my sister and that does mean something to me.”
    Jeremy nodded.
    “Don’t scare us like this again,” Aaron said, his voice broken.
    Jade hugged him. “If you give me the same courtesy. Do you have any idea how scared I was when I heard you were going to enslave Dutch?”
    Aaron’s throat worked. “Let’s call it even, then.”
    “I happen to like Dutch very much.”
    His breath left his body. Could he be that lucky? After so many years of being alone?
    “Hmm.” Aaron scowled, but after a second, the corners of his mouth curved upward the slightest bit. “Derrick Hutchinson, you treat my little sister right, or I’ll find a way to break that bond and exorcise your ass.”
    “I’ll help,” Jeremy said from his position on the ground with his head between his knees.
    “Brothers,” Jade muttered.
    “They love you. I can’t blame them.” Dutch’s hands found her hips. He bent his head and whispered in her ear. “Because I like you very much, too.”
    …
    Standing in front of the cabin’s bathroom mirror, Jade dissolved her corporeal body. She took form again. She disappeared. She reappeared.
    “Neat.” The idea of being all but dead, her body in indefinite stasis, disturbed her to the point that she simply had to focus on other things, and the ability to blink in and out proved to be a great distraction. Being a spirit would take some getting used to, but she had no regrets.
    Dutch materialized at her back, his arms around her waist. He brushed his lips across her nape, and her whole body warmed. “It’s done. They’re on their way back.”
    She nodded, relaxing. After her reunion with her brothers and a lengthy discussion of the probable preternatural qualities of the gorge, they’d decided to pay off the park for long-term, exclusive use of the most remote cabin on the property—so Jade could do her work and not worry about hiding her body. No one wanted to risk removing her body from the area—the hot spot that fueled her and Dutch’s abilities—and accidently harm Jade in the process.
    Dutch’s embrace tightened. “Are you sure you’re all right?”
    “I’m okay.” She ran her hands over his arms, gathering her thoughts. He felt as real as ever under her touch—there was no difference between her living body and this one. “Are we trapped here?”
    “No. I tested it once and traveled thousands of miles with no trouble, and I’m sure I could have kept going.”
    She squeezed her eyes shut. “Then why stay here and let loneliness consume you as it did? You could have kept living. Gotten a job, made friends…”
    “Perhaps,” he said, but he shook his head as he spoke. “I considered that course at one time. But I wouldn’t have aged, so I would’ve had to uproot myself every few years. Severed ties. Like dying over and over again.” He sighed. “It didn’t appeal. Even with you…”
    She turned within his arms and kissed him. “I now have the sort of access to the spirit world that a living exorcist could never attain. This is a chance to prevent the exorcism of innocents by providing my brothers with information. But that’s not the only