Free Waiting For A Star To Fall (Autumn Brody Book 2) by A.C. Dillon

down, gently over the fence . Inhale, exhale .
    "Good... That's good... You're coming down," he soothed her. "Few more breaths. You can do this."
    Inhale five . Alive. She was alive. The vice began to loosen its grip on her heart, allowing it to sprawl and expand anew in its cage of bone. She would survive. She was good at it.
    "Okay," she murmured into his chest.
    "Of course you are," he replied warmly. "Come back to bed."
    Autumn assented, curving against his athletic frame and tracing the hint of abdominal muscle with a feather touch. Andrew, in turn, ran his fingers absently through her waves, teasing them loose. A gentle humming and she was at ease once more.
    "What dream was it?"
    She bit her lip, reluctant to explain. Usually, her dreams involved tunnels, or choking hands upon her throat. Concrete events that he knew of, hellish moments that naturally gave rise to terror in darkness. But this... Even Autumn doubted its truth.
    "It was connected to last night," she said at last, choosing her words carefully.
    A sigh. "Can we talk about last night?"
    He's going to think you've lost it. Didn't he once think you were crazy, back in the middle of Nikki's worst antics? There was no winning: if she avoided the subject, he would undoubtedly reach out to Veronica. She, in turn, would spill like a lopsided tea pot. But if she told him, and he couldn't cope…
    "Nikki," she began evasively. "Did you... Do you believe she was there, in that room?"
    His hand stilled, caught in a loose knot of hair. "I'm confused. That was over a year ago."
    "Just... I need to know." She turned her head, resting her right cheek upon his heart, studying his face for truths between his lines. "Do you believe in ghosts? Do you believe that I saw what I think I saw?"
    He remained silent for a long moment, his brow furrowed as he mulled her question. When he spoke at last, his voice was low and crackled slightly. Static on the line.
    "At first, I didn't. I thought Chris was screwing with you. We knew he was after you and I-I've never believed in anything after life..."
    He hesitated now, and she felt her fear frothing at the mouth, longing to consume her.
    "Andrew, you're not answering me."
    "I am," he insisted sharply. "I... There's something I didn't tell you about that night. The night we found you."
    Her hand sought his now, fingers interlaced. Bound together. She nodded silently, waiting for him to reveal his secret.
    "When I saw your room, I was so scared for you. I knew he had you. I knew . You were somewhere out there with a killer, sick, weak, unable to talk..." His voice grew hoarse with emotion as he continued. "And I asked for the universe, or fate, or whatever, to give me a sign. To help me find you. Veronica was screaming at Lorraine to call the cops..."
    "I remember," she interjected. "And you went and got Professor Grant, because he knew the tunnels."
    "That's what I told you," Andrew replied. "But it wasn't quite that simple."
    "What was it, then?"
    His eyes met hers and she instantly recognized the fear within them. "A single sheet of paper suddenly fluttered off your desk and hit the ground. I can't... I don't know why I looked, except that there was no draft. But that one page... I picked it up. It was notes you'd made about Grant, about his connection to 1980."
    Autumn felt as if she'd been struck over the head. A sign. A sign from a ghost.
    "There was no draft," he repeated. "So maybe it was help from... beyond . I don't know. But it helped me find you. If having you alive means accepting that there are things I can't explain, then... then so be it."
    Autumn swallowed hard, cotton-mouthed and cowardly. In her heart, she knew it was no maybe . Nikki Lang loved sharing messages with her. She had surely knocked down the page, hoping to trigger Andrew's memory.
    It's real. All of it is real .
    "Veronica wanted to see a psychic last night," she began, curving her torso closer to his. "And she was good—uncanny. She gave Veronica hope.