Free Descendant by Nichole Giles Page A

your Gift,” he murmurs in my ear. His heart ka-thunks under my hand on his chest.
    “I’m a Healer.” He raises one eyebrow as if waiting for me to go on. “Herbs, crystals, life energy—”
    “Have you ever ...?”
    A jolt of pain seizes my heart, stealing my breath until I choke on the cold, shaking my head. “No. I’ve never Healed anyone. Well, except my dog, Erda.”
    “But you’ve tried.”
    I nod.
    The moon sparkles in his golden hair as he searches my face and tucks errant auburn tresses behind my ears. “It’s okay. We don’t have to talk about it right now.”
    “Thanks. I’m not sure I could if I tried.”
    Leaning in, he strokes my jaw, his face so close I can feel his breath on my chin. “You can trust me, Abby. Your secrets are safe here.”
    Something flutters in my chest, filling me with warmth. Kiss me! Now. Just kiss me! But if he does, I’ll be too distracted to tell him the rest, and I find I want him to know, so I whisper, “I have Sight too.”
    Kye’s eyes pop open and he leans back a little. “Sight?”
    I nod, dreading the explanation. Dreading seeing the look on his face when he realizes what an awful thing this is. Anything but a Gift. “I can see auras, energy, and on rare occasions, visions.”
    He tilts his head, frowning as he processes this information. “What kind of visions?”
    “The kind that give me nightmares.” I break away from him to stand alone, shivering with the absence of his touch. “I can’t believe we’re having this conversation. If Gram knew, if she were alive, we’d be living in the South Pole tomorrow.”
    Kye doesn’t move, seemingly dumbstruck by my admission. My heart sinks, but now that I’ve opened the secret vault, I can’t stop. More explanations spew out.
    “Sometimes I see things happening to people far away. Usually it’s the same boy, but not always ...” I trail off as I look at him, a sudden realization making my thudding heart drop into my toes and then start thumping again, harder. Kye looks a lot like the boy in my visions. A lot.
    He crosses the space I’ve put between us and turns me to face him. “Wait. Not to be redundant, but I need to puzzle this together.You got that ring from your grandmother. You’re a Healer who sees visions—sometimes of strangers, and sometimes of a certain person. Am I correct so far?”
    The word “strangers” hits a note in my brain, but I can’t place it. My teeth chatter again, as much from nerves as from the cold. “Yes.”
    “Have you ever seen the past?” His eyes are intent, and I sense that the answer to this question is important.
    “I think once. But it might have been a dream.” It wasn’t.
    “It’s you.” Kye doesn’t ask for any more explanation, but closes his eyes and turns his face to the sky. When he looks at me again, his eyes are luminous in the moonlight. “I knew there was something, that you had a Gift, but—” He breaks off to stare at me. “I can’t believe I didn’t recognize you before now—or maybe I did, but I ignored it all this time. It’s you.”
    I tuck my face into his neck as a shiver rattles my teeth, and he enfolds me in his arms. I don’t know what he means—not sure he does either—but this part, where we fit together in an embrace as if we were cut from the same mold, it feels right. Peaceful.
    When the cold becomes too much, Kye takes my hand and leads me around the building. The light of the full moon gilds everything with a pale silver lining and a billion stars blink above, reflecting off the snow and creating radiance in places where there are no electric lights. A movement at the tree line catches my eye and I stop. “Where are we going?”
    “There’s something I want to show you.”
    “It’s like zero degrees out here and neither of us is wearing a coat. Let’s go back inside.”
    He puts a finger to his mouth and pulls me through the snow. “In a few minutes. Don’t worry, I won’t let you freeze. Hurry,