He was naked,and she was lost in the woods with no phone signal. No one knewwhere she’d taken Toby on his walk. A change of scenery, she’dthought, somewhere different from the park in the middle of townwhere she usually walked him. She questioned her sanity again.
Get a gripand get the hell out of here.
Kat grabbed herdog, doing her best not to stare. “I… I should go.”
She didn’tmove.
“Of course, youhave to go.” He sounded disappointed, deeply so, his tone borderingon despair.
Confused and atiny bit curious, she hadn’t a clue how to respond. She attachedToby’s lead onto his collar and put him down. “Come on, Toby.” Shewent to leave but hesitated. “Thanks for catching my dog,” she toldhim, cringing inwardly at her inept attempt to prolong theirconversation—if she could call it that.
“You’rewelcome.” His tone was clipped now. “If you follow that path overthere,” he said, pointing behind her, “it’ll take you back to theroad.”
“Err, thanks.”She looked to where he’d pointed, a pathway between the treesflanked by bluebells. Kat headed towards it. “Bye.” She glancedback over her shoulder, but the guy was gone. The naked Greek godwas gone. Had she imagined the whole thing?
Kat weavedthrough the trees, following the pathway as he’d instructed. Hercheeks felt cool, her forehead too, but this wasn’t an ordinarydrop in body temperature. No, she was icy cold, unnaturally so.
She zipped upher jacket despite not feeling ill or cold, and the temperature inthe forest, although dropping now in the twilight, couldn’t be lessthan thirteen degrees.
Then theweirdest thing happened.
The rain on hercheeks turned to frost.
Holy shit.I’m a freak.
Frantic, shebrushed the frost away.
Maybe she wasill, suffering from hallucinations that she’d met some hot guy whoshe vaguely recognised, and who liked her dog. She skirted past atree and spotted the road. He was incredibly helpful and good withdirections, too.
Andnaked.
She blew out abreath. It misted the air in front of her face like a frosty wintermorning.
Weird.
With barely anydaylight left, she upped her pace, following the road. Now to findher way back to the layby where she’d parked her car and forget herstrange encounter with fantasy guy.
Kat glancedbehind with a flicker of hope that she hadn’t made him up, andmaybe he’d followed her to make sure she was safe. Nothing. Hercheeks still felt like she’d stuck them in a freezer, though.
Resignedly, sheput it down to a lot of things in this life—and maybe her pastlives too—that didn’t make sense.
She checked herwatch and cursed. Even if she hurried, she’d still be late forwork. Not that Selene would mind—the perks of her best friend beingher boss—but after everything Selene had done for her, Kat didn’tlike to take advantage. Although she could do with her witchyfriend’s opinion on her strange encounter.
ChapterThree
Kat burstthrough the door of her friend’s swanky cocktail bar and dumped herbag on the sleek white worktop. “Selene, thank God you’re on yourown. You’re never going to believe what happened.”
Selene stoppedrefilling the drinks fridge and turned around. “A ‘hi’ and ‘sorryI’m late’ would be nice.” She softened her words with a smile.
“Sorry, hi, andsorry I’m late. I’ll make it up to you, I promise, but somethingweird happened.”
“Doesn’t italways?”
Yeah, kind oftrue. Kat skirted around the bar and helped Selene with the drinks.“I met this guy.”
“So what’s new?You’re always meeting guys.”
Yeah, that wastrue too. “No, this guy was different. It was like… I don’t know… Ithink I might have met him before. You know, before, as inone of my past lives.”
Her friendraised her eyebrows. “Really? Tell me more.”
She relayed howshe’d got lost in the woods, met the mystery guy and how her cheekswent cold enough to turn rain to frost.
Selene touchedher forehead. “You don’t feel cold.”
“No, I’m finenow. I thought I was getting hypothermia, but obviously not. Do youthink I did know this guy before?”
“It’s possible,I suppose.” She didn’t sound convinced.
“Isn’t theresome kind of magic potion you can concoct to help me remember? Notjust to remember Mr. Fantasy—because if I’d met him before, I sureas hell wouldn’t have forgotten him—but maybe there’s a spell orsomething that can give me a clue as to what I am.”
Her friendshook her head, her gaze full of sympathy. “We’ve been through thisbefore, Kat. My magic isn’t strong enough. You know I would helpyou if I could.”
“Yeah, I know,but what if I’m some evil being destined to destroy the world? Orworse, what if I’m cursed by dark magic to live an eternityalone?”
Selene regardedher for several seconds. “You need to get in the twenty-firstcentury, girl. You’re lucky; you get a chance to start a new lifeeach time. You can be anyone you want to be.”
Yes, she could,but it didn’t make it any easier.
It wasdifferent every time, but it always started with some kind offateful accident. A car crash, falling from a building, knockingherself out during a drunken pub crawl, whatever; she’d black out,but not like fainting, it was more… final, somehow. When sheeventually came around, she’d lost most of her memories of herprevious life, as if her brain had been reset. Only vagueflashbacks remained jumbled visions and snippets of who she’d beenbefore. Maybe. They never made any sense, but she’d had to learn tolive with it.
Sometimes,she’d regain consciousness amid whispers of, “It’s a miracle she’salive,” or “She must have a guardian angel looking down onher.”
Well, shedidn’t. She’d met an angel once, but he was saving someone else’ssoul, not hers.
On someoccasions, though, the worst times, she would wake alone in thedark, not one person in the world knowing she’d befallen anotherfateful, untimely end.
The only thingshe could recall with certainty was her name. Katarina. Sometimes,depending on her mood, she went by the name of Katherine or Katie,but this time she was Kat Foster, which seemed as good a name asany.
She’dconsidered calling herself Kate this time and, for a moment, KateMoss, like the model. How she wished she had one-tenth of hermoney, then maybe she could travel the world, looking for answersas to why this kept happening to her.
But she’dlearned that being something supernatural, an immortal, areincarnated spirit—a weirdo, most likely—meant she had to stayunder the radar from the humans.
Cardinal rulenumber one: Keep
