Free Intuition: The Premonition Series by Amy A. Bartol Page A

rapidly to maintain the velocity necessary to keep us in the air. The perfection of the night sky, with its dark absolutely infinite depth, couldn’t be improved upon if it had been the Caribbean blue of the sky in daylight.
    “Reed, you’re flying… we’re flying! This is so amazing,” I breathe, not being able to really put into words just how incredible it is to be held in Reed’s arms high above the earth. “You can fly,” I say in awe, before I can stop myself.
    “Evie, you have known for a while that I can fly,” Reed replies, as if I’ve lost my mind, which I might have because this was so far from reality that I again doubt my own sanity.
    “Well, there is knowing and there is knowing,” I say, emphasizing the last word as I look down at the tops of the trees speeding by below me like an ocean of green. We have to be several stories off the ground at this moment, I think as I tighten my grip on Reed. I listen to the sound of his powerful wings beating the air, allowing us to defy gravity’s pull and stay aloft, and then I listen to the quiet of just the wind blowing by as we glide along the air currents when there is an updraft.
    “Why haven’t we done this before now?” I ask him, feeling the wind catch at my hair and stream it behind me as we soar faster.
    “To me, it’s just a way of getting from point A to point B. But, you find it fun, don’t you?” he asks as if this thought amuses him, too.
    “Yeah…don’t you remember the first time you flew? Weren’t you excited and a little terrified and just filled with—I don’t know—wonder at feeling the wind beneath you and the power and strength you possess to accomplish such an amazing bit of…magic?”
    “Is that what this is like for you?” he asks me, as if I’m the mysterious one conjuring tricks. When I nod, he says, “It’s so different looking at things through your eyes. You weren’t raised knowing anything about us, so this is magical,” he surmises with a broad smile. “To me, it was a rite of passage, I guess, is the best way to describe it, but it lacked any magic, since everyone I knew could do it.”
    “Oh, that’s too bad, you missed out on the exquisite enchantment of this moment then,” I say as we begin a rapid descent through the trees. I think that there is a chance that we could crash and burn, so I squeeze my eyes closed tight. The smell of pines alerts me to the fact that we have reached the forest. I peek to see trees whipping by at an obnoxious speed. I quickly close them again because the thrill is leaking into scary territory.
    Touching down, I don’t want to open my eyes because I don’t want it to be over. My feet are on the ground, but I still have my eyes closed. “Thank you,” I say, hugging Reed.
    He gently strokes my back as he say, “You are the magical one, not me. Thank you for showing me what I have been missing,” he replies. Opening my eyes, I’m amazed to find that we’re at the front door of the little cottage in the woods. I want this moment to be preserved in my mind for eternity, so that I can remember the way Reed is looking at me, as if I am flawless.
    The door to our little cottage swings open and Buns stands just beyond the threshold. “Oh, there you are, sweetie!” she says brightly, bouncing up and down with enthusiasm. “You’re just in time, we’re almost ready to go for a session.”
    “Buns, I think you missed out on snowboarding tonight,” I say, entering the cottage and taking off my coat. “The lifts are all shutting down for the night.” When Zephyr hears this, he lets out a deep chuckle like I’ve said something funny again.
    “Sweetie, we don’t need lifts,” she says, and to make her point, her wings spring from her back, so that she looks like some kind of wood nymph in front of me. “And we can’t really have as much fun in the daylight as we can in the dark. No one can see us out there at night with the lights off. It will be stylin’,