Free Love's Long Shadow by Ciara Knight Page A

They’ll twist things and confuse you.”
    “But—”
    “Swear to me.”
    There was no arguing with Alex. Not when his forehead wrinkled into fierce lines of determination. “I promise.”
    He pulled his shirt over his head, fisted it by his side, and picked up his sandy shoes. Crackles and snaps sounded from his body. His face flushed and he arched over for a second before his wings exploded in a brilliant navy hue. White fluffy feathers rippled in the breeze as he stretched his wings to their full fifteen feet span while rotating his broad shoulders. He rose a few feet off the ground with one flap of his wings. She shielded her eyes from the rush of air. Without another word, he shot into the sky, leaving behind a cyclone of sand.
    She wiped the gritty particles from her eyelids and clenched her fists. No. This wasn’t over. She wouldn’t give up. The muscles in her back tightened and seized as she prepared to follow him, but a firm hand grasped her shoulder.
    “Let him go,” Grace urged.
    “What if he fails? He could…” Sammy’s stomach twisted with grief. She focused on wisps of Grace’s loosened silver hair dancing around her head like a halo. How could an angel with years of sacrifice and servitude to others not have been welcomed back to Heaven? Certainly if anyone deserved to rise, it was Grace. Was there truly hope for any of them?
    “Trust me, child. He needs to find his own path to forgiveness. We can’t find it for him. Come inside. We’ll chat over a cup of tea.”
    Following Grace inside meant a soothing evening with no drama, but Sammy didn’t want to be comforted. Not right now. “If you don’t mind. I’d like to be alone for awhile.”
    “Of course, dear.” Grace gave one of her reassuring smiles that stitched a small corner of the gaping hole in Sammy’s soul.
    Barefoot, Sammy trudged up the sand dune. Strange how Grace’s presence always soothed her. But not now, now she needed to be alone.
    The cool, damp sand squished between her toes, tickling her. What a strange sensation. Not completely unpleasant, but different. There were many things on earth to learn and sensations to experience.
    She found her way to the clearing near the main dirt road to town and sat on a downed tree looking up at the stars in the darkening sky. Their brilliant diamond pulses mesmerized her. How long would it be until she returned home?
    Headlights shone through the tall pine trees. Loud music echoed and engines zoomed past toward the main beach.
    She pushed from the log and followed the music. Tree roots and debris cut into her feet but she maneuvered into dense bushes and crouched between two massive oak trees. She pushed the thick grey moss to the side and peered out.
    Flames flickered from tiki torches stuck in the sand. Massive trucks with painted flames over the rear wheels and large monsters with pointed horns on the side were parked in a circle. Her heart thudded faster than the tree branches thrashing at her skin in the wind. A few girls and half a dozen guys dressed in strange jackets with letters, lifted wood slats from the bed of a truck while they hooted and hollered. They threw the wood into a pile, stripped their jackets off, and yanked their t-shirts over their heads before running into the surf.
    A petite brunette with a bikini stumbled around laughing before she joined them in the water.
    Sammy remained in hiding, watching the figures silhouetted in the silvery moon that rose into the night sky.
    A light pinch on her leg caught her attention and she smacked a mosquito into a glob of red and black goo.
    She flicked the remnant from her skin and moved around the large tree trunk for a better vantage point. One of the larger boys sauntered up to the beach and grabbed a canister from the truck. He squirted liquid onto the pile and lit a match, tossing it onto the wood, igniting a blaze that sent plumes of smoke into the sky.
    The others joined him, popping cans open, they sat on the back